Thread: What will happen to Kayla? Parts 1,2,3

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Posted on Sun, Sep. 24, 2006



What will happen to Kayla?
An expired auto tag and an arrest are about to tear her family apart
DÁNICA COTO AND PETER ST. ONGE
Staff Writers

Graduation day, East Elementary School, Monroe. The fifth-graders arrive in the early evening, royalty on this June night, pointing and snickering at each other's ties and dresses. They stop when Kayla Ramírez appears, striking in a pink chiffon dress. "Look at you!" a friend squeals.

Kayla smiles shyly, then ducks into a giggling group nearby.

She is 11 years old, a top student, one of her school's best runners. She is someone her fifth-grade teacher calls "brilliant but unassuming," a pre-teen tomboy remarkably comfortable with herself, if not this particular dress.

It is the first Kayla has owned in three years. Her father, Raymundo, helped pick it out two weeks ago on a shopping trip. Kayla's aunt, Silvia, helped style her hair just an hour ago.

And Kayla's mother, Deysi? They haven't spoken on this important day.

Kayla doesn't remember the last time they talked.

They are two people, torn apart. Deysi Ramírez, an illegal immigrant mother stopped for a traffic violation and detained by authorities. Kayla, an American citizen born on U.S. soil, who like most children has little say about her future, yet now pays for an inconsistent U.S. immigration policy -- and for the mistakes that parents make.

An estimated 3.1 million children born in the U.S. have at least one parent living here illegally. Every day, legal experts say, families are split up when an illegal immigrant is arrested.

What will happen to Kayla?

On this graduation day, no one is sure whether her mother will end up in the U.S. or her homeland of Guatemala, where 75 percent of the population lives in poverty. No one knows yet what Deysi wants to do with her three children, especially the oldest, the one with the most visible promise, the one whom relatives have volunteered to keep here.

For now, Kayla stands in line at East Elementary, left of the stage, waiting for her name to be called. She looks across the snug auditorium for her father, for 9-year-old brother Sammy and 5-year-old sister Sandy. Raymundo stands with his camera and finds her.

He clicks. Applauds. Clicks. He wishes Deysi could be here.

After the diplomas are handed out, Kayla comes to the stage once more to give the graduation speech. She walks to the lectern, past a sign declaring the day's theme: "Oh, The Places You'll Go!" Kayla fidgets slightly.

"Hi," she begins.

She is 11 years old, an American girl, old enough to sense her world is changing, too young to know how much it already has.

"My name is Kayla Ramírez," she says. "And my year in fifth grade was awesome."

New country, new family

In the summer of 1994, Deysi Ramírez illegally crossed the Texas border at age 18, unaware she was one month pregnant with a girl she would name Kayla.Deysi (pronounced "day-see") had left Guatemala at the urging of her father. Family members believed Deysi's older brother Samuel, a police officer, was murdered by Guatemala's secret police for investigating corruption. His body was never found, only his bloody machete and hat. Later, after they moved seven hours away, someone shot into their house.

On Aug. 13, 1994 -- just three days after entering the U.S. -- Deysi joined another brother, who had been living in Monroe for two years after crossing the border illegally to find work. He had moved from California because he heard the town was small but offered plenty of jobs.

Within a month, Deysi found a job making cages for chickens, then later another job collecting eggs. It was the same kind of work she had done in Guatemala, except now she worked 40 hours a week for $200, instead of 14 hours a day, six days a week, for $20.

About the time she started working, Deysi discovered she was pregnant. She remembers being frightened at first -- how could she raise a child alone in a new country? She considered a roommate's offer to adopt the child.

But she began to love the baby growing inside her, and she dreamed immigrant's dreams for her child-to-be. As she balanced boxes on her swollen belly, Deysi thought about the education her child could receive in the U.S., opportunities she would never have found in Guatemala.

There, the government pays for school only until the sixth grade, and many families can't afford education after that, leading to a 30 percent adult illiteracy rate. It's a socioeconomic spiral familiar to many Latin American countries -- no money means no education, which means no money. In Guatemala, an estimated 9 million people live below the poverty line.

Deysi wasn't sure whether she'd have a boy or girl, so she bought yellow baby clothes with the money she earned. She also began wiring about $200 a month to her mother, who bought a stove and refrigerator for the first time.

At three months' pregnant, Deysi found a job at a wood factory in Monroe, counting and hoisting slabs of pine and cedar. At first, she didn't like the man who trained her at work. He sold cocaine, Deysi remembers, and he looked like a gang member with his long hair and earrings. But as the two spent more time together, Deysi found Raymundo to be thoughtful and kind.

Ray had come to Monroe from California, where he had joined a gang after crossing the border from his homeland of Mexico in the early 1990s. He told Deysi that at 18, he quit the gang after taking part in an armed robbery of a liquor store. Ray said he was given probation and placed in an anti-gang program.

Deysi told Ray she wasn't impressed with his macho image and that he should stop selling drugs. He told her he did.

(Extensive checks show no arrest records under Raymundo's name in California. It's unclear if he was treated as a juvenile by California authorities. Juvenile records are not public. A records check in North Carolina shows traffic offenses, including DWI.)

After Kayla was born, Deysi and Ray became close friends, going out as often as four times a week. Ray invited her to the movies or to eat Chinese food, her favorite. He carried Kayla on his shoulders and bought her clothes and shoes when they went to the mall.

Deysi wanted a steady relationship with a nurturing man. She wanted to avoid the mistakes her mother had made, staying with a man who hit her often and cheated on her.

Several months into their friendship, Deysi told Ray she was moving in with someone.

Ray got upset.

Do you love him? he asked.

No, she said. He'll give me and Kayla some stability.

Why are you going to live with someone you don't love?

What do you care?

Silence.

Well, Ray said, I love you.

Asylum sought and lost

In April 1996, Deysi and Kayla moved with Ray into a one-bedroom apartment in Monroe. Like Deysi's parents, they never married, but they called each other husband and wife. Ray called Kayla his daughter.

During that move, however, Deysi failed to notify the post office about her change of address. She neglected, too, to file form AR-11, which would have informed the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service that she was moving.

Two years before, Deysi had applied for a work permit and asylum, hoping she could stay in the U.S. legally because of the danger she faced in Guatemala. At her new address, Deysi never received the notice for the asylum interview at which she could have pleaded her case. She didn't receive notification of a court hearing for having missed that first interview. She never followed up when the paperwork didn't arrive.

When Deysi didn't appear for the court hearing, on Feb. 5, 1998, an immigration judge in Atlanta ordered that she be removed from the U.S. A warrant was issued for her arrest. Unknown to her, Deysi was a fugitive.

By then, a second child, Samuel, was about a year old, and Kayla was almost 3. Soon, the little girl began to fulfill her mother's hopes for her at school.

In kindergarten, Kayla's teachers saw an eager learner who also took time to help others. In first grade, teachers would report she had a wonderful imagination, that when asked to write, she would go on for pages. One teacher told Deysi that Kayla had asked to sit at the front of the class. I want to listen to everything you say, the little girl told her.

At home, Kayla kept a fuzzy blue folder with the words "All Star" printed on the cover. In it were all of Kayla's awards -- for being an accelerated reader, an outstanding speller, exceptional writer, top math student.

In November 2000, Deysi and Ray had another daughter, Sandy. That year, Deysi watched a TV report on immigrants who got their papers in order. Deysi, who had let her work permit expire, contacted an attorney to go over her legal options.

The attorney told her she faced a deportation order.

Deysi didn't know what to do. She and Ray wanted their kids to graduate from high school and continue a life here. She wanted Kayla's blue folder, with all her accomplishments, to overflow.

As they saw it, there was little to debate. They decided to remain what they already were, two illegal immigrant parents with citizen children -- one of 1.5 million such families in the U.S., always a moment from fracture.

Are you legal or illegal?

On Sunday afternoon, March 26, 2006, Deysi and Ray visited relatives at his sister's house before leaving for Ray's soccer game. Their three children preferred the video version of the sport on their aunt's PlayStation, so they stayed behind.Ray, 31, and Deysi, 30, had played with their soccer teams -- and each won -- the day before. Ray's team won again Sunday.

It was, he remembers thinking, a perfect weekend.

Before heading home, they planned to stop by Ray's brother's house to celebrate his son's birth. Deysi pulled onto U.S. 74 near the Monroe Mall and headed east. It was a little after 6 p.m.

As Ray leaned over to loosen his cleats and take off his shinguards, he heard Deysi say, Oh, I didn't see you.

Ray looked in the rearview mirror. He spotted a gray N.C. Highway Patrol car. Trooper C.M. Trouille had noticed the tag on their 1995 Plymouth Voyager had been expired for a month. He flashed his blue lights.

Stay calm, Deysi remembers thinking. She had been stopped twice before for traffic violations. Each time, she'd been given a ticket for having no driver's license, then allowed to drive away. A week before this stop, she finally got her license.

The trooper approached. He introduced himself. He told them the Voyager's tags were expired.

Deysi looked at Ray. Did you know? she asked.

No, he replied.

Trouille took Deysi's license and the van's registration back to his vehicle. He appreciated that Deysi had spoken English to him. Some of the Hispanics he stopped didn't, even if he suspected they could.

Trouille had been a state trooper for a little more than a year. He was 29 and from Catawba County, and like his fellow troopers, he was accustomed to dealing with Latinos, legal or not.

Of the 70 or so traffic tickets Trouille wrote in an ordinary week, about 10 were issued to illegal immigrants. He could target more if he wanted to, just by going to the right parts of Union County. On one holiday license check at nearby Cane Creek Park, troopers were stunned when they gave tickets to about 25 illegal immigrants in just 90 minutes.

Many immigrants, when asked, would tell Trouille right away they were illegal. The next step was his choice. He could call U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, but unless the traffic violation was egregious -- or fraudulent documents were involved -- no one from ICE would likely come out. ICE was overwhelmed with more hardened criminals.

He typed Deysi's information into his computer.

Quickly, an alert popped up.

"Administration warrant," it said.

And: "Extradition out of U.S."

Trouille called his station to confirm that the warrant was still valid. An officer paged ICE, which confirmed that it was. There would be no discretion for Trouille in this case.

The trooper walked back to the Voyager. He asked a question that echoed in Ray's chest.

Are you legal or illegal?

Ray hung his head.

Trouille asked again.

Deysi wanted more time to think. She remembers wanting to lie, but she thought that would invite more problems.

Illegal, Deysi replied.

Illegal, Ray replied.

Trouille walked to his vehicle and got a call on his personal cell phone. He remembers it was ICE special agent Richard Bernholz, who wanted to make sure that Deysi was, in fact, Deysi. He told Trouille to ask Deysi her father's name, her mother's name.

Trouille objected; a valid driver's license was enough to take anyone else in. Plus, he wanted to arrest Ray, too. "Why not get a two-for-one?" he remembers thinking.

ICE was not interested in Ray.

Trouille reluctantly handed Deysi his cell phone. Yes, Deysi told the official, she knew she was a fugitive and wanted for deportation. Yes, she understood what all this meant.

Deysi gave the phone back to the trooper, who asked her to get out of the car. He handcuffed her, led her back to his vehicle, put her in the front seat.

Ray timidly got out and approached the cruiser. Trouille drove away.

Ray didn't know if Deysi saw him. He didn't know where she was going. He called his niece in town. Another trooper, who had pulled up during the stop, had seized the Voyager, which was in Deysi's name. Ray would need a ride.

Deysi was headed for the Union County jail, where she would be booked on traffic citations and held until ICE arrived. In the car, she was quiet, except for one soft sentence to Trouille.

I have children here, she said.

COMING MONDAY: Deysi faces her future. What about Kayla's?

HOW WE REPORTED THE STORY

Observer reporters spent four months with Kayla Ramírez and her family. The reporters attended school with Kayla and interviewed her relatives, her teachers and principal, her mother Deysi's attorney, the arresting officer in Deysi's case, legal experts, and officials with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Reporters examined arrest records and court documents.

No dialogue appears within quotation marks unless an Observer reporter heard it. When scenes are reconstructed, reporters talked to all participants. When a participant's thoughts or feelings are described, they are done with attribution to the memory of the participants.

PROJECT STAFF

Reporters:

Dánica Coto 704-358-5065

dcoto@charlotteobserver.com

Peter St. Onge 704-358-5029

pstonge@charlotteobserver.com

Photographers: Jeff Siner and former staff photographer Patrick Schneider.

Design: Sarah Franquet, Eric Edwards.

Copy Editor: Rogelio Aranda.

Research: Liz Chandler, Lisa Hammersly Munn, Sara Klemmer.

Editors: Marion Paynter (research), Judy Tell (deputy photo director), Peter Weinberger (video).

Project Editor: Gary Schwab. G

Who Gets to be a U.S. Citizen?

"All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside."

Despite being born to non-U.S. citizens, Kayla, Sammy and Sandy Ramírez are U.S. citizens by law because they were born on American soil.

Ratified on July 9, 1886, the 14th Amendment was designed to ensure that former slaves were guaranteed automatic citizenship, and that they would have the same rights as other Americans.

For years, bills have been introduced in Congress to deny citizenship to children born in the U.S. to noncitizen parents. Some bills have targeted children born to illegal immigrant parents. None has passed.


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U.S. Constitution, 14th Amendment, Section 1





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© 2006 Charlotte Observer and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.charlotte.com

Here we go again. They come here illegally have kids here and expect us to allow them to stay. You took a gamble and now should live with the consequences of their actions. There was an interesting article in the Miami Herald yesterday about a lawsuit on behalf of the children who are being separated from their parents. The way things are going; how can you teach them that crime doesn't pay.

It is sad for the child........problem is, she made the choices. She put her children at risk.....not me. There are tons of decisions I've made that didn't work out like I'd hoped they would. Things I wish I could do over if I could be sure it was the opposite outcome. Unfortunatly.....life doesn't work that way. I may not be to blame.....but I'm still responsible. Sometimes life throws you a bad hand. Things don't always work out like you intended no matter how "good" you are. No matter how "hard" you try. Life isn't fair. Not my doing....just the way it is. Placing blame and responsibility on Americans for a decision that went foul is wrong. Enforcing a law isn't wrong. She "forgot" to have her papers fixed. She knew and didn't do it. If I "forget" something that important I pay the price as well.

They act like a trip to America "guarentees" a good life. She could have been hit by a bus and killed. Died from a fatal illness. Who knows? Their pit-falls in life aren't guarenteed to be over just because they crossed the border. Not to mention it's not my job to make sure they never have to pay the consequences for their actions or "guarentee" them a perfect life.

well said Crazybird,

You have more common sense then the etnire U.S. Congress.

That article reads more like a work of fiction. "He hung his head", "Ray timidly got out" Sob sob sob. Oh the poor things. Let's bombard the author with e-mails.

it is very sad for that girl. But the article admits it.. he crossed her illegal and was a criminal, a gang member slinging cocaine, shooting up a liquor store and driving drunk.

KICK THEM OUT!

I called and left her a message that went something like this:

"I read your story and feel sorry for that girl, kayla. But you expect me to feel sorry for her cocaine slinging drunk driving illegal alien dad? That's a bit of a stretch. I think the real story here is that he is a criminal illegal alien who just happened to raise one decent kid. I do feel for the mom though, her brother getting murdered in Gutamala for trying to do the right thing, that has to be tough. Perhaps you should write an article urging Gutalmaleans to return home with USA support and change their government, instead of writing some fictional story based on true events to try and get readers to support criminal illegal aliens.

Now that is something I think we could all get behind"

Seeing a barrage of these sobs stories. I say it a great thing for mexico and the family. They should go back to Mexico and fight for a better life. All these educated mexican and anchor babies should go back and demand the same from their country!

Dragons5: I agree with you. They should all go back and fight for a better government and life over there but they don't. It is too easy to go to another country and then scream bloody murder about what goes on in their native land. One has to look no further than Cubans in Miami. They are constantly screaming about Castro but have done nothing besides paid smugglers to bring their relatives over. Then they have the gall to put Cuban flags and stickers on their vehicles!

The people who respond to articles like this that run in the Arizona Daily Star have coined a new term for us folks who don't have a lot of sympathy to spread in cases like these. They love to call the bloggers "haters" and their tone right back at the "haters" is "I'm better than you are."

I'm so sick of it!. Rather than average Joe Citizen expressing sympathy, they should realize that the adult parents are so bad that they do these awful things to innocent children and don't care.

YA know what bank robbers have kids and drug dealers have kids are they saying we should not put them in jail. I am sick of it. Send the kids with the parents. They should have thought of that before they committed the crime. Not my problem.