Guatemala Protests Arrest of 3 in Florida Over Passports

The Guatemalan government has issued a public protest after three Guatemalans were arrested this month by immigration agents at a Federal Express office in Florida, when one of the immigrants went to pick up a package containing his newly issued Guatemalan passport. Suspecting that the passport was fraudulent, Fedex officials called ICE agents to alert them when the Guatemalans arrived to collect the package...Two of the Guatemalans were illegal immigrants who have been deported, and one is in deportation proceedings.

Guatemalan diplomats said that Fedex and American officials had examined and seized legitimate passports without notifying them and had improperly disrupted their dealings with Guatemalan citizens living in this country. Felipe Alejos, the Guatemalan consul in Miami, said the events appeared to violate basic diplomatic protocols.

“They seized official documents, and they did not let us know,” Mr. Alejos said. “There was coordination between FedEx and ICE to detain people.”

FedEx officials said they followed routine company procedures when they contacted immigration authorities after detecting packages that suggested organized document fraud. Officials ICE said they arrested the Guatemalans only after two of them tried to flee from the FedEx office. Both the company and the immigration agency denied that they had collaborated to lure the immigrants to the office....

The Guatemalan government prints and distributes passports for its citizens living in the United States through a private company, De La Luz, in Metairie, La. In December, the company sent the new passports in Federal Express packages to the Guatemalans who had applied for them.

At least 30 packages could not be delivered to the addresses listed, said a Federal Express spokeswoman, Allison Sobczak, and the shipper in Louisiana did not respond to telephone calls. FedEx employees opened several packages searching for better address information, she said...

Gov't of Guatemala Protests Arrest of 3 in Florida Over Passports......

The Guatemala govt is scared stiff they won't get all the money Guatemalan immigrants are draining from the US Treasury.

Guatemalan immigrants in the US sent $3.6 Billion back home last year alone. Social Security provides outrageous financial aid to Guatemalans who have been coached by their government to "seek asylum." These people never paid a dime into the SS system; yet they collect seven years straight, and get extended payments w/ political connections. Checks can amount to $1000 a month, and more.

REFERENCE At a summit held last May, the Guatemalan AG for Human Rights said that 10% of Guatemala's population has relocated to the U S. About 60% currently in the US do not possess legal immigration documents.

A 2005 study by the Intl Organization for Migration, says the Guatemalan population here numbers 1,364,000 persons. The study found that the vast majority of Guatemalan immigrants in the US send money back home, to the tune of $3.6 billion last year, alone.

And let's forget this blatant fraud coming to light:

Domestic violence victim granted asylum in US
Dec. 16, 2009.

After suffering 10 years of extreme sexual, physical and mental abuse at the hands of her husband, Rody Alvarado fled her native Guatemala in 1995 and applied for "asylum" in the US. ("Asylum" revs up the US gravy train)

After a torturous 14-year battle with federal officials over whether domestic violence qualifies for refugee status, an immigration judge granted Alvardo's application and she will remain permanently in the United States. (Sucking off taxpayers forever.)

Alvarado said in court papers her physical, mental and sexual abuse began soon after she married a former military man when she was 16. Her husband pistol-whipped her, routinely beat her, and kicked her in the spine to abort her second pregnancy, she said. He also tracked her down and beat her after she fled several times to other areas of Guatemala, threatening to kill her each time. He once beat her into unconsciousness in front of her two children.

OH, THIS IS G-O-O-D She was so desperate and fearful that she fled to Brownsville, Texas, without her children. She said she was stopped by a Border Patrol official but allowed to proceed after "promising to report to an immigration office."

NOW GET THIS She boarded a flight to San Francisco because it was the destination of other Guatemalans traveling with her. "She randomly met a native Guatemalan awaiting the arrival of her daughter-in-law. The woman invited Alvarado to spend the night, and she ended up staying with the family for two years." (Watta coincidence.)

Alvarado said her legal victory is bittersweet. She has not seen her children since she left. Her son is now 22 and her daughter 17. They speak on the telephone occasionally, but the relationship is estranged. The children were raised by their father's parents and do not understand why she left.

(Soon they will all be here, draining the US Treasury. Hubby will "suddenly" become a loving spouse once the US tax dollars start rolling in.)

Temporary Protected Status (TPS) was invented precisely for cases like Haiti today — when a natural disaster is so devastating that illegal immigrants from that country temporarily can't be deported. And there are already several members of Congress calling on the administration to grant TPS, and rightly so.

But the earthquake is also an argument for why we need to fix TPS — it's a necessary tool, but as currently structured it functions as a permanent amnesty for anyone "lucky" enough to come from a country that suffers a natural (or even man-made) disaster. As far as I've been able to determine, not a single person who has ever been granted this "temporary" status has later been deported.

This is why open-borders groups have been pushing for TPS for Haitians for years, long before the earthquake, simply as a means to amnesty the 30,000 Haitian illegals who already have deportation orders (not to mention the thousands of others who haven't been caught — in 2000, the INS estimated 76,000 Haitian illegals). The Obami have been resisting (just as the Bushies resisted) granting TPS because of the real possibility that it would precipitate new waves of boat people. There's little question TPS will be granted now, but there's also little chance this administration will want to phase it out eventually unless they face oversight by Congress and the public.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.