Posted on 05/22/2007 11:25:20 AM PDT by Behind Liberal Lines
PENN YAN NY- A routine traffic stop last December changed the lives of Sadie and Fernando Garcia forever.
Fernando is a Mexican national who has lived in the U.S. for about 15 years, and he was on his way to Christmas shop at Eastview Mall in Victor when a trooper pulled him over for a burned-out taillight. Fernando wound up sitting in a Batavia holding cell because his immigration papers weren't in order. Bail was set at $10,000.
Now, he's looking at possible deportation - and leaving American-born Sadie alone to raise four young children.
“It's just ridiculous. It seems petty,” she said. “We're just trying to work hard and do the right thing and this is what happens.”
Their lawyer, Allen Farabee of Buffalo, is arguing in immigration court that Garcia should be allowed to leave voluntarily, which could cut the time he's gone from 10 years or more to a minimum of 18 months. With voluntary removal, Sadie could apply for a visa for him; but if he's deported, that process can't even begin for a decade.
A court decision is due May 30.
Regardless of the outcome, Fernando will have somewhere between 30 and 120 days to leave the country.
“I'm very worried,” Fernando said, with Sadie interpreting for him. “I keep thinking about what's going to happen to my family."
BROKEN SYSTEM
The Garcias' situation is emblematic of what many consider a broken immigration system, one that may be on the verge of reform as the Senate mulls over the White House-backed plan to allow undocumented workers to stay here while applying for a visa. But, it is facing stiff resistance from hard-liners in both parties.
“What people need to understand is that the children of these migrant workers may well be American. This creates a moral dilemma because the children won't be deported, but their parents may well be,” said Mark James, director the Finger Lakes office of the New York State Farm Bureau, which has lobbied for more permissive immigration laws because of the impact the current situation is having on area crops.
Farm owners are caught in a bind, with the government granting fewer temporary visas for migrant workers, James said.
The Garcias, both 28, got married three years ago and live in a small duplex in Penn Yan with Sadie's three children, Tyler, 12, Bailey, 8, and Elijah, 5. They also have a child together, Anna, 2. Both work - Sadie as a customer service representative at American Home Patient; and Fernando, leading a field crew at Hemdale Farms in Seneca Castle.
Fernando had been stopped for speeding several times before without incident, but this time the trooper gave him a hard time, he said.
When the trooper asked for identification, Fernando tried to explain to his passenger what was happening. That fact that he did so in Spanish aroused suspicion.
The trooper called in Border Patrol agents, who took Fernando first to Batavia in Genesee County and then to Ontario County Jail. Sadie managed to come up with the bail, borrowing from family, friends and Hemdale Farms; then, she said, law enforcement personnel made racist remarks when she went to get him. She filed grievances with the State Police but hasn't heard anything about it.
Fernando maintains that he came here legally and thought he'd done everything required. His parents, who live in rural Pennsylvania, started the citizenship process for their six children soon after coming to the U.S. in the mid-1990s. Garcia lived with his family in Pennsylvania for a few years before moving to New York. He has a legal New York state driver's license and documents that state that his status was approved for review so he thought the citizenship process was still under way.
His parents recently became citizens after seven years in the system, but the paperwork they started for their children was nullified as each turned 21, Sadie said.
But no one ever told him that, he said.
ON THE JOB
All of Fernando's paperwork, including resident alien and Social Security cards, were in order when he applied at Hemdale Farms, said manager Joe Clement.
He's still working there, 60 to 70 hours a week, and Clement said he's known for his pleasant demeanor, tireless work ethic and leadership skills.
“I really enjoy having him here, and I'll be sorry to lose him,” he said.
The farm considers Fernando and Sadie part of the family, he noted. The business chipped in some money to get him out of jail, and Clement and his family attended Anna's baptism.
The couple's lawyer, Farabee, said that citizen benefits for immigrants' children are among “the most complicated aspects of law” and differ in every case.
“Generally speaking, though, a child of a citizen or legal resident can age out of certain privileges and have to go out on their own,” he said.
If Fernando had pursued citizenship as a result of marrying an American, he still would have had to wait five years to get a green card; and they would face numerous interviews to determine whether they married for love or citizenship.
Noting that the Garcias' situation is fairly common, Farabee said he's working on about eight or 10 similar cases.
Norma Silva, who works at the Ontario County Agribusiness Child Development school, said her husband of two years, Ciro, returned to Mexico in February 2006 when authorities discovered that he'd come here illegally.
“I think that we need to be humane,” she said. “It's 2007 and we shouldn't treat people like this. It's sad.”
Even in the best-case scenario, the Garcias would have to jump through numerous hoops to get Fernando back in the country, Sadie said.
He'd have to return to the village where he grew, with no family and few job prospects. Then Sadie would have apply for a visa for him, specific to those whose spouses are U.S. citizens or permanent residents, paying a $190 processing fee and finding a sponsor who'd have to pay a $300 fee. She would also have to travel to the American consulate in Mexico for visa interviews.
Getting that application approved could take up to a year and a half; then they'd have to pursue legal residency.
“All this while I'm a single mother with four kids,” she said.
As the court date draws nearer, Sadie is planning for life without Fernando. She's looking for a smaller apartment and wants to get a passport for each of the kids so they can visit him in Mexico. They'll cost more than $100 each, so she expects to apply for one a month.
The experience has left her frustrated and angry at the system, which she said they've tried to live within.
“We understand that people can't be allowed to break the law to come into this country, but something has to be done to help the people who want to work, work,” she said. “We don't want to be rich, we don't want to live off of the system. We just want to be happy with our kids.”
I’ve heard similar stories before, I just don’t buy it.
I’ve heard similar stories before, I just don’t buy it.
__________
Something is fishy. We aren’t getting the whole story. He looks like a visa overstayer who applied to be legal and screwed up. No es mi problema
That’s what it sounds mike to me. I’ve heard other stories by the MSM to try to give them sympathy. They’re trying to justify the breaking of our laws.
Sounds reasonable enough until you go back and reread this:
“I'm very worried,” Fernando said, with Sadie interpreting for him. “I keep thinking about what's going to happen to my family."
15 years in America and he needs an interpreter? Deport him and good riddance, he never even tried to assimilate.
That’s not true. You merely have to file papers individually for your children, and not try to get them admitted as your dependents if they are going to turn 21 before your papers are accepted.
From the article:
"He has a legal New York state driver's license and documents that state that his status was approved for review so he thought the citizenship process was still under way."
Trouble is, he "timed out" seven years ago. The burden is on him to make sure that his process is still "under way". If he hasn't heard from them in seven years, and never bothered to check, I don't have a whole lot of sympathy for him. Sounds like willful ignorance to me.
Besides, even if he thought he was still being processed under his parents' claim, he had a new legitimate claim to citizenship through his marriage, and should have made that application.
Legal immigration takes a very long time. I'm in the middle of the process and I've been here, legally, for over 12 years! I still have 1-2 years to go based on current USCIS processing times. So if I had any kids 9 years of age or older when I came here, they would not be allowed to be in the country because they would have gotten too old because of processing times!
Maybe so, but he got married to a US Citizen. That means a green card, which takes significantly less time (a year or so), and a temporary work permit (EAD) while he waited for his permanent legal residency to come through. The important thing is that he'll be legal while waiting. Not legal as in "I was legal seven years ago and hope I still am" but honest-to-goodness legal.
Immigration is complicated, but so what? Life is hard. He didn't even make a tiny effort to involve himself in his own process.
It's atypical in that he came legally (apparently) with his parents when he was 13. His parents are now citizens.
What's typical is that after 15 years here (and presumably junior high and high school in the US), he doesn't speak good English and didn't bother to inform himself of the law that meant when he became an adult, he had to submit his own paperwork.
Had the guy learned English well, he would have been able easily to determine what he had to do to become a citizen and could have done so.
If only on the grounds that he figured he didn't have to learn English and become a citizen in a timely manner, he should be forceably deported.
Of course, hard cases make bad law, and it will put the wife and kids in a tough position: go to Mexico with hubby or stay here as a single mother. It sucks to be her. But that's not a reason to excuse the man.
This is the typical case in this respect.
Our MASSIVE legal immigration and our lack of enforcement makes it easy for people to be here illegally. This blurs the line between legal and illegal immigrant, to the point where this ‘hard case’ happens often.
Many family have both legal and illegal immigrants in the same household. yet to deport the illegal we get sob story... but it was a choice made by the family.
I question the timing of this story, as we saw the same ‘hard luck’ cases reported last spring. The media wants amnesty and will report any story they can to support that view.
How much mileage will the Fort Dix story get?
The difference is that you WOULD have a clue as to whether you are in bounds because you’ve been keeping track of it. I have H1B colleagues and others who know when they can and cannot leave the country, who make visits to the consulates when needed, etc. this man had 6 or 7 YEARS to figure out what the heck happened to his application. He never bothered to find out.
I paid tens of thousands in income taxes this year. If I “forgot” to pay my taxes, the visit from the IRS would not be pleasant. I dont consider ignorance an excuse in this matter.
Oh, and the legal immigration system is screwed up in part because of the massive volume of such cases. All the more reason to oppose amnesty, which will swamp the bureaucrats like a Tsunami.
That's the point.
I've heard form my attorney, as wellas from a few other people in the immigration field that the current backlog is a shadow cast from the previous amnesty that Reagan did. That amnesty so overwhelmed the system that the backlogs resulted. USCIS has done much to streamline their work flow, but 20 million illegals applying roughly at the same time is going to grind their current work to a halt. And you know the political pressure will be to legalize the illegals rather than concentrate on a First In First Out approach. And when denials by USCIS start happening, the immigration court system will become backlogged, too. In practice, amnesty will paralyze the immigration system for legal immigration.
I also wonder if the immigration amnesty is a back door quid pro quo for the dems to fund the Iraq war.
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