Okay, this is a wild one: The So Cal ACLU says that the LA Sheriff’s Department together with ICE officers have deported a US citizen to Mexico. At today’s 10 am press conference, the ACLU folks promise to fill in the details.
What they have said up until this point is that the man who was deported is developmentally disabled and that he has been missing in Mexico since May 12.
“There are no circumstances under which the government may deport a U.S. citizen,” say the ACLU folks about the case. Family members of the missing man say that federal officials have refused to requests (by the family and by a private lawyer) to assist in the search.
MORE SHORTLY
UPDATE: Alright, here’s the deal. Pedro Guzman, 29, was arrested for some kind of low-level trespassing at a Lancaster airplane junkyard. A misdemeanor. Mr. Guzman is a person described as developmentally disabled. More specifically, he is someone who has genuine mental disabilities, and cannot stray too far from his home without getting disoriented and lost.
When on April 3 he was arrested, Guzman told the booking deputy that he was born in California-–which is true, and which the book deputy has confirmed. Guzman was born at County USC and is an American citizen. On April 19 he was sentenced to 120 days in jail (for the above-mentioned misdemeanor trespassing), with his time already served subtracted. (Thus, by the way, giving lie to the contention that Paris Hilton and her 45 days reduced to 24 was an excessive sentence and a grave miscarriage of justice.)
On May 10 or 11, with no apparent attempts to verify his legal status, Mr. Guzman was deported and released in Tijuana. He managed to make one phone call but has not been heard from since.
Mr. Guzman’s mental ability is such that he does not remember family phone numbers and so keeps a copy of his brother’s telephone number on him at all times. It is unclear if the necessary slip of paper with the brother’s number was returned to him when he was deported.
“We see due process violations all the time,” said an ACLU spokesman, speaking about the mismanaged deportation order.
Attempts by Mr. Guzman’s family to locate him have, thus far, been unsuccessful. When asked for help finding the missing man, local ICE officials declined, saying only that they’d be happy to correct their order once it could be proved that Mr. Guzman was indeed a citizen. (Um….a birth certificate isn’t enough?)
AND ON A TANGENTIALLY RELATED SUBJECT…..In a report just published, the Urban Institute says that about one quarter (26%) of all service sector jobs in LA County are held by “unauthorized immigrants.” Make of that what you will.
UPDATE #2: The LA Times has a good follow-up storyhere .
It is surprising that anyone is deported by ICE, even the young women sneaking over the boarder who can’t run so fast, being 8 months pregnant. But, please let it be true that ICE is finally starting to do their job by enforcing the law so, that they might make a mistake now and again.
On the immigration issue, I am having trouble getting a logical train of thought from the (left/liberal/progressives). Can some one help Pokey to understand what the left is thinking? Here is how it usually goes:
Q – Are you for open boarders letting anyone in the USA?
A – No, of course not.
Q – Should we build a fence on the border?
A – No, that would racist and mean.
Q – Should deport people who caught sneaking across the border?
A – Yes, I guess that is OK, but nicely.
Q – Should we deport people who made it across the border and have been here a month?
A – No, that would be unfair.
Q – Should we deport people who made it across the border and have committed felonies?
A – Yes / No / Maybe, only if they don’t have families and are mean people.
Pokey, I have absolutely given up trying to make sense of our immigration policy. In theory we ought to have a border that the Mexican people can respect. We can’t fence it, IMHO, because it’s too costly. Of course now having spent $500 bil in Iraq, I’m not sure that the “fence” doesn’t take on a new level of plausibility. Some days I think we might have been better off to have spent the $500 bil invading Mexico, deposing the ruling families, and taking it over instead of Iraq. Who knows. We might have encounterd less resistance, we’d have achieved some resources that we want in the bargain, and opened new avenues for venture capital given the Mexican govt’s restrictions on foreign owned assets within their borders. Maybe we should just erase the border. Border problem solved.
Minor collateral damage. Do you blame the ICE for trying to do its job to defend our borders or the people who started the invasion?
That has been going on for years with anyone with an hispanic accent in jeapordy which Woody would know – “Collateral damage” eh? Guess its like the collateral damage of that Wilson kid for being black and blown in Crackerland.
Cheech Marin made fun of this in his movie “Born in East LA”
Sounds like Pokey has been deported to Mars. At least that’s where he seems to be writing from. 🙂
On a more serious note, Pokey, all of the answers you personally seek and agree with were answered just the way you would like in the recently defeated immigration bill. But why waste breath?
LotS “invading Mexicoâ€Â
I think you have got it all wrong, we have been invaded by Mexico and we are now sending Billions of Dollars back to Mexico as tribute each month.
“Born in East LA†– Loved the movie.
Isn’t NAFTA working great!
I agree with you Marc, that deporting Illegal Aliens does not solve the problem:
These three simple steps would solve the problem permanently.
1) Instead of deporting Illegal Aliens — We need to simply Jail or Fine company executives who hire illegal aliens.
2) Instead of providing welfare to illegal alien mothers until their offspring grow up to join gangs and turn 18. — We should only PAY WELFARE to Illegal Alien women with American Born Children IN THEIR COUNTY OF ORIGIN.
3) Enlarge the number of Legal Immigrants allowed into this country.
And no Amnesty.
Oh, Man. I just looooove that jail or fine company execs who hire immigrants ineligible to work in the US line. Would that it could be that simple. If I am an employer, it does not automatically follow that I am an expert in determining which documents presented to me a genuine, and which are fake. Nor, would I feel like I had a definitive answer by using the vaunted Pilot program – which by the way is *voluntary* at this point – and not at all definitive. I’d hire first and ask questions later, if only to reassure myself that I wouldn’t be accused of discriminating against a legal worker – which would be a good deal more likely. ICE can act indiscriminately and get away with it – your average employer would get taken to the clearners for the same behavior.
As for amnesty… Well, I’ve had it up to my eyeballs for that hot key too. My only advice to those who hyperventilate and foam at the mouth over amnesty is to get good drugs to help you deal with it. There really is no other viable option.
Years ago, once upon a time when laws were enforced, I personally knew a businessman who was heavily fined for using illegal workers. His was not an isolated incident, as the IRS along with the INS identified these businesses and laid down the law with them. You can better believe that my acquaintance never did that again. The only reason that this stopped working is because the government quit enforcement. Until then, it was simple…and effective.
Today, we still have the same requirements, and you can do an instant search on the IRS site to determine if S/S#’s are real. Even if you just mail in information, the Service will let you know after you file 1099’s or W-2’s if there is a mismatch with a S/S#.
Liberals need to quit pretending that there are too many holes in being able to enforce employer penalties for hiring illegal immigrants. The only problem is the desire to enforce the pertinent laws based upon political priorities and pressure.
well, this happens more often then people might realize,
and it is true, people does get harrassed just by their accent.
one of my family members was deported a few years back, him being an american citizen, he just didn’t speak english due to him being raised in mexico, but, still, he was born in the US and is an american citizen.
and like him, there are many people that due to ignorance don’t sue the pants off the us goverment for betraying it’s own citizens.
[…] to the excellent narrative piece written by LA Weekly’s Danial Hernandez on that that story we flagged here a few weeks ago about the developmentally disabled main who, despite the fact that he’s a […]
I thought the mother of this guy kept saying over and over that her son is not disable or mentally ill. Why do they keep posting and reporting this in the media?????
Cliton started handing out fines to big corporation – he actually started a little war with these companies that hire undocumented but white folks and Republicans stay off that issue. I think Bush has penalized zero – I have to research this because the political pressure on this issue is burning his ass. You know, he cant pissed up the big American Corporations – those capital gain taxes will get Bush and the Republicans in serious trouble. As it is, the farmers are not happy with the new hired help – convicts.
If Clinton was slapping fines around like handing out candy, imagine with the wifey will do once she is elected Ms. President. I hear she is a b1*#ch – no joke lady.
I been wanting to take a vacation, you think if I tell ICE that i’m from Jalisco Mexico – I’ll get a free ride to Puerto Vallarta? Oh wait, they take your fingerprints and run your identity before they deport you…..oh wait, the above guy got deported, I guess someone is not following Homeland Security Policies…..oh oh.
I thought the mexican “catch and release” policy was only done at the Mexican border…..opps I need to keep my mouth shut, racist American will learn a dirty secret.
So did they ever find Mr. Guzman or is he still missing?
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