Boy Scout Facing Deportation Learns New Meaning of "Be Prepared"

[AlphaCentauri]

Source: Vivirlatino

Boy Scouts are expected to be prepared, but no child should have to be prepared for what 13 year old scout Jose Andrade and his family faces. Jose Andrade faces being deported, alone. A good student who wants to be a policeman, defies the stereotypes portrayed of young Latino undocumented thugs. Jose came into the United States from El Salvador to find his mother who had come ahead of him, escaping the aftermath of the war there (where the U.S. played a powerful role).

Jose walked across the Rio Grande from Mexico into Texas at a shallow point on a hot day in September 2005. He was arrested by federal police awaiting new arrivals on the other side. One cousin did not make it across the border; the other was arrested with Jose and sent back to El Salvador.
“They took us someplace that looked like a jail,” he said.
He was held at a youth detention center in Harlingen, Texas, for nine days, until his mother came and got him.
“I was happy I wasn’t going to be in there anymore,” said Jose, who said he worried he would never see his mom again.
From that point on, the family has fought an uphill legal battle to keep Jose in the United States.

Jose's mother, who has a work visa, has been placed in a position to choose among her children, Jose, and two U.S. born younger children.


The 13-year-old cannot legally return to live in the United States until he turns 18 and can apply for a visa.
“I wanted to be with my mom.” Jose said. “I wanted to develop a career. It’s not good to have to leave when your mother is here.”
For the time being, the teen lives in an apartment off Plaza Street with his mother and her fiance, and Jose’s two siblings — brother Hever Garcia, 5, and 1-month-old baby sister Yaritza.
Jose said it’s not fair he should have to leave. He doesn’t fully understand why he’s being asked to go; he said children should get to stay with their parents.


Read more: http://vivirlatino.com/2008/06/11/boy-scout-facing-deportation-learns-new-meaning-of-be-prepared.php

[mainegreen]

1. So wait, his mother left him in El Salvador?

She's been here for five years at least on a legal visa, had two kids, and then let her kid do a dangerous illegal border crossing? And somehow the US is the bad guy in all this?

I love this line: "Jose's mother, who has a work visa, has been placed in a position to choose among her children, Jose, and two U.S. born younger children."

Yeah, she placed herself in that position.

[Ken Burch]

4. She was forced by the reality of the situation to have her kid try to get in this way.

Don't blame the victims. It's Republicans who do that.

[damntexdem]

5. She fled for her life, from a situation the U.S. helped create.

The U.S. creates human-rights disasters and is then too racist to admit all who are affected by them.

[mainegreen]

10. How do you flee for your life, and still have time to do so on a work visa?

And yet leave your child behind, find time to have two kids over five years before attempting to get her son here?

There have been many cases of the US taking the wrong stance on this issue posted here. This so far, does not look like one.

Did she try to get her son her legally over the five years? Why didn't she bring her son originally?

Is her new partner a US citizen? Has she tried getting him to adopt this kid? Might make it a lot easier to get him in that way.

This story reads like propaganda.

[SemperEadem]

15. not only that

but how do you flee for your life, make the time to secure a work visa and leave your child behind to face the very thing you're fleeing? Seems to me, she decided Jose wasn't important enough to protect back then--really, why should she now?

Jose unfortunately has to face the fact that his mother put her own economic interests above his safety and welfare. No child, despite their country of origin, should have to suffer such a mother.

[greyghost]

28. Exactly... F' her and him.

[gtar100]

46. Serious?

This kind of attitude you are displaying I wish would just stop. It is hateful, judgmental, and feeds into the racism growing again in our country. I am sad to see it here on this message board.

[greyghost]

50. Deadly, I have nothing against anyone who plays by the rules.

Those who are here illegally can go F' themselves.

BTW, I'm from Prince William County Virginia, we have given the country a blueprint on how to deal with this problem.

[gtar100]

52. Sounds hateful and ugly. Count me out.

Remember, what goes around comes around. I wish you no success in your crusade, that your victims be few, and you swiftly learn to love unconditionally.

[greyghost]

53. Our initiative is working quite well thank you. In fact many counties

have been in touch who want to implement it.

[RayOfHope]

32. This happens more often than you think, and not only with Latinos

I know a family from Liberia that was in this same position. She had absolutely no hope in Liberia, none, of making a better life for her family. She came to the US, went to nursing school (where I met her) and was able to *finally* send for her kids. Of course this was in the mid 90s when people werent as quite anti immigrant as they are today.

What a terrible position to be in.

[mainegreen]

33. That's not the same at all.

In the case you described the mother worked, saved up money, and sent for her kids legally.

Not quite the same as getting here, starting a brand new family, and then sneaking your kid across the border illegally, and then being surprised and upset when you have to face the consequences of that.

I've got no problem with people coming here to work, and then applying to get there family here legally later. My neighbors did just that (from the Congo). They had very little problem getting their kids here. Immigration was very accommodating and understanding.

The problem is this article is a one sided propaganda hit job designed to skew peoples perspective into a false and unrealistic view on America's immigration policy.

[RayOfHope]

34. Not really that different

and I'm sure had Liberia been closer instead of across the ocean, she probably would have tried to sneak her child across the border also. It took her quite some time (about 8 years, if I remember correctly) to get her daughter here, and it wasn't easy at all. It also says in the article that they did apply for asylum and were denied.

[heliarc]

42. She put her in her own position...Or the Pope did.

I hate to be overly dramatic or speculative, but there are plenty of Latin American women who are prisoners of the Catholic stance on birth control. Sometimes simply being in the wrong relationship with the wrong man while Catholic means you are bound to have more kids than you had hoped. We have very little information about her specific circumstances, but there are quite a few reasons that might be behind her current status.

While she has probably made some bad decisions in her life, I don't quite believe that children should be forced to be apart from their parents if the relationship is at least nourishing and functional. The alternative is foster care here or in the foreign country. Americans are the champions of "What should I care?" policy to the detriment of the society as a whole, and sometimes I don't know why people would choose the option that makes these children the taxpayer's problem when they can be the parent's problem. The reality of this situation is very sad. There are a lot of cases right now that are deporting people with pending cases of naturalization, without regard for family relation, and in my opinion leniency in the law would cause less grief overall than forcibly separating kids from their parents. It wasn't the mother's fault in this case that a young child took matters into his own hands and made the very dangerous choice to cross the border... a choice that killed his cousin. If the mother doesn't have the child's best interest in mind that is one thing, but it is perhaps just as important that the child has his mother's best interest in mind.

[midnight]

2. Family values. Keeping children and their mothers apart.

[Stingo]

36. They'll claim the boy

is a criminal next

[Carnea]

3. This is Bullshit....

"defies the stereotypes portrayed of young Latino undocumented thugs."

really cause that isn't the stereotypes I have. Hard working lives ten to a house maybe but not thugs oh and all these stories

"Jose's mother, who has a work visa, has been placed in a position to choose among her children, Jose, and two U.S. born younger children."

Well since she abandoned him already I guess we know the choice she will make.

From the article

"U.S. immigration law prohibits children not born in the United States from living here unless their parents are U.S. citizens, said Immigration Attorney Christina Wilkes, who works for Ayuda."

Thats not true. In fact its a barefaced lie. Parents who emigrate legally can bring their minor children with them.

"Shame on the United States."

Here is a hearty fuck you back. Mother abandons her child hooks up with another guy and it's our fault.


I feel for the kid but really this kind of over the top propaganda makes my blood boil.

[Ken Burch]

6. She didn't abandon her kid. She was forced to leave him behind.

The racist immigration laws are to blame, not the mother. Don't blame the victim.

And she had no alternative than to go to the U.S. without papers if she wanted to feed her kids. There are millions working her and sending remittances back. The system deliberately makes it as hard as possible for people from Latin American to immigrate legally.

[Carnea]

11. Why was she forced to leave him behind???

She wasn't seeking asylum. If you emigrate to the US legally you get to bring the kids....she choose not to bring her son her choice.... There is nothing in the article to suggest she left El Salvador for any reason other than money.... No mention of the kids father ....

Millions of people live in Central America and feed their kids. You don't have to come to the United States.

[Ken Burch]

14. She was unable to emigrate legally due to the racist limits on Latin American immigration

If we made it as easy to immigrate here from San Salvador, Tegucigalpa or Mexico City as it is to do so from Dusseldorf, London or Warsaw you wouldn't see this kind of thing.

And maybe she wasn't seeking asylum(although thanks to the U.S. cold warriors the povricidal Salvadoran military is still effectively ruling that country rather than the Salvadoran people) but she still had no chance to feed her child if she stayed in El Salvador until the gringo racists SAID she could come in.

Why so harsh on this woman, anyway?(remainder of the comments on this post self-deleted upon having learned more about the poster I was responding to).

[Carnea]

17. I am not harsh on the woman. and certainly not the kid.

I am harsh on the propaganda. Look we have seen these self serving articles pop-up about the US breaking up families and this has to be the weakest of the bunch. The mother broke up the family not the United States.

I am more than willing to blame this country when it gets something wrong. I don't see the US as the bad guy here.

Oh just for shits and giggles here is a picture from where I was born in '68

[Ken Burch]

20. Christ, you were born in Belfast? my sympathies.

It's sane there now, but the first sounds you heard may have included gunfire and explosions.

[Carnea]

22. Well Derry but I couldn't find any decent photos.

Yeah '68 wasn't a good year for Ulster.

So I have sympathy for people fleeing war zones and emigrating to America. (And yes you can bring the kids)

But honest to God I hate obvious over the top blame America first propaganda and that what this strikes me as.

[Ken Burch]

25. I've been to the Bogside. Walked right through where Bloody Sunday happened.

You're lucky to be here.

Here's a Derry mural, with a face your parents will remember(former M.P. Bernadette Devlin McAliskey):



And another, a mural of Annette McGavigan, a fourteen year-old girl who was killed in a crossfire. For years, the butterfly in the corner of this mural was left in outline form, and was only filled in recently, with what now appears to be the final arrival of peace.



I respect your feelings, but my statements here were simply questioning policies of the U.S. government not "blaming America". Questioning the immigration policies that led to this event is not an attack on the very foundations of this country. The notion that the state is the nation and thus above criticism is one that all decent societies, and all societies that aspire to decency, have to reject.

I've edited my post above on hearing the story of your origins.

[Carnea]

27. Thanks for the pictures. It's wonderful there now so I hear.

BTW I don't think you were blaming America I though the article was. The US Immigration laws (Like their tax code and other things) definitely could use some common sense and humanity. On that I think we agree.

[AlphaCentauri]

37. that's a nice propaganda picture

too bad that freedom has different meanings. For poor people in latinamerica freedom may symbolize food for their children in other places it may symbolize religion.

[Carnea]

40. Thats actually a rundown slum filled with protestant terrorists.

More of a picture to represent Northern Ireland in 1968. It was either that or that Led Zeppelin cover.... but then I would be accused of posting child porn.

The freedom of leaving Northern Ireland at that time wasn't religion it was not getting shot. Really it is no different than fleeing Detroit.

[mainegreen]

18. It's not as easy to immigrate from Europe as you seem to think.

I have a family member by marriage that's been working on it for 10+ years.
He's rich, white, speaks perfect english, college educated, and northern European, and the hoops and obsticals he's had to jump through are a beaurocratic nightmare. He's been tempted many times to just give up.

It's not easy to get into this country. Being European does not give one a pass like you seem to think.

[WilmywoodNCparalegal]

19. Can you explain specifically to me why you think it so?

I'm an immigration professional and I can tell you that an intending immigrant from El Salvador must follow the same rules and regulations as an intending immigrant from Dusseldorf or New Delhi. Of course, Cubans are exempt. But plese explain to me which part of U.S. immigration law you refer.

[Ken Burch]

21. I suppose it's because I've never heard of the INS rounding up undocumented Belgians.

My impression has always been that the immigration system was specifically biased against Latin Americans.

[Carnea]

23. Well it's harder to walk from belgium.

Plus a lot of illegal Europeans scooted back on their own when the European economy (esp Ireland) took off.

They also tend to go back when it's time to have kids (free health-care).

[madrchsod]

26. go to any major city and you`ll find "white illegals"

but they are not as easy to find as "brown illegals"...once in a blue moon the ins will stumble across white european illegals. go to the northwest side of chicago and you`ll find a lot of white europeans without legal documents

[bean fidhleir]

31. Actually, it seems to wax and wane

Up til a few years ago in Boston and NYC it was fine to be an undoc from Ireland. The entire construction industry in Boston was dominated by them. Then suddenly la Migra started cracking down and they all started doing roach imitations.

[Blue_Tires]

43. FWIW

recently there was a big roundup of Russian / Eastern European brides for deportation...they had this organized scam going on with the local sailors (i.e., she gets a green card, he gets marriage allowance benefits from Uncle Sam)...I think about 60-80 women were caught in the roundup.

[Blue_Tires]

44. found the link here

http://hamptonroads.com/node/461797

[AlphaCentauri]

39. Some immigrants are suffering the Stockholm syndrome or they just want to close the door to other

immigrants.

[bean fidhleir]

30. Wait! "If she wanted to feed her kids"? WHAT kids? He was apparently the only one

she had before she moved here.

[Ken Burch]

45. Ok, her "kid". Sorry. In El Salvador, with a right-wing military and "free market" economics

Even that is freaking near impossible. I guess I just think we should give this family the benefit of the doubt, not the immigration system.

[bean fidhleir]

48. As others have pointed out, she came here legally and could have brought him with.

Or at the very least brought him before having more kids.

So why isn't the kid's problem hers rather than ours? Because she wants to ignore him? Why doesn't that make her ethically unfit to stay here? And what claim does that kid have on us that a hundred thousand Iraqi, Palestinian, and Afghani kids, orphaned by our militarized imperialism, don't?

It seems to me that our responsibility toward him is (relatively) zero, unless it's to evict his mother so that he can join her (presuming she wouldn't simply abandon him again - she doesn't sound like any prize to me).

[damntexdem]

7. I see that the racism isn't absent from this forum.

Nor is callous disregard for family life.

[Carnea]

13. Nobody here is being racist. well excpt possibly yourself.

Assuming the kid is a dark skinned minority.

The kid is white. (Hispanic)



And his mother showed more callous disregard for his life by having him do a dangerous border crossing than anyone else involved.

[AlphaCentauri]

38. what can we expect when people is poor and hopeless

desperate poor people would do anything to survive, latinos have a good cultural background which include a great sense of dignity. They would try to keep their family together regardless of the situation in which they are, that is the reason the mother brought the kid not because she wants to abandon him.

[Carnea]

41. She didn't bring the kid if she had he would be legal.

Instead she bunked up with some other dude and had two more kids then sent for her kid to make the dangerous border crossing. Look at that kid in the picture would you send him over hundreds of miles of hostile desert if you loved him????

Where is the father or the rest of her family in all this????


Sorry blaming the US is fine in many immigration cases but this isn't one of them.

[AlphaCentauri]

47. The civil war in el Salvador destroyed many families

the psychological damage in individuals after the war were immense. Without the military and political intervention of the US in latin america we may not be seen this types of immigrant tragedies, it's all about cause and effect, many feel proud of killing communist in latin america but they should be remorseful of all the lives they destroyed.

[LanternWaste]

8. Or, one could just as easily say that the economic and cultural realities...

"Well since she abandoned him already I guess we know the choice she will make."

Or, one could just as easily say that the economic and cultural realities of her former homeland forced her to seek better, long-term accommodations for her children at the expense of leaving one temporarily behind.

I suppose it simply depends on a person's inability to differentiate between the stark realities of life and the religious adherence to nationalistic and provincial jingo as to how it's perceived...

[Marrah_G]

12. If that were the case.....

Then she would have been working and saving her money so she could return to her child. Instead she chose to have two more children.

Why did she not bring him with her in the first place?

I feel badly for this young boy.

[bean fidhleir]

49. Read the article again - he was her *only* kid. (nt)

[greyghost]

51. Well said.

[Marrah_G]

9. His mother left him in ElSalvador

I could almost understand her coming to work here to send back money to care for him.... But she started a new family here. She cannot whine about having to choose, because frankly, she chose years ago.

I don't have alot of pity for a woman who abandons her child in the aftermath of war, supposedly to find work so she can take care of him, and then settles down here and has two more children, leaving the 11 year old to WALK to the US.

I do feel badly for the boy, non of this is his fault.

[WilmywoodNCparalegal]

16. A minor can always accompany a parent to the U.S. provided the parent has a visa

If the mother truly has a visa to be in the U.S., she could have applied at the same time for any of her minor children, along with formal permission by the child's father. The mother could have easily gotten the child to apply at the U.S. Embassy in El Salvador for a dependent visa for the child. Now, I don't know what visa she has but her options were aplenty.

[madrchsod]

24. what the fuck is the problem?

let the kid grow up in the usa...i do`t see any gang shit on him so he must have some parenting behind him. who knows what this kid can do to make this country better....

[bean fidhleir]

29. What dreadful propaganda this is.

As others have written, his mother chose to have more kids rather than bring him. She basically abandoned him. If that's a function of what the guy wanted who fathered her newest 2, then I'd say her ability to make good choices is about that of a 6yo.

[Stingo]

35. Deporting boy scouts?

What, was the kid refusing sexual advances from his scoutmaster?