Pinoy nabbed renewing 'green card' spills beans on jails
By RODNEY J. JALECO, ABS-CBN North America News Bureau | 11/11/2008 1:24 PM
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FAIRFAX, Virginia - A man who’s lived here for over a decade was arrested by immigration police after he tried to renew his “green card”. But his tale of time spent in jail is raising concern over the treatment of Filipinos facing the threat of deportation.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents raided his home in northern Virginia last August 25, questioned him about past convictions, then brought him to the first of two federal jails.
He was mixed with an accused murderer and given only vague information about his case. More revealing, the man said there are about a hundred Filipinos in a similar predicament, languishing in jails across the country because they could not afford a lawyer.
The case could also be an eye-opener to thousands of Filipino immigrants who might believe, mistakenly, that they enjoy equal protection with compatriots who’ve opted for American citizenship.
"Lito" (not his real name), 48, grew up in Kamuning, Quezon City and belongs to a clan of police officers. He has a degree in criminology and worked for a time as a real estate agent in Manila, before trying his luck in the US.
He admits he had a quick temper – something that got him into trouble and is the root of his present woes. He pleaded no-contest to a misdemeanor when a spat with a girlfriend in 1994 turned violent. He evaded jail by agreeing to undergo anger management classes. In 2000, he was arrested for domestic assault, and spent a month in jail.
“I’ve learned my lesson, I’m a changed man,” Lito tells ABS-CBN’s "Balitang America" in the vernacular. Not only did he reconcile with the woman, but they now have an 8-year-old son who’s in 3rd grade. “We still have arguments, which couple doesn’t have one? But I’ve learned to talk out our differences,” he averred.
He got his “green card” or legal resident visa in 1996. In November 2006, he tried to renew his visa with the US Citizenship & Immigration Service (USCIS). “They took my picture, fingerprints and I paid all the needed fees. They told me to just wait for it in the mail,” Lito recounts.
“After almost a year, I called them to inquire about my renewal. I was told it was still being processed. So we were surprised when on August 25, ICE police entered our house at the crack of dawn and asked me about my papers,” he recounted.
He was brought to the Fairfax County jail and grilled about his convictions. “I explained everything to them,” Lito said. He was told that the convictions were grounds to deport him to the Philippines.
“I became so depressed,” he told ABS-CBN News, “I worried about what would happen to my son, my family. It’s a fear that sears into your very soul. I couldn’t think straight anymore.”
“I was thinking that if they deport me, should I bring my son. How would he fare in the Philippines? He was born here and doesn’t know any home except Virginia. I was also worried about what I’ll do back home. I’ve been away for so long, what job can I get to feed my son, my family?” Lito agonized. He has spent half of his life in the US.
“Green card” not a guarantee of US stay
Lawyer Arnedo Valera, an executive director of Migrant Heritage Commission (MHC) which is providing pro-bono legal services to Lito, said immigration enforcement became stricter after the 9-11 terror attacks in the US.
“Immigration authorities have been actively seeking aliens, including “green card” holders with deportable offenses in removal proceedings,” he revealed.
Under immigration law, Valera explained, there are many grounds where a “green card” holder can be deported – crimes involving moral turpitude, multiple criminal convictions (where the aggregate prison sentence is five years or more); convictions for an offense classified as aggravated felony; convictions for offenses involving controlled substances; and convictions for certain offenses involving firearms.
“Two DUI (driving under the influence) convictions are enough to get you deported,” he declared.
Over 72,600 Filipinos entered the US on “green cards” in 2007 alone – the third biggest group of immigrants that year, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reported. A separate report showed almost 39,000 became American citizens during the same period.
Contrary to popular opinion, not all Filipino immigrants feel an urgency to win American citizenship, except perhaps for the opportunity to petition relatives back home more quickly.
“It never entered my mind to apply for citizenship,” Lito admitted. “It didn’t think it was that important because I thought that I’d enjoy the same benefits of an American citizen,” he averred.
“Being a “green card” holder is not a guarantee of continued stay in the US,” Valera stressed.
Because of Lito’s experience, he said they are organizing a legal aid clinic with lawyers in Washington DC where Filipinos can ask about and apply for citizenship. The event is slated in the spring of 2009.
Treated like animals
“The jail they put me in was no joke. It was not like I was in detention, waiting for a hearing of my case. I was treated like a criminal,” Lito revealed.
He was detained in two separate jails – the Northwestern Regional Adult Detention Center in Winchester, Virginia and later at the Riverside Regional Jail, near Richmond, Virginia.
In Winchester, detainees were kept in pods. He said they came from all over the US, many of them illegal migrants from Mexico. They thought it was a stop-over, a transit point for deportation to their respective countries of origin.
The DHS estimates there are nearly 300,000 Filipino illegal residents in 2007. They represent about 2 percent of America’s 6.6 million illegal immigrants.
He tried to get some information about his case but was always told to “just wait”.
“My cellmate was a father who was accused of killing his own son. I was with all sorts of criminals in that pod,” Lito revealed.
“We were brought out of our cells for only two or three hours a day. You ate in your cell, your toilet was in there and so was your bed. We were like animals. And the immigration officer went there only about twice a month, just to ask if you’re okay?” he added.
Valera said this is illegal. “They have to seriously consider that immigration proceedings or violation of immigration law is civil and administrative in nature. They are not criminal and penal in character,” he explained.
But Lito can be counted as among the “lucky ones”. He had earlier met Jess Gatchalian, one of the MHC executive directors, who had told him about the MHC legal resource program. He asked his wife to seek out Gatchalian. Valera and another MHC lawyer, Odemar Cabalda, agreed to help out and filed a motion for bond and custody determination. On October 15 a judge finally agreed to hear Lito’s case and ordered him released on $5,000 bond (Valera said they were able to raise the amount with the help of sympathetic Fil-Ams).
On October 29 – or over two months after he was arrested - Gatchalian and fellow MHC executive director Grace Valera-Jaramillo drove about two hours to fetch Lito at the Riverside jail.
“They usually put the Filipinos either in Virginia Beach or Texas,” Lito tells ABS-CBN News when asked about other Filipinos jailed for possible deportation.
“I learned about this from other detainees who came already came from Texas and transferred to Virginia. It’s common for detainees to miss their scheduled hearings because they’ve already been moved somewhere else. Those from Virginia are transferred to Texas, and those from Texas end up here in Virginia,” he revealed.
“There are 50 to 100 Filipinos in the Virginia Beach jail alone. I heard there is also a large number in Texas,” he added.
Valera disclosed that in October alone, the US deported 180 Filipinos back to the Philippines. But the bigger concern, he stressed, was the dearth of information about those still in jail facing possible deportation.
The biggest obstacle is that many of them can not afford to pay for lawyers. They would need to wait until their case comes up for a hearing – which Lito said could take up to six months in some instances - to ask for a public defender or seek out pro-bono lawyers like those from the MHC.
“There was one case when the detainee (not a Filipino) waited six months for a hearing, then missed the date so now he may have to wait another six months in jail before he can actually be deported,” Lito said.
“Removal proceedings come in batches,” Valera explained, “so the number of Filipinos arrested and those who have been deported may be different.”
“We don’t know. All we know is the number of those deported but for the number of those in jail, we don’t know,” he admitted.
He said they are trying to be more pro-active, at least for jails in the Washington DC jurisdiction to find out if there are Filipinos who can benefit from legal intervention, and in the process establish a mechanism that could get a reliable head-count of just how many there are at any given time.
Lito and his son are now inseparable. He said that after he was picked up from his home and jailed, the boy is afraid he might not see his father again.
“I felt scared and I missed him a whole lot when he was in jail,” he told ABS-CBN News, voice breaking and fighting the urge to cry. “My family got scared too. I really got scared but since he’s here I’m happy now.”
