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 Editorials | Issues | January 2007 
Four Tales of Those Caught in Net
 Sharon McNary - Press-Enterprise
| | Filipino-born Kim Calosa, 28, of Twentynine Palms, could face deportation because laws let the government revoke noncitizens' residency green cards for certain drug crimes. |
Since being trained by federal immigration authorities, Riverside and San Bernardino county jailers have screened about 3,500 inmates about their immigration status. They have sent more than 2,000 inmates for possible deportation. Immigrants of various backgrounds have been questioned. Here are four of their stories:
Returned To Mexico
Gustavo Ivan Garcia Mejia, 22, of Moreno Valley, crossed the Mexican border in the trunk of a car in late May. He got an $8 an hour job in the United States.
Sitting in a Riverside County jail a few hours after his mid-December arrest on suspicion of disorderly conduct under the influence of drugs or alcohol, he answered questions in Spanish from county Correctional Deputy Adrian Valdivia.
Valdivia checked Garcia Mejia's name, photo and fingerprints against a federal database, and concluded this was his first contact with immigration authorities.
Garcia Mejia was not charged with a crime. He was handed over to federal custody the next day and he voluntarily left for Mexico rather than contest his case in immigration court, Riverside County Lt. Joe McNamara said.
Legal Immigrant Freed
Jose Antonio Frausto, 29, of Perris, is a legal permanent resident from Veracruz, Mexico. He was in custody in mid-December facing a felony charge of possession for sale of less than one ounce of methamphetamine.
If convicted of a drug felony, the government could void Frausto's green card and deport him, Valdivia said.
Frausto told the officer he entered the United States illegally through Tijuana in 1991at age 15, and was granted legal permanent residency in 2003. His parents obtained legal status in the 1986 immigration amnesty.
He has criminal charges dating to 1997 when he pleaded guilty to providing alcohol to a minor, court records indicate. He was cited for driving without insurance in 2003, pleaded guilty to speeding over 100 mph and having no driver's license in 2005. He failed to appear in court earlier this year on another charge of speeding and no insurance, and he was arrested Dec. 11 on the drug charge.
Although the arrest put Frausto's legal right to remain in the United States in peril, he is not in custody while his case is going through court.
Murrieta defense lawyer Ken Byrd said an attorney or advocate should have been present to advise his client that he could remain silent during the immigration questioning. Frausto returns to court Feb. 6.
Valdivia and his fellow immigration-trained jailers will track Frausto's case. If he pleads guilty or is convicted of a drug felony, they will put an immigration hold on him that would send him before an immigration judge who would decide if he stays, said Riverside County Sheriff's Lt. Joe McNamara.
The Repeat Offender
Kim Calosa, 28, of Twentynine Palms, is a Filipino-born, self-described gang member nicknamed Shorty. He has repeated arrests in San Bernardino County plus state prison records for drug dealing in New Mexico and possession of a deadly weapon in California.
After pleading guilty to using meth, he was given three years' probation while he entered the state's Prop. 36 drug treatment program. But he missed drug tests, counseling and court dates, so he was re-arrested, and his probation was revoked.
He has a green card, which is a legal permanent residency permit in the United States. His father, a U.S. Marine, brought him here at age six. Calosa is single and has two U.S.-citizen children. He works as a cook at a Victorville restaurant.
His prison terms and drug case could result in his deportation because immigration laws let the government revoke noncitizens' residency green cards if they commit certain drug crimes, said Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Calosa, in a jail interview, said the immigration questioning unsettled him, making him suspect he could be returned to the Philippines.
"I'm scared. I don't want to go back there. I don't know that language," Calosa said.
He was released on Jan. 8 with no immigration hold, said San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department Sgt. Anne Henson.
However, the county sent information on his offenses to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, she said.
A U.S. Citizen
Gilbert Cruz, 33, a naturalized citizen who was born in El Salvador, turned himself into San Bernardino County's West Valley Detention Center in early December.
He surrendered himself to the jail to clear up some traffic violation warrants that were keeping him from renewing his truck driver's license.
So he was surprised and frightened to find himself the subject of an immigration interview, he said. He told the jailer that his parents sought political asylum in the United States when he was 5 years old and that he became a citizen at age 18.
He worried the jailer would assume that he was a member of the dangerous Mara Salvatrucha 13 gang just because he was born in El Salvador.
"When they asked me to start showing them my tattoos, that's when I got nervous. I thought, 'Are they expecting to see signs of MS?" Cruz said in a telephone interview a week after his release.
He said he had no gang ties. He quit college after three years to support his wife and children. Cruz said he did not know his rights or that he became exempt from deportation when he took the oath of U.S. citizenship.
Within days of his surrender, he was transferred to a Los Angeles County jail and released with no immigration hold.
"I can handle jail pretty good, but the thought of being deported to a country that I came from but know nothing about - it put a lot of fear into me."
Reach Sharon McNary at 951-368-9458 or smcnary@PE.com |
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