Immigration, deportation and the cost of the American Dream

Wide, brown eyes peek out from behind a curtain inside a small home in rural Mississippi. The little girl behind the curtain, nine-year-old Lucia, opens the door to a two-bedroom home she shares with her mother, Silvana, and younger brother, Sebastian. Her father, Carlos, no longer lives with the family. He is in a holding cell, waiting to appear before an immigration judge and possibly be deported.

Monday, nine undocumented dairy farm workers were arrested for Social Security card fraud in Raymond. At least three of the men were married.

The Clarion-Ledger reached out to families across the state that have been affected by deportation. Family members would only speak on the condition of anonymity so the names have been changed. Lucia’s family is one of those families.

Carlos and Silvana married in Honduras 10 years ago. After Lucia was born, the family decided to move to the United States to find work. They crossed the border illegally. Silvana, who speaks limited English, stayed home with the couple’s young daughter. Carlos worked various manual labor jobs in the northwest, sending money back to Honduras to his and Silvana’s elderly parents. Last year, the couple moved to Mississippi to be closer to Silvana’s sister, Renata. They found a house in a neighboring town and made a home. Framed family photos dot the walls. Decorative wall art has been carefully hung with the word “Home” hanging over a doorway. Once filled with laughter, the house is quiet except for cartoons playing on the television in the living room.

Silvana has not spoken to her husband since federal authorities picked him up for falsified documents. Sitting at her kitchen table, her two-year-old son in her lap, Silvana holds a picture of her husband. Sebastian has his father’s eyes.

Staring at the picture of her husband, Silvana’s fingers run across her husband’s face. She begins to cry. Her shoulders shake in sobs and Lucia goes to comfort her mother. The two speak in whispered Spanish as they embrace. Still in his mother’s lap, Sebastian babbles and reaches for the photo of his father. “Papa,” he says.

In 2014, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, formerly known as the Immigration and Naturalization Service, conducted approximately 315,000 removals of undocumented workers, according to the agency’s website. More than 200,000 were at the border. Approximately 100,000 people were removed from the interior of the United States.

L. Patricia Ice, director of a legal project with the Mississippi Immigrants Rights Alliance, said gaining legal entry to the United States is a long, arduous journey that can take years.

Comparing immigration law to tax law, Ice said, “People would do it the legal way if they could.”

If an immigrant enters the United States illegally and stays longer than one year, it is almost impossible to leave and gain reentry legally, Ice said. If they are allowed to reenter the country legally, they are not allowed to come back for 10 years, she said. The same is true for an immigrant who entered legally on a visa but illegally stayed in the Unites States once the visa expired.

“That’s why a lot of people don’t leave because it’s hard to get back illegally and they’re probably not going to get a visa to come back legally,” she said.

For undocumented immigrants, becoming an American citizen is a multi-step process with varying factors, Ice said. The most common route is to first obtain work authorization. From there, immigrants can apply for permanent residence, meaning they can stay in the United States indefinitely. Permanent residents pay U.S. taxes.

If an immigrant has permanent residence, and is married to and lives with a U.S. citizen for three years, they can then apply for citizenship or naturalization. If an immigrant is not married to a U.S. citizen, they must be classified as a permanent resident for five years before they can apply for naturalization. However, becoming a permanent resident is “extremely complicated,” Ice said.

“Getting to the permanent resident part is extremely complicated because there’s not a real path to it which is why you have all of these undocumented people here in the first place,” she said.

Immigrants can also apply for legal entry to the U.S. through an immediate family member that has already gained permanent residence. However, there is a maximum amount of people from each country that can gain entry through that avenue, Ice said. Once the quota has been met, additional applicants are put on a waiting list. The number of Filipino citizens hoping to gain entry to the U.S. through a family member is in the hundreds of thousands, Ice said. The waiting list for Filipino citizens is 24 years long, she said.

For families like Carlos and Silvana and Renata and her husband, Alejandro, waiting was not an option. They wanted a better life for themselves, for their children.

In broken English, Renata said, “In Honduras, lot of problems. It’s not good for you. Lot of people not have jobs. Some people kill other people for money. If you have something, they shoot you and take it.”

Renata is undocumented. She said her husband “has good papers” but did not elaborate. Their three children were all born in the United States.

The couple married when Renata was 15. They had been married for one year when they decided to move to America. Alejandro came to the U.S. by himself, then after one year, sent for his wife. They live with their three children in an aging mobile home at the end of a gravel road. The living room is bare except for silk flowers in a vase in the corner. Like her sister’s home, framed family portraits are hung on the walls. The refrigerator also boasts multiple family photos, including a picture of Carlos.

Renata said her brother-in-law falsified documents to find work and provide for his family.

“He only works for family,” she said. “Only for work. He could never find work. Every time he looking for work, every time he find work, everybody say, he need good papers. You need good papers. You need work for family. You have good papers, you work.”

Under the Obama administration and Jeh Johnson, Department of Homeland Security Secretary, ICE enforcement agents prioritize undocumented immigrants by the threat of public safety to United States citizens.

A memorandum released by DHS classifies undocumented workers under Priority 1, Priority 2 and Priority 3. Priority 1 includes “threats to national security, border security and public safety,” according to the memo provided by ICE officials. Priority 2 includes those convicted of “three or more misdemeanors” or one “significant misdemeanor.” Priority 3 addresses “the third and lowest priority for apprehension and removal.”

While Carlos had no prior arrests, falsifying documents qualifies under the agency’s priorities. Until his hearing, which has not yet been set, Silvana waits. When asked what she will do until she learns her husband’s fate, Silvana again begins to cry.

Looking at her two children, she says, “I don’t know.”

Ice said many undocumented workers are in the United States because they want to satisfy basic human needs.

“They are human beings and all human beings have certain desires in life,” she said. “Love, water food and shelter. Most people want good health for their children, education. Everybody wants and needs those. I think that we have to understand that. All of us are human beings. We just got lucky being born here in The United States.”

Contact Sarah Fowler at sfowler@gannett.com or (601) 961-7303. Follow @FowlerSarah on Twitter.

* The parties involved spoke on the condition of anonymity. Names have been changed.