Former DREAMER Almost Deported Part I

Mauricio was a year old and undocumented when he immigrated from Bolivia with his parents. With a few ups and downs he made it through high school, graduating in the top quarter of his class. He became a legal resident in February 2007, which means he was a DREAMER until he was 25 years old. Mauricio attended the University of Houston where he reached the ranking of Senior.

By age 26 he had purchased a home and worked eight years at Target. He had already applied for citizenship. Then he was stopped for a minor traffic violation and the officer found that Mauricio's driver's license had expired. Than his nightmare began.

After being held in a privately run jail for a total of 13 months, deportation charges were dropped.

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Cold as Ice: Family Values

April 19, 2008

Commentary

Houston Chronicle

By RICK CASEY

Mauricio Barragan, whose parents brought him here from Bolivia when he was 1 year old, had a bad year when he was 17.

He got a girl pregnant.

And he was convicted and received deferred adjudication for possessing a small amount of marijuana, a Class B misdemeanor. Earlier he had a juvenile drug conviction at age 15.

During the next eight years, Barragan, now 26, completed his marijuana probation successfully. He graduated in the top quarter of his Katy High School class.

He worked for nearly eight years at Target, rising to team leader in the electronics section before leaving for another job. He was described by his Target supervisor as "the kind of leader that any aspiring business would want on their team."

He faithfully paid child support and provided medical insurance for his son and has been an active father to him, spending weekends with him. He and the boy's mother have remained friends.

College student

He helped buy a house where he and his sister live with his disabled father and his mother. He paid half the monthly mortgage and utilities.

And he earned enough credits at the University of Houston to be a senior with a dual major of biology and journalism.

Meanwhile he and his sister, both legal residents, applied for citizenship, which his parents already acquired.

If we were looking for a poster boy for the criminal justice system working to turn a misbehaving youth around, Barragan would be our man.

But in February 2007, Mauricio, who is a legal resident and had applied to join his parents as a citizen, was stopped for a traffic citation and found to have a suspended driver's license.

Back to Bolivia?

A check by the officer turned up the drug charge. Any past drug conviction now requires that an alien, even one here legally, be held. So Barragan was taken to jail.

But if the drug conviction is for less than 30 grams of marijuana, a judge can rule that the legal alien can stay if his deportation would cause "extreme hardship" — not to him, but to an immediate relative.

So Barragan was locked up for eight months in a privately run jail operated for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) while the government gathered evidence to have him deported to Bolivia, which he had not seen since he was a baby and where he has no relatives.

In October, an immigration judge held a hearing in which Barragan's lawyer presented evidence of "extreme hardship," which would justify a waiver from extradition for a previous adult drug offense.

The hardship, by law, does not apply to the potential deportee. It applies only to immediate relatives.

With every politician in America talking about "family values," you might think that the courts would easily rule that it is an extreme hardship for a 9-year-old boy to be deprived of a father who was shown to be an active and supportive parent.

You would be wrong. So Barragan's lawyer, Michael Rojas, put on evidence of hardship on Barragan's son, Angel, including a psychologist's testimony that the trauma of losing his father had sent the boy into clinical depression.

Angel is a gifted-and-talented 4th-grader, but his mother, Tina Lara, said his grades began to suffer.

"The psychologist said there are a lot of anger issues, and putting the anger in the wrong place," she said.

In addition, Barragan's financial assistance had enabled her to work part-time. With him incarcerated, she had to work full-time, taking time away from Angel.

"The judge told me I wasn't suffering financial hardship," Lara said. "It was all about money. I told him if Mauricio never gave me another penny Angel would still need him."

Mauricio's parents also needed him. With a bad back and diabetes, Jorge Barragan cannot work. His wife, Margarita, taught in public schools for years and now teaches Spanish privately.

Without Mauricio's payments they could not keep up the mortgage. Foreclosure proceedings were started while he was incarcerated.

In addition, the strain of having his son jailed and facing deportation worsened Jorge's condition.

It was on the basis of the financial hardship on Mauricio's parents that the judge agreed to grant him a waiver, reinstating his legal status and ability to work.

Mauricio was ready to celebrate. But the government said it might appeal, so he was taken back to prison. On the last day of the 30-day limit, James Manning, assistant chief counsel of ICE's Houston office, filed a notice of appeal.

That would mean another five months of incarceration for Barragan, another five months of fear for his family and depression and anger for Angel.

This story has a happy ending, but that, together with further details and observations, will require another column.

You can write to Rick Casey at P.O. Box 4260, Houston, TX 77210, or e-mail him at rick.casey@chron.com.

Former DREAMER almost Deported, Part II

Chronicle writer Rick Casey must have taken Mauricio Barragan's case to heart. He even called the ICE attorney who had presented false information on Mauricio, causing the young man to be detained an additional five months. The attorney never called him back.

James Manning, who represented ICE in this case, had filed erroneous information on Mauricio Barragan. Manning stated that Barragan was a habitual drug dealer and user, that he did not own property and never held a job longer than 8 months. Maybe Manning picked up the wrong files. This mistake - whether purposeful or not, cost Mauricio and his family another five months of heartache.As I mentioned in a previous post about the accuracy of U.S. Government records, how can we trust e-verify if this type of problem can occur? (see post "What Can't be Seen," April 21, 2008). I can't imagine this happening to an "important citizen" of Harris County. I guess guys like Mauricio just don't count. We appreciate that Mr. Casey took the time to write about this.

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Cold as ICE: Falsehoods
Houston Chronicle
Rick Casey
April 22, 3008

When James Manning, assistant general counsel for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, filed a notice to appeal a judge's decision not to deport Mauricio Barragan to Bolivia, he was required to list the facts on which the appeal was based.

In three paragraphs ICE's Manning paints Barragan, about whom I wrote Sunday, as a shiftless, friendless drug user.

Barragan's "multiple drug convictions as a juvenile, his arrests and convictions for drug-related offenses as an adult outweigh any equities he may have gained during his young adult period in the United States," he wrote.

In fact, Barragan, who was brought here illegally by his parents, now citizens, when he was about 1 year old, had one juvenile offense and one adult offense at age 17, both for small amounts of drugs, both resulting in successful one-year probations.

Barragan's parents' claim to "extreme hardship," wrote Manning, centers around the claim that he "will not be able to assist his parents on an occasional basis, or to help around the house as needed."

Unflattering descriptions

In fact, before Barragan, 26, was incarcerated while Manning tried to have him deported, he was paying 50 percent of the mortgage and utilities on his parents' house. His disabled father and part-time teacher mother could not afford to make the payments themselves, and foreclosure proceedings were initiated while Mauricio was incarcerated.

Barragan "quit school to work," wrote Manning. "Since then, he has never held a job for more than 18 months and currently does not have a job."

In fact, Barragan graduated in the top quarter of his class at Katy High School and, while working, earned enough credits to be a senior at the University of Houston.

The record, including a glowing recommendation from his former supervisor at Target, showed Barragan had worked at that company for nearly eight years and been promoted to team leader of the electronics department.

"He owns no real property," wrote Manning.

Tax roles show Barragan to be the owner of the modest house in which he, his parents and his sister live.

Manning wrote that Barragan "has no significant social ties outside the home."

In fact, Barragan has lived here since he was a baby, and has never been to Bolivia, where Manning wanted to send him.

One tie of Barragan's that Manning doesn't mention is to his 9-year-old son, Angel.

Angel's mother testified that Mauricio had not only faithfully supported Angel financially, but also was a very involved father.

So why did Manning make these statements about Barragan, despite the fact that the court record refuted them all?

I wish I knew. I left messages for Manning on Friday, when a secretary confirmed he was working, and on Monday and Tuesday. He didn't return the calls.

"I thought it was unethical for Manning to knowingly write those inaccuracies," said Barragan. "If he didn't write them knowingly, it was unprofessional."

Barragan's appeals lawyer, Joy J. Al-Jazrawi, was kind. She said ICE's lawyers are overworked and can make mistakes.

She wrote Manning a letter pointing out the mistakes. He didn't respond, but he didn't repeat them in the brief he filed to the appeals court.

Without those trumped-up factors, however, Manning's appeal was so weak that the appeals court unanimously rejected it without comment.

But for that appeal, Barragan would have been released last October rather than in late March.

That's five months of pain for Angel and for Barragan's parents, who lived in dread that he would be deported.

It's also five months of burden on taxpayers. Instead of earning money and paying taxes, Barragan was housed at a jail operated in Harris County by Corrections Corporation of America at a cost of about $90 a day.

That's nearly $14,000.

But we escaped a potentially much greater cost. The chances of a 9-year-old boy with a loving, supportive father growing into a contributor to society are much greater than of a boy angered by having that father ripped from his life over a minor marijuana charge that occurred before he was born.

Current law required that Barragan be held and brought before a judge to he should be allowed to stay despite his prior drug offense.

But once the record showed his contributions as a son, a father, and a worker, Manning should have hastened his release — not filed a collection of falsehoods to keep him incarcerated and his family in fear.