Mother of children facing deportation may be forced to leave U.S. with them Associated Press 09.13.2007
back
Tucson, Arizona | Published: http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/201041 SAN ANTONIO, Texas — An illegal immigrant allowed to stay in the U.S., apparently because of a routine delay in paperwork, while her four children face deportation could now be forced to go back to Mexico, a government lawyer told an immigration court Wednesday.
The case against 32-year-old Rocio Godinez's children was postponed at a
status hearing so immigration officials can decided whether to include her
in the proceedings.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement will decide whether to order Godinez to
immigration court, said agency lawyer Carmen Leal. The proceedings against
her children, ages 10 to 18, have been going on for the past two years.
"They're going after Rocio now," said family attorney Jonathan Ryan. He said
he believes the government decided to move on Godinez after media reports on
the case.
"We knew this was a chance we were taking with going public," Ryan said.
ICE said it would have no comment Wednesday.
The family's next hearing will take place in early December, when they will
again make the more than three-hour trip from their home in San Angelo to
San Antonio.
Godinez and her four children came to the U.S. in the late 1990s on tourist
visas, which later expired.
In 2001, Godinez's father, a legal U.S. resident, filed a petition for them
to stay in the country. But the paperwork is years away from being processed
because excessive demand for a limited number of visas has created a federal
backlog.
In May 2005, Godinez was pulled over for speeding and was referred to Border
Patrol. Deportation proceedings for her children began after that.
Godinez, who also has a 7-year-old American-born child, said the situation
puts her in a difficult situation because her family may be torn between two
countries.
"I'm scared," she said in Spanish after the hearing, which she did not
attend. "I don't know what's going to happen."
And Godinez's oldest child, Jorge Vasquez-Godinez, 18, is now married to a
U.S. citizen and the father to a U.S.-born infant. Ryan said he will likely
try to separate his case from the rest of the family to increase his chances
of staying.
Jorge Vasquez-Godinez said as long as the family keeps getting extensions,
he won't complain about the periodic hearings. "I'd rather do that than have
to go," he said.
Godinez said seeking to publicize the case was worth it in an effort to help
her children, even if it means she'll have to leave the U.S., too. "It's not
for me, it's for them," she said.
|
|