Rex Trulove
It has been a while since I’ve written much about my son-in-law, Carlos. Periodically, I mention him and when I wrote about the big project that was finally finished, I mentioned that it was his idea to build a shed rather than renting space. People might wonder why he didn’t help in the construction, though.
First, a little background on Carlos. Carlos is Guatemalan. His father immigrated here quite a few years ago and is now a citizen, as is his brother, and several cousins. Carlos went to and graduated from the local school. He is a very hard worker, has been very diligent in paying his taxes, and when he wasn’t working for pay, he was usually doing work for people for free, just to help them out. He was well-liked in town because of his giving spirit.
About a decade ago, he and our daughter met, fell in love, and got married. They had plans of starting a family and remaining in the area.
Then a discrepancy was found in his birth records. One record claimed that he was born in one year, while another equally official document said that he was born the next year. One matches his birth certificate and the other doesn’t, in other words.
This was during the time that President Obama had a huge push on to deport illegal aliens. Since the records didn’t match and despite having a birth certificate and being married to an American citizen from birth, they deported Carlos to Guatemala. It could have been avoided, but it would have cost about $30,000. Even the chief of police here vouched for Carlos, but without the money to take it to court, he was unceremoniously deported.
He was also warned that he must stay out of the US for a period of no less than 10 years. At that time, he can apply for citizenship, which he thought he already had. If he didn’t wait 10 years, he was told that he would never be eligible for citizenship.
So Carlos is in Guatemala and has another three years to go before that 10-year exile is over. Of course, then he still needs to come up with the money, sponsor, and so forth to immigrate. He’ll have no problem passing the tests and unlike so many Hispanics that live in the US, Carlos is fluent in English. He does have an accent, but he is quite understandable and has become even more so since he married our daughter. She has a bachelor’s degree in English and is currently working on her master’s degree, so she has been teaching Carlos the finer points of English.
Cat and Carlos speak to each other almost every day, sometimes several times a day, and Cat has taken three trips so far to Guatemala, each for a month, to spend time with her husband. Unfortunately, Cat is now 37 years old and her time of having children is passing by, so the only way they will likely have kids is if they adopt when Carlos comes back.
People who’ve read what I’ve written know that I’m strongly against illegal immigration. Interestingly, Carlos is, too. He was deported because of a typo on one form and due to executive orders President Obama signed. If we’d had the money to fight it in court, he never would have been deported. Carlos is law-abiding and that is the irony…in the exact same circumstances, a drug dealer in the US wouldn’t have been deported because they would have had the money to fight it. Carlos doesn’t do drugs. Carlos made good money operating heavy equipment for a slate-rock company, but $30,000 isn’t something that most people have just laying around.
Anyway, if anyone wonders where my daughter’s husband is, he is in Guatemala. That is why he was unable to help put the shed together.
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Question of
Do you think that it is fair for a person who thought they were a citizen to be deported because of a typo on a form?
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Yes
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No
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Sometimes
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Question of
Do you think it is fair that someone with a lot of money could have fought the deportation and almost certainly would have won?
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Yes
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No
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Sorry about this I am sure it must be hard for your daughter.
It is, but she just makes do the best she can with a bad situation. The wait is also nearly over. There are only a few years to go now.
I’m so sorry about your son-in-law’s predicament. I wish I could offer some words of wisdom; but it doesn’t sound like there’s much wiggle room in his situation.
It’s a pain, but it will work itself out in time. It is simply a sad fact that governmental policies nearly always is done in ways that cause some unexpected consequences. Some people fall through the cracks.
Life is simply not fair. When there are simple issues you wish common sense was taken into consideration. I would probably be writing to someone every week trying to make it change. I am so stubborn.
Our daughter did that for the first 2 1/2 years. She misses her husband. She was flatly told that nothing could be done so many times that she was constantly depressed. Then a local attorney heard about it and told her that she could keep fighting, but that it might end up delaying everything, while also taking about 15-20 years to accomplish. It would take far less time and substantially less money to just wait 10 years and go from there.
We are hoping for the best , hope time will come that policy will get relax
It isn’t likely to happen for a while. No matter what the current president suggests, Congress won’t act on it. He actually proposed legislation that would have corrected problems and abuses like this, but Congress refused to even consider correcting the problem because the solution came from Trump.
Circumstances beyond our control. I am very sorry Rex. It is a painful reality. This country has a problem with immigration.
Sadly, there truly are no non-immigrants that live in America. Even the first people crossed the land bridge although they did so more than 10,000 years ago.
Humans are not native to America.
I suspect the reality of the immigration problem could be solved with a little less wall and a little more compassion.
Unfortunately, that isn’t likely to happen as long as there are so very many people who want to pour into the country, most of which then end up getting subsidies and use services for free that American’s have to pay for.
Carlos was continually working, was never on welfare, paid for everything he used, paid his taxes without complaint, and would help anyone without asking for anything in return. It is almost as if the US is saying that this isn’t the kind of immigrants it wants. It wants the type that rely on the government for everything.
I don’t think that Obama would have signed that executive order if there hadn’t been such a flood coming across the border. That was, of course, just putting a bandaid on a broken leg because of those that were deported, only the honest ones stayed out of the country.
Carlos loves Montana and he wants to be here as a citizen, not an illegal alien who simply hasn’t been caught. He could actually be in the US by living in a place like California but has absolutely no desire to do so. If he can’t be here legally, he doesn’t want to be here and he doesn’t want to have anything to do with Californication. That alone speaks volumes for his character.
Of course, the one who is hurt the most is our daughter, and it sure isn’t Carlos’ fault.
I suspect as I said originally this is very complex. There isn’t an easy answer to the problem…
Yes, it is extremely complex. Thankfully, the 10 years is down to only about 3 now, so it won’t be much longer before he can start with steps to move back.
That is a joyous countdown! You bring both sides of this issue to bear here. It is not a fun situation.