Please join us in supporting Anatolia Garcia on Monday October 17 at 4pm at the Office of Homeland Security located at 8801 Stemmons Freeway.
To allow Homeland Security to continue to take aggressive and unacceptable actions against our community is not an option. We are calling on every good citizen, on every good resident, on all good Christians, on all people regardless of color and ethnicity to join us to end the unacceptable practice of separating families. You cannot take a mother from her Child and you cannot take a Child from their mother, it is morally wrong and intolerable.
WE URGE YOU, WE IMPLORE YOU TO JOIN US ON OCTOBER 17 AT 4PM,
SEND A TEXT MESSAGE,
FORWARD THIS EMAIL,
MAKE A PHONE CALL,
INVITE A FRIEND,
BRING YOU CANDLE,
BRING YOUR SIGN,
BRING YOUR SPIRIT SO THAT ANATOLIA CAN STAY WITH HER CHILDREN AND HER HUSBAND.
Irving family waits, hopes mom’s deportation will be stayed
By DIANNE SOLÍS
Staff Writer
Published: 09 October 2011 10:35 PM
IRVING — Family matters mightily when you lose your mother at 11, face military conscription at 14, and exit your war-torn country at 15 with a visa obtained by a father who wants to save your life.
That’s why 45-year-old Abel Garcia uses the metaphor “like losing a limb” to describe the potential deportation of his 47-year-old wife, Anatolia. Their three children agree.
“You also break the children’s hearts,” 12-year-old Jennifer, the oldest daughter, said in precise English.
Every immigrant has a hard luck story. But this story, at this time, may matter more to federal authorities.
Anatolia Garcia’s family and legal advocates are hoping that a recent focus on “prosecutorial discretion” may help her stay in the country.
Immigration officials are allowed to apply prosecutorial discretion that would halt some deportation cases, according to a White House and Department of Homeland Security reminder in mid-August. Homeland Security authorities gave guidance on who would qualify for a deportation cancellation — and said they would form a review committee for about 300,000 cases.
That announcement rippled through immigrant communities where desperation can turn rumor into fact. Soon the “guidance” became “el orden de Obama,” the order of Obama.
Hundreds of families in the Dallas area, and maybe more, could benefit from prosecutorial discretion if the person scheduled for deportation has no criminal record, has long ties in the community, or has U.S.-born children, among other factors.
Anatolia Garcia fits that description. Her husband is here legally, and she benefited for along time from his legal status as an asylum candidate. Now, her husband has temporary protected status as a Salvadoran, but that does not help his wife because she is Mexican.
Immigration laws and procedures can be conflicting and confusing. Reaction from immigration officials to the guidance announcements has been mixed.
Since memos about low and high priorities were issued in March and again in June, discretionary decisions that would halt deportations haven’t been uniform, said Laura Lichter, a Denver immigration attorney and the president-elect of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.
“We have seen a lot of good decisions either on holding off on prosecuting, or granting relief, or agreeing not to deport someone,” Lichter said.
But Lichter said the majority of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officials are “in a holding pattern” and seem to be waiting for more guidance. The immigration lawyers association is monitoring cases and stressing to immigrants that amnesty hasn’t been given.
Irving homemaker
Anatolia Garcia is a homemaker who oversees her three children’s studies and drives them to activities. Emmanuel, 9, loves mathematics; Natalie, 10, favors karate. Jennifer opts for mystery novels and gets her highest grades in reading. The family owns a brick, three-bedroom home in a neighborhood where family names are etched into the sidewalk cement.
Her life in Irving is vastly different than it would be back in Oaxaca, one of the most impoverished states in Mexico. She fears the drug-related violence and kidnappings that have gripped Mexico.
She said she doesn’t understand why she’s in deportation proceedings. Her Houston attorney has appealed her removal order but was turned down eight weeks ago.
Close monitoring
Three weeks ago, Garcia was told she must wear an electronic ankle monitor.
An ICE subcontractor visits twice a week because she’s considered a flight risk because her deportation date is near.
“We’ve paid our taxes for years,” Garcia said in Spanish. “We are current on all our bills. I’ve never committed a crime.”
Garcia calls the monitor “a humiliation.”
At the Dallas ICE headquarters, Nuria Prendes, the head of enforcement and removal operations, declined to comment on the Garcia case. But she did say there is an alternative to ankle monitoring when final deportation nears: “Detain them.”
Prosecutorial discretion dates to the 1970s, and several legal memos explaining when it can and can’t be applied have been issued through the years. In March and June of this year, John Morton, ICE’s director, issued memos providing guidance on who might be covered so that the agency’s limited resources were focused on “enforcement priorities.”
Learn More: Dallas Morning News
