The Honduran Mother is on the airplane with all four children.  ICE once again goes against its own priority memo and deports a Mother and four children with a pending U Visa Application.

Our country needs a new awakening to the reasons it was founded. The reasons why so many gamble their lives to touch this soil. We have forgotten who we are and where we came from. Instead we are on this selfish, egocentric path fueled by greed, despair, and lies. Every time in our history that we struggle we blame others. We forget our founding principals and demonize those who like us (the privileged few who were born here) are seeking a better life.

This film is a slap in the face to this selfishness. We are and always will be a country of immigrants. Everyone of us has our roots in another nation no matter how long ago that was. We will continue to be a country of immigrants long after this wave of xenophobia passes. In the meantime, those who are hell bent on preventing the creation of meaningful immigration reform must answer this question on the day of judgement:

Matthew 25:35-40 (NIV)
For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
“The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’”

We take pride in our Judeo-Christian values, we scream to have prayer in school and we fight to keep the ten commandments at the courthouse steps.  How hypocritical are we?  Do we just pick and chose the values we believe in?  This film opens your eyes to our hypocracy.

The Immigration Judge found that because the Mexican National participated in and work with the Mexican police to prevent the trafficking of drugs into the United States, but was not a member of the Mexican police or could be associated with the law enforcement authorities, he met the requirements for persecution on account of a particular social group. The Immigration Judge in a twenty page opinion, detailed the evidence that supported the finding that the Mexican National should be granted relief pursuant to Section 241(b)(3) of the Immigration and Nationality Act.

In the opinion the Immigration Judge emphasized that the evidence shows that the Mexican National’s life or freedom would be threaten if returned to Mexico. In fact, the Immigration Judge pointed out that “the country conditions documentation in the record indicated that drug violence in Mexico has increased since [Mexican National] fled his country… as the brutality and violence used to silence individuals who are perceived to be against or interfering with the operations of the cartels.” The Immigration Judge stated that even internal relocation would be a problem because ” the country conditions documentation supports the proposition that many Mexican officials in law enforcement are corrupt and assisting the drug cartels.” Finally, the Immigration Judge reiterated that “drug related violence in Mexico is a countrywide phenomenon. Even the Department of State has urged American Citizens to use extreme caution when traveling to Mexico.”

As the violence escalates in Mexico, we must work to ensure that Mexican Nationals who are victims of the criminal enterprise and the corrupt government officials have an opportunity to seek refuge in the United States. This is a small step and victory for those who are fleeing the violence.

Catholic Charities Archdiocese of San Antonio

On The Move Immigration Progarm

 Who: Anyone seeking information about legal immigration issues. Also if you are a victim of crime, domestic violence or human trafficking remember even if you are not here legally, you have the same rights as any victim AND you may qualify for legal status.

When: Saturday May 14, 2011 from 10am-2pm

Where: St Peter & Paul Church, St Ann’s Hall corner of Seguin & Zink, New Braunfels, Texas.

How and how much: If you have general immigration questions (e.g. what documents would I need to get an LPR Card?) feel free to stop by and ask your question free of cost. If you have specific immigration questions (e.g. I would like to petition my mother, how would I do that?) then it would become a consultation and you would need to bring $30 in the form of a money order made out to Catholic Charities. If you are a victim of crime, domestic violence or human trafficking, your consultation is FREE. *Note: Actual application and follow-up is done at ourSan Antonio office located at 2903W.Salinas.

For more information or questions call Yolanda Hernandez in the Immigration Department of Catholic Charities at (210) 433-3256 ext. 115.

Funding for this Clinic Provided by: Texas Access to Justice Foundation

 I was nineteen years old when US immigration officials discovered me in the trunk of a car at a random immigration stop in Hidalgo, Texas.  And I thank God that they found me because if they had not rescued me, I am sure that I would be dead by now.   I suffered for three long months at the hands of brutal men and women who used me for sex and tortured me for fun.  I didn’t know it at the time but I was a trafficking victim.  This is my story…

I lived a hard life in my home country of Honduras before coming to theUnited Statesto reunify with my husband who was already here.  I never knew my real father and my step-father started sexually abusing me when I was just a child.  I told my mother what he was doing to me but she didn’t believe me and she threw me out of the house when I was only twelve years old and pregnant with my step-father’s child.  Alone and homeless with a young baby and only a child myself, I lived on the streets, until the staff of an institution in Honduras found me and I lived there for a year and half.  That was where I met my husband.

After I had our son, my husband left for the US to try to make a better life for us.  Soon after, my sister-in-law wanted to come to theUSso I went with her to be with my husband, leaving my two small children behind.  It was a terribly difficult decision but I thought it was the best for all of us if I could help my husband and then send for our children later.

We made it to Veracruz, Mexico and my sister-in-law wanted to continue the journey by train but I was afraid to go on the train so she abandoned me at the station.  Seeing I was alone, a woman called “La Madre” (the Mother) approached me and said she could help me and would make arrangements for me to get a job in the U.S.  For several weeks, she made me cook and clean for her.  She didn’t pay me and told me that this was to earn my transportation to the U. S.

After a few weeks, three men came to get me in the middle of the night.  I heard La Madre say “I have one for you” and I saw them give her money for me.  I didn’t understand what was happening and I was afraid to go with them.  I tried to ask who they were and where they were taking me but they hit me and told me to just shut up and do what I was told.  I begged La Madre not to let the men take me but she never said a word.  She just walked away with the money the men gave her.

They drove me to a house near Reynosa, out in the country with nothing else around.  They took all my identification documents from me including my birth certificate and they locked me in a room and kept me there for almost three months.

During that time, I was repeatedly sold for sex, beaten, threatened, drugged and starved.  The room was bare with no bed, blanket or pillow.  It was air conditioned and they kept the room so cold that I thought I was going to freeze to death.   After arriving at the house, the woman who seemed to be in charge, came into my room and told me that I needed to look pretty.  She took off my clothes and put me in a dress.  She rubbed makeup on my face and then took me into another room that had a bed.  A man entered the room and gave her money.  She closed the door and locked me in the room with him.  I tried to fight him off but he was so much larger than I was, he easily overpowered me and raped me while I cried.

I was bleeding and I was scared that I was going to die.  The woman in charge of the house checked me over, said I was fine and took money from the next man and locked me back up in the room where I was raped again.  This went on every day for three months.  The torture and abuse I experienced is difficult for me to describe and I don’t like to think about it because it makes me so scared and sad.  Every day for three months, several times a day, I was sold for sex.  Sometimes more than one man raped me at the same time.   If I tried to scream they gagged my mouth.  Sometimes they took photographs of me being raped.

Once I ran toward the door to try and escape but they caught me.  They beat me severely and didn’t give me anything to eat for several days as additional punishment.    Mostly I was given just rice with very hot chile to eat.  Sometimes they gave me some beans.  At night, they added a drug to my water to make me sleep.

They contacted my family and told them that they had to send $5000 for my release or else they were going to kill me.  Finally, my family borrowed the money and sent it so that they would let me go.  One night several of the men came to my room and one told me, “You are never leaving- even if your family pays.  We’re going to sell you and we’ve already made the arrangements in Hidalgo.”  They took me outside to a car and locked me in the trunk.  I was scared and it was difficult to breath. I was in that trunk until the next day driving to Hidalgo.  Immigration officials stopped the car in the US and finally, someone found me in the trunk.

Although they could see I was hurt, bruised and with bite marks all over my body they took me to immigration detention.  They asked me a lot of questions and promised me that if I helped them that they would help me with my immigration application.  I told them the truth and gave as much detail as I could– telling them where the house was where they’d locked me up and describing the different people who kidnapped me, enslaved me and sold me for sex. I did not know who they had sold me to in Hidalgo but I gave them as much information as I could.  They videotaped my story and told me it would help to put the bad men that they’d caught in jail so I didn’t have to worry about them.  I told them there were more men than just the few that they’d caught and they had my personal papers and knew where my family was so I was still very scared.   After they got my testimony, immigration officials sent me to the detention facility in Pearsall, 60 miles south of San Antonio.

When they found me in the trunk of the car, initially I could not speak and I am still very afraid of men.  I was later hospitalized in San Antonio because of my fear and depression.  I was afraid no one would help me and I would be sent back to Honduras where those evil men would find me and kill me like they’d promised.

After being detained for nearly six months, Sophia, another inmate in Pearsall, called the Catholic Charities Immigration Department in San Antonio for me.  She spoke to the Office Manager, Yvonne, who politely explained that their office did not have funding to serve the detained population but she could make a referral to another agency in San Antonio who was at that facility every week.  Fortunately for me, Sophia did not give up so easily and she insisted that someone had to come to talk to me because of what I had suffered.  Two days later, Linda, the Director of Immigration, came to see me in Pearsall.  She was so nice and encouraging and she spent almost two hours with me while I told her my story of how I came to the United States and what I had endured.  That was the first time that anyone told me I was a trafficking victim… someone who was in the US because of force, fraud or coercion for the purpose of making money.  She explained all of the benefits that I would get and gave me hope that I could heal after this horrible experience.  She told me that someone would come to interview me again so that I could qualify for these benefits.

A week or so later, I was surprised that a woman brought a man with her to interview me.  Even the staff at the detention facility kept men away from men because they knew the trauma I had suffered.  I was already afraid of men so I was nervous during the interview and did not feel comfortable at all.  They only spent about twenty minutes with me and only asked me yes or no questions.  Several weeks later, Linda came back to visit me and explained that she could not convince the trafficking experts to certify me as a trafficking victim.  In fact she was told that I did “not meet the regulatory elements of a T-visa” because I said that I wanted to come to the United States to be with my husband.  Linda explained to me that my consent to come here did NOT mean that I was not a trafficking victim.  She said that it was like telling a woman suffering domestic violence that she is not a victim because she “wanted” to get married!  She explained to me that since the experts would not certify me that the process would take longer than she had hoped.  I became so depressed at this news that I tried to commit suicide by cutting my wrists and I was again hospitalized in San Antonio.

A nurse at the hospital called the Embassy for Hope Center and spoke to Elizabeth, the Director, to let her know she had found a trafficking victim.  When Linda came to visit me at the hospital, she assured me that she would take my case personally and would do everything she could for me.  She met with Elizabeth and they worked together on my case.  Immigration officials released me to Linda without a bond and she took vacation time and flew me out to California to be with my husband.  It was difficult at first because he did not know what had happened to me and it was very difficult for me to describe.  For the past two years, I have often been crying.  I would wake up screaming and I was always afraid that I would be deported back to Honduras.   Linda arranged for another attorney with the Immigrant Rights Project inLos Angeles to go with me to court in California and explain to the judge that I was a trafficking victim and an application was pending.  I have to thank Talia for helping me with court!

Two weeks ago, Linda called me to share the exciting news that my trafficking visa had been approved and that I would not be deported.  For the first time in years, that night I slept soundly and I finally feel safe.  Now I qualify for the benefits Linda told me about two years ago like medical care and counseling which I desperately need.  Now I can finally begin to heal.

I still wonder why these evil people treated me like an object- using me, beating me, selling me.  I am afraid that they are still doing it to other women.   If it had not been for immigration officials stopping the car that day, if I were still alive,  I would still be locked up somewhere in South Texas, being beaten and raped while someone made money from my pain.

The day that Linda called me with the news that the government recognized that I was a trafficking victim, I was so relieved and we both cried.  I have told Linda that she is my guardian angel.  She was the only one who believed me, who has stayed with me over the past two years, who has encouraged me and has given me the strength to carry on when I was ready to give up on life.  I cannot thank Catholic Charities Immigration Department enough.  Even though I know that they do not serve the detained population, I am especially grateful to Yvonne, the Office Manager, who heard this story and convinced Linda to come and meet with me.

Linda is now working on rescuing my two small children from Honduras because I still fear that the traffickers will find them and hurt or kill them like they threatened.  This country is my new home.  It was a difficult journey to get here but I am thankful for the opportunity to heal and be a family again.  And, I want to be a voice for other trafficking victims who do not understand this system, who do not find Linda or someone like her who will fight for them especially when the experts turn them down and do not believe they meet the requirements to be considered a trafficking victim.   There are many many victims like me out there and they all need help.

Thanks to the generous support from the Texas Access to Justice Foundation, Catholic Charities Immigration Department is able to serve immigrant victims of crime, domestic violence, human trafficking and abused, abandoned and neglected children.

Contributed to this blog by Linda Brandmiller

Thank you Linda for your hard work.

Congress once again decided not to support those who most need their help. Failing to push forward the Defense Appropriations Bill effectively killed any opportunity the DREAM Act had for passing this year. We can’t rely on the people we send to Washington to fight for what is right only what is politically acceptable. Excuses is all we are getting. Instead of throwing up our hands in disgust, let’s use the tools already available and work with what we have to help make the dream of these DREAM Act children a reality. All we can do is continue the fight and show the representatives in Washington that their petty ideological fight has nothing to do with the real world.

If you know of a child under 18 brought here by his or her parents at any age or came to the states on their own. We will try to help them find a way to reach their dreams. Call our office at 210-591-8878 for more information.

When President Obama was elected, I believed that our country was moving toward tolerance and acceptance.  With the passage of SB 1070 and the ban of ethnic studies in public schools, I think we have taken a giant step backwards.  It’s quite ironic that a state that was once a part of Mexico is now leading the charge against those who settled the state first.  Arizona’s antics have had one positive result.  It has fueled a frenzy of speculation as to the passage of Comprehensive Immigration Reform. 

It should not take radical measures like the Arizona immigration laws to wake up to the need for reform.  Our immigration system is broken.  It has been broken for decades.  It is time to get under the hood and get our hands dirty to fix it.  It is not going to be pretty, it is going to be ugly, dirty and nasty, but in the end we as a nation need a system that protects our borders, but inspires compassion.  It must be a system that aspires to the ideals written in the Statute of Liberty:

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
‘ With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

We have forgotten the spirit of the founding of this nation.  A nation that believes in opportunity for everyone, no matter where they come from.  When we begin the debate on Comprehensive Immigration Reform, it is important to keep this incription infront of our legislators so they do not forget the soul on which this wonderful country was built.

I know there are those who do not believe as I do, but I hope that through this blog I can change some minds.