Immigration

[fedupinwaukegan]

Here's what a nearby community is going through.



Mexican national Jesus Garcia-Gonzalez and Immigration Enforcement Agent Joe Halase discuss Garcia-Gonzalez's case with reporters at the Kenosha County Jail.



Published February 15, 2009 | 12:05 a.m.

Double trouble
Illegal immigrants convicted of crimes face deportation after serving sentence
By Mark Hornickel
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Jesus Alberto Garcia-Gonzalez was hoping for a better life when he and his mother illegally entered the United States a decade ago.

But the 19-year-old’s plans changed in December when he was arrested for theft. Now he’s not only facing jail time, but it’s likely he’ll be deported to his native Mexico, leaving behind his wife and child.

“I just wanted to say I’m sorry for what I did,” Garcia-Gonzalez said last week. “They’re deporting me because I made a bad choice. I failed the country, and I deserve to go back.”

Garcia-Gonzalez was introduced by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials as part of a demonstration at the Kenosha County Jail to show the process illegal immigrants face when they are booked into the jail and then interviewed by ICE agents.

“Once their criminal charges have concluded with the county, instead of being released onto the street, they come into ICE custody and face removal from the United States,” ICE spokeswoman Gail Montenegro. “ICE is committed to ensuring that criminal aliens are identified and turned over to ICE.”

As of last week, 169 inmates at the county jail — about two-thirds of all the inmates — had ICE detainers, like Garcia-Gonzalez.

In 2008, the Chicago ICE office identified more than 15,000 illegal immigrants who were incarcerated for crimes committed within the office’s six-state area. That number was up from 13,700 the previous year.

While the majority of the Kenosha County inmates with ICE detainers are Mexican natives, there are illegal immigrants from all over the world. Last year, ICE deported people to 190 countries, including Kuwait, Romania, Jordan, Jamaica, Germany, Mongolia and Russia.

Finding illegal immigrants

Not every person born outside the United States is found eligible for deportation.

Someone who has become a naturalized citizen is not eligible. And someone with a green card is only eligible for removal if they are convicted of certain crimes, Montenegro explained.

Joe Halase, an ICE agent in the Milwaukee Field Office, comes to the Kenosha County Jail once a week to interview inmates targeted for deportation.

Garcia-Gonzalez was arrested in Pleasant Prairie Dec. 10 on 19 counts of theft, 16 counts of criminal damage to property and 14 counts of entry to a locked vehicle when police caught him and a boy stealing from cars.

The next day, ICE lodged a detainer on him after an interview with Halase confirmed Garcia-Gonzalez had entered the country illegally.

“The detainer ... will follow him and follow his case throughout the criminal system,” Montenegro said. “This is somebody who’s here illegally and on top of being here illegally has committed crimes and threatened the public safety.”

Must serve sentences first

Detained inmates still must go through criminal proceedings here — and serve whatever sentence a judge imposes — before immigration officials can proceed. ICE can’t take custody of detainees until they are about to be released from jail.

Not all of the detainees housed in Kenosha County were arrested here. The Kenosha County Jail is one of five jails with which ICE contracts in Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky.

“We may be shuffling people from this facility to McHenry (Ill.) to appear before the immigration judge,” said James McPeek, Assistant Field Office Director who supervises the Criminal Alien Program out of the ICE’s Chicago Field Office. “There’s various reasons why some of them get sent to specific counties. We kind of designate it wherever we have the space.”

When an inmate completes his or her sentence, ICE takes custody, and the detainee can appear before a federal immigration judge. If the judge orders the detainee removed from the country, ICE begins the deportation process.

“We have government charter flights ... that go all over the world,” Montenegro said.

Starting over

Garcia-Gonzalez illegally immigrated to Arizona when he was in fifth grade. He eventually got his high school diploma.

But when he got his girlfriend pregnant, they moved to Wisconsin, hoping to find work.

He got a job, but was fired when his employer learned he had a false Social Security number.

He tried working cash jobs, doing landscaping and auto mechanics, but soon turned to stealing from warehouses and cars.

“I started making bad choices,” he said. “That’s why I’m here right now.”

Garcia-Gonzalez said there’s a lot of inmates like him in the jail.

“We made bad choices,” he said. “It’s not like I was saying ‘I’m going to rob people because I want to, or I like it.’ I needed help, so I kept doing it. I got caught up.”

Garcia-Gonzalez said he failed the country and regrets what he did. He said he knows he’ll likely be deported, but’s he’s hopeful he can return to the United States one day and become a citizen.

“I thank the Lord, he pulled me out of that habit,” Garcia-Gonzalez said. “So I’m starting a new life now, and I’ll go back to my country, be a man, do it right with my daughter and my wife.”

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