Paying the illegal price

Family in Laurel to work forced to leave due to illegal immigration status

By Charlotte A. Graham, countyreporter@laurelleadercall.com

Jacobo Diego has lived and worked in Laurel for four years. But today, the Hidalgo, Mexico native is leaving the community he has grown to love and call home.

It’s the penalty Diego, 27, has to pay for illegally working on the assembly line at Howard Industries — a penalty he says is unfair and unjust.

Sitting in the den of his North Laurel residence with his wife, Ramona Estrada, 41, and 14-month-old son, Jacobo Jr., Diego has mixed emotions about returning to Mexico. He’s glad to have an opportunity to see family and friends. But he’s sad about being forced to return to a land that provided “no real opportunity to find a good job.”

With his wife, an American citizen, serving as an interpreter, Diego said: “I came here because I wanted a better life for me and my family. They got us while we were working, not stealing or robbing. We were just doing what we came here to do — work.

“I agree with putting people in jail if they do something against the law like that (stealing and robbing), but for just working? It’s just not right.”

On Aug. 25, 2008, dozens of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents raided Howard Industries’ transformer plant. Nearly 600 workers were detained.

Diego and others were jailed at a facility in Jena, La. Both Diego and Estrada remember the horrible incident and the days that followed as if they were yesterday.

“I was an American citizen, but I suffered just as much as the other Hispanic families,” explained Estrada. “There were so many questions, so many fears. We wanted to know what was happening to our husbands, our brothers, our fathers.”

When they found out that their family members had been imprisoned in Louisiana, everyone wanted to get there as fast as they could. Many of them couldn’t drive, so Estrada took as many as she could in her car. Together they made the four hour drive to Jena, not knowing how to get there or what to expect.

What Estrada and the others found was a facility in the middle of nowhere. There were a lot of trees and weeds and Estrada said one could easily miss it if they didn’t have directions.

It’s a place Diego can’t forget; a place he never wants to see again. His wife said her husband received an insect bite on his leg and since jail officials didn’t know what it was, they placed him in an isolated room for 10 days.

“There were holes in the walls. He had no one to talk to,” she said, her voice cracking. “With all of that going on, anyone would go crazy. But God kept him during the entire two months he was in jail.”

The couple also credits God for placing people in their lives to help them with all of the legalities they faced as a result of Diego’s detainment and arrest. “His bond was $6,500,” said Estrada. “I was given a certain number of days to get the money. If I didn’t get it, they were going to deport him.”

At the time Estrada was working a job that paid by the month. It was a struggle for her to make ends meet at home. Now she had to struggle to find money to bring her husband home.

Even after borrowing from family and friends and using the little money she could save on the cause, it wasn’t enough to meet bond. Thanks to New York-based National Immigrant Bond Fund, Estrada only had to pay half of the bond.

Robert Hildreth, one of the key founders of the Bond Fund and national chairman of the steering committee, said: “We work with local non-profits to help people post bond, to have a fair hearing in immigration court. It’s very hard to get an attorney or prepare a case when a person is detained.”

Hildreth, an international banker with a strong commitment to immigrant’s rights in the U.S., added: “We are saddened that Ms. Estrada, Mr. Diego, and their young son can not stay together in the U.S. – especially since Ms. Estrada and Jacob Jr. are citizens. The National Immigrant Bond Fund may help a person access a fair hearing, and be with family while the case is pending, but it doesn’t always lead to a sensible outcome.”

Diego appeared before a judge on April 21. He was told he had to be out of the country by Aug. 19.

“We’re leaving early to spend a few days with my family in Texas,” said Estrada. “My father is really upset about it all.

“He’s a naturalized citizens now and he left Mexico so that his family could have a better life. Now I’m going back to the life he left behind. He doesn’t want me to go. He wants me to stay here.”

Estrada admits that life would be better for her and her son if they stayed in the United States. But she said her son needs his father.

“I remember how he was when his father was away for the two months,” she said. “He is so attached to him. We both love him.”

Leaving what Diego describes as a life of luxury in America, is a sacrifice he wishes his family didn’t have to make. He knows what it is to work in the fields all day for a mere $5.

“If you found employment in one of the big cities, you could get as much as $10 a day,” Diego said through an interpreter. “Still that’s not enough to live on, especially if you have children.

“Out of that $5 a day, people in Mexico have to pay rent and utilities, just like they do in the United States. The rent averages about $100-a-month, which means that after all other bills are paid, there’s little money, if any, left for anything else,” Diego added.

“I don’t want my family to suffer,” Diego said. “I hope I will find some work and support my family.”

Diego also hopes he will be able to get the proper papers he needs to return to the United states so that his son can receive a good education and live a good life.

“You always want a good life for your children, your family,” he said. “In Mexico, you have to pay for school, even elementary school.”

Diego, who went as far as junior high, said: “You have to pay and you have to have uniforms. If you don’t have money to pay, you just don’t go to school.”

According to Estrada, this is the reason there are so many Hispanics that are unable to read and write. They can’t afford the education.

“These are things people in America take for granted,” said Diego. “Maybe if people had to suffer the way some of us had to suffer, they wouldn’t be so quick to jail us for wanting to work and make a better life for our families.”

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