‘I KNOW IT’S BETTER TO HAVE A PLAN’
Immigrant parents scramble to designate emergency caretakers in case they are deported, separated from kids
Everlido has plenty to worry him these days. An undocumented immigrant from Guatemala with a felony drug conviction nearly 2 decades old, the Santa Fe plumber is a prime target for deportation under President Donald Trump’s latest executive orders that promise to ratchet up immigration enforcement.
He fears his wife, an immigrant from Mexico, could be deported, too, when her visa expires at the end of the year.
But what concerns him most is who would look after their three young children — all born in America — if he and his wife were forced to leave.
“Before, I never felt like I had anything to worry about,” he said. “Now, with this president and being married and having kids, it’s just harder.”
With Trump’s decision last week to vastly expand the pool of undocumented immigrants who could be subject to deportation, Everlido is among thousands of parents in the U.S. illegally who are scrambling to find contingency plans for their children, many of whom were born in America and are U.S. citizens.
Trump’s two immigration-enforcement memos, released by the U.S. Homeland Security Department on Tuesday, widens the number of undocumented immigrants targeted for deportation, allows the department to hire an additional 15,000 immigration agents and revives a program that would allow local police departments to work as immigration agents.
According to a 2016 report by the Migration Policy Center, a Washington, D.C., nonpartisan think tank, about 4.1 million children who are U.S. citizens live with at least one parent who is an undocumented immigrant.
Everlido, 40, who asked not to be identified by his last name for fear of being deported, plans to see a notary public to sign a letter that would authorize his brother, a U.S. citizen, to take temporary custody of his children — two sons, ages 9 and 6, and a 3-year-old daughter.
The plan is that if Everlido and his wife have to restart their lives in Guatemala or Mexico, his brother would eventually bring their children across the border to reunite them with their parents.
Like Everlido, Veronica Velazquez, 38, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico who lives in Santa Fe, has talked to loved ones to make sure they are ready to take temporary custody of her 9-year-old son, who is a U.S. citizen, in case she and her husband are deported.
“I’d rather not think about it, but I know it’s better to have a plan,” she said.
In her case, her son’s godparents, who are U.S. citizens, would take temporary custody.
César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández, an immigration law professor at the University of Denver’s Sturm College of Law, advises undocumented immigrants worried about the care of their children to consult with a lawyer and establish power of attorney for a would-be guardian, rather than simply obtaining a notarized letter spelling out the parent’s intentions.
He said that if parents are preparing for a worst-case scenario, they should have a legal document that’s enforceable.
“If I was representing someone and they said, ‘Well, what about this notarized letter,’ I’d say, ‘That’s nice because it shows your intent, but let’s have a legal document that’s enforceable.’ ”
Allegra Love, a local immigration attorney who runs the Santa Fe Dreamers Project, an organization that helps immigrants with legal services, said she recently has received a high number of requests for power of attorney documents.
On Wednesday, she said, she and other local lawyers will volunteer their time for a legal clinic at Sweeney Elementary School in Santa Fe to help create power of attorney documents for immigrants worried about their children’s welfare in case they’re apprehended by deportation officers.
“We’re not trying to scare people,” she said. “You know, all these families are not going to get arrested, but it’s good to have a plan in case of an emergency.”
Everlido said that’s why he wants such a plan for his family. His wife is in the U.S. on a visa, but it is scheduled to expire at the end of the year. If her visa can’t be renewed, she could become a target for deportation by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, better known as ICE.
Everlido left Guatemala around 1994 to escape a civil war that left an estimated 200,000 civilians dead or missing. He went north into Mexico, entering that country illegally, and spent the next year slowly making his way up to Santa Fe. Once here, he said, he fell in with the wrong crowd and began drinking and using cocaine.
In 1999, a Santa Fe police officer arrested him on suspicion of possessing cocaine. Police notified immigration officers, and he was convicted and deported, leaving behind his first wife and infant daughter. He quickly returned to the U.S. to help raise his daughter, and decided to turn his life around, he said. His oldest daughter is now 18 and married.
He began taking classes at Santa Fe Community College, where he received certificates in plumbing, air conditioning maintenance and facilities maintenance. After a divorce, he remarried and had three more children with his current wife.
He said he would like to become a legal resident, but with his previous conviction, he knows that is unlikely. So instead, he has begun the process of applying for residency in Canada. During a search on Google, he found a Spanish-language website called mequieroir.com, which translates to “I want to leave.” The site gives users instructions on how to apply for residency to Australia, Canada, Spain, New Zealand and the U.S.
The first step for Everlido is to take a $235 English exam by an approved institution recognized by Canada. The nearest location to take that exam is Denver, which he plans to visit in March.
He said he recognizes that his residency application may get denied, which is why he also has a backup plan for his three young children.
“I told my wife, ‘We’ve been here for 22 years, we have no chance to legalize our status and we’re still poor,’ ” he said. “At least in Canada, we can try to get [legal] residency.”
Everlido said he has told his children about some parts of the plan, but because they’re so young, they don’t comprehend the scope of the situation. He and his wife avoid watching the news on television while their children are around to prevent them from becoming scared.
Velazquez said she has told her son that she and his father could be deported.
“I know people say I shouldn’t say that to him,” she said. “But I want to prepare him like this, and I want him to learn about the reality because I can’t tell him a lie and say nothing is going to happen.”
García Hernández, the immigration professor, said there are cases in which children go into the foster care system if undocumented immigrants don’t have a custody plan.
Henry Varela, a spokesman for the state Children, Youth and Families Department, said the agency has worked with ICE before in order to find a safe place for children whose parents may have been apprehended.
“In any situation where a child does come into our custody, our number one focus is to make sure the child or children are placed in safe homes with safe caretakers, whether that be with another family member or in foster care,” he said.
Public schools in Santa Fe also have braced for the possible deportation of students’ parents.
“I think we are in uncharted waters with this new administration,” said Veronica García, Santa Fe Public Schools superintendent.
García said she met with all principals in the district Thursday to discuss the protocol for responding to a surprise visit from ICE agents.
She said she told principals that “public schools are sensitive locations, like churches and hospitals. … ICE does not have unfettered access” — whether agents are searching for students or employees.
Agents only will be allowed on district property if they have a properly executed warrant, she said. García said she also advised principals to reach out to immigrant parents and encourage them to have a plan in place in case they become separated from their children.
She recommends parents at risk of deportation designate power of attorney for a guardian and have legal documents in place.
Mexico, where the large majority of undocumented immigrants are from, also has started to prepare for a wave of children arriving at its schools. Government officials recently announced that they plan to cut a lot of the bureaucratic steps for Mexican parents to enroll their U.S.-born children in school.
The Mexican government announced last year that half a million children who are American citizens are enrolled in Mexican schools there because their parents either were deported under former President Barack Obama or made a decision to leave the U.S.
Everlido said he has told his children that if they’re separated, everything will be OK because their uncle and aunt will watch after them until the family can be reunited.
“I’ve told them that if we have to leave that they’ll always be able to visit their cousins because they’re [U.S.] citizens,” he said. “I’ve also told them that as long as we’re together as a family, they’re going to be OK.”
Cynthia Miller of The New Mexican contributed to this report.