Jejune
06-15-2007, 10:21 AM
Family of deported Lancaster man sues
Described by kin as developmentally disabled, he was sent to Tijuana after being arrested for trespassing and has vanished.
By Sam Quinones, Times Staff Writer
June 12, 2007
The family of an American citizen who disappeared after apparently being mistakenly deported to Tijuana a month ago has filed suit asking the U.S. government to help find him.
Pedro Guzman, 29, a Lancaster construction worker, is developmentally disabled and penniless, and he hasn't been heard from since May 11, said his family at a news conference in Los Angeles on Monday.
His mother, Maria Carbajal, said she spent the last month in Tijuana living out of her car while searching in vain for her son. She said neither the U.S. nor the Mexican government has helped in her search for him.
"I've done a lot," she said, "and I haven't found him."
In a statement, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said they deport a person only "when all available credible evidence suggests the person is an alien. That process was followed here and ICE has no reason to believe that it improperly removed Pedro Guzman."
The family disagrees.
Read the full article here. (http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-deport12jun12,1,1785593.story?ctrack=1&cset=true)
They have good reason to disagree. According to the report I heard, the man not only has a California birth certificate, witnesses say he told the police that he was born in California.
Here's the thing that makes me sick. The L.A. Sheriff is rightly under fire right now. But he's under more fire for letting Paris Hilton out of jail than for deporting a mentally disabled man to a country he'd never been to before. Priorities are a bitch.
Described by kin as developmentally disabled, he was sent to Tijuana after being arrested for trespassing and has vanished.
By Sam Quinones, Times Staff Writer
June 12, 2007
The family of an American citizen who disappeared after apparently being mistakenly deported to Tijuana a month ago has filed suit asking the U.S. government to help find him.
Pedro Guzman, 29, a Lancaster construction worker, is developmentally disabled and penniless, and he hasn't been heard from since May 11, said his family at a news conference in Los Angeles on Monday.
His mother, Maria Carbajal, said she spent the last month in Tijuana living out of her car while searching in vain for her son. She said neither the U.S. nor the Mexican government has helped in her search for him.
"I've done a lot," she said, "and I haven't found him."
In a statement, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said they deport a person only "when all available credible evidence suggests the person is an alien. That process was followed here and ICE has no reason to believe that it improperly removed Pedro Guzman."
The family disagrees.
Read the full article here. (http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-deport12jun12,1,1785593.story?ctrack=1&cset=true)
They have good reason to disagree. According to the report I heard, the man not only has a California birth certificate, witnesses say he told the police that he was born in California.
Here's the thing that makes me sick. The L.A. Sheriff is rightly under fire right now. But he's under more fire for letting Paris Hilton out of jail than for deporting a mentally disabled man to a country he'd never been to before. Priorities are a bitch.