In the early 1980′s, Ronald Reagan signed a top secret directive giving the CIA authority to recruit and support the “Contras” with $19 million in military aid to battle the reigning Sandinistas importation of Cuban-style socialism in Nicaragua and El Salvador. To hide its involvement (and avoid the scrutiny of inter-governmental bodies), the U.S. Government tried to arrange funding and military supplies by means of third-parties. Does the Iran-Contra Affair ring a bell? By the late-80′s the fallout of lawlessness, civil war, and economic devastation in several Central American countries was horrific.
Enter, Miguel, a 26-year-old Salvadoran and son of an assassinated local military leader. Miguel had served seven years in the military (a seriously stigmatic credential). Unemployed with no hopes of finding work in El Salvador, he was expected to provide for an aging and sick mother, a young daughter, and another one on the way. He decided to enter the United States in hopes of finding work so he could send money to his family and, hopefully, one day bring them to the U.S. with him.
In 1989, MIguel fled the war-torn and lawless country of his birth, and entered the United States. He spoke no English, and had little resources. He lived made inner-city Los Angeles his home. As a means of restitution or simple expediency to deal with the mass Central American exodus the U.S. had, in part, caused in its Contra scandal, a special, legal immigration status was provided to nationals of certain Central American nations (mainly, El Salvador and Nicaragua). This status, called Temporary Protected Status, allowed qualifying immigrants to obtain work authorization and remain in the United States until the government could figure out what to do with them.
Miguel was soon forced to learn the systems of justice, law enforcement, and dispute resolution of a foreign land. Stuck in a violent part of the country, Miguel almost immediately fell into the beginnings of a dark spiral downward. First, his landlord demanded money from him, after Miguel had resided at that location for two days. Miguel said he would give him $50, but that was all. The landlord came back drunk, tore up all of Miguel’s money and blamed his marital problems on Miguel. The landlord’s wife scratched the landlord’s face, police were summoned, and Miguel was arrested and charged with assault for the scratches that he had nothing to do with. Not knowing the system or the language, Miguel agreed to the District Attorney’s plea bargain: sign here and go free (actually a plea of guilty to domestic assault, with a suspended sentence and 24 months probation, because the witnesses did not appear in court) or don’t sign and spend two years in jail. Miguel signed and went free.
Next, and three years later, Miguel was buying $10 in groceries at a corner grocery store (he lived simply so he could send money home) when a Hispanic man entered the store, armed with intentions of robbing it. When law enforcement approached the scene, the man fled, running into Miguel and dropping his groceries on the ground. The police mistook one Latino for another, and arrested Miguel. Again, not knowing the language or the system, Miguel was charged with criminal assault. However, the Court likely realized a misunderstanding had taken place and that Miguel was not a violent man, because it diverted the charges (meaning, if he successfully completes a program the charges will be dismissed). The downward spiral of this unfortunate immigrant was not over.
Eventually, Miguel moved to Denver to seek better employment at casinos in Central City and Blackhawk. He continued to send money to his mother in El Salvador and his daughters were able to come to the United States themselves in the 90′s.
In 2001, Miguel purchased a car that he hoped would get him from his tiny apartment in Aurora to his place of employment in Central City. The seller of the car agreed to allow him to keep the license plates on the car so Miguel could drive the car home. On the way home, Miguel got a flat tire. On the side of the road changing the tire, Miguel had the misfortune of a police officer stopping to assist. The officer ran the plates and discovered they had been stolen (not by Miguel, but the seller). Miguel was charged with theft. Given the seeming insignificant nature of the crime, he pleaded guilty and was given 45 days in jail (with 42 suspended) and 1 year probation. Little did Miguel know, that theft, along with assault to which he pleaded guilty in 1990, is a crime of moral turpitude (i.e., a crime of conduct that is inherently base, vile, or depraved, contrary to the accepted rules of morality and duties owed between persons or to society in general, see Matter of Tran). Crimes of moral turpitude (even for minor ones, like theft of license plates) have severe affects on the immigration status of immigrants. One can have their status completely revoked if convicted of a crime of moral turpitude. Such information is rarely disclosed to immigrants charged with such crimes and faced with a plea bargain. This issue comes into play later in Miguel’s story.
Miguel would make mistakes in his life (who doesn’t?). He received one DUI and one DWAI in Colorado in the mid-1990′s. As a result of the restrictions placed on his driver’s license, Miguel was stopped on three occasions on his way to work (he had to work, no?) and arrested for driving with a suspended license. The last time was in November of 2009. He was required to purchase an ankle bracelet to monitor his blood alcohol content and provide his probation officer with his pinpoint location 24 hours a day. The sentence was an attempt by the state to push the economic burden of the criminal justice system onto the “criminals” rather than on the prison or jail systems. The economic down turn was hard on Miguel, like most immigrants in the manual labor industries. He had been unemployed for two years and could not afford the ankle bracelet.
One evening, Miguel was walking home from a bar (he learned he shouldn’t drink and drive), as he approached the corner to turn down his street, police officers pulled in front of him and asked for proof of his legal immigration status (Arizona may have legalized it, but law enforcement does participate in such profiling, even in Colorado). Searching his documents in their computers, the police noticed the outstanding warrant for not completing his sentence (in purchasing an ankle bracelet). They promptly arrested him, and he served 88 days in Denver County Jail to serve his time on the warrant. Denver County immediately transferred him to federal authorities because his legal immigration status had been revoked due to the crimes of moral turpitude and the number of misdemeanors of which he had been convicted.
Miguel spent six months in federal custody awaiting his fate. He retained the legal assistance of the Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network (RMIAN), who provides pro bono legal services to federal immigration detainees. RMIAN asked for my assistance in representing Miguel.
I am elated to report that Miguel has been granted legal permanent residence in the United States. As a response to the disaster it caused in Nicaragua and El Salvador, the U.S. Congress passed a law called the Nicaraguan Adjustment and Central American Relief Act (NACARA). NACARA allows Nicaraguan and Salvadoran nationals permanent resident status if they meet certain criteria. First, they must have arrived in the U.S. before 1990. Check. Second, they must have applied for Temporary Protected Status before 1991. Check. Third, they must be of “good moral character”. This nebulous concept was our greatest hurdle. You can prove good moral character in a number of ways: family relations (e.g., financially supporting ailing mother in El Salvador), paying federal taxes (Miguel paid on 17 of the 20 years he lived in the U.S.), good employment history (as indicated above, Miguel was a hard worker and held steady employment as much as he could find it), and a criminal history that has no red flags (e.g., crimes of moral turpitude, alcohol and drug violations, etc.). The criminal history was the crux of our case. Luckily, we were able to convince the judge that the instances of his criminal past were, at best, misunderstandings or isolated mistakes made by a young man who had entered the U.S. from a war-torn land and that there was nothing new, unrelated from past crimes, on his record in the last ten years. Good moral character, check. Lastly, an immigrant must prove that deportation will cause him or his family extreme hardship. Given the history of this law, Congress knew the situation in El Salvador and Nicaragua, so it created a presumption of extreme hardship for Salvadoran and Nicaraguan nationals. The government attorney was unwilling to attempt to overcome this presumption. Hardship, check.
After certain administrative hoops are jumped through, Miguel will be released from federal custody, after being detained for all about six weeks of the present year. Upon his release, he will become a legal permanent resident of the United States and be able to continue working hard to support his mother in El Salvador, who depends on his work ethic and generosity. Finally, Miguel has seen a light to the end of the downward spiral he stepped into after entering this country.