[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 167 (Thursday, November 21, 2013)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1747-E1749]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     SHARING STORIES IN SUPPORT OF COMPREHENSIVE IMMIGRATION REFORM

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. JOE GARCIA

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, November 21, 2013

  Mr. GARCIA. Mr. Speaker, the following are stories of individuals 
affected by our nation's broken immigration system:
       Story 1: I came to this country in 1980 with the desire 
     that all immigrants have--to seek better opportunities. I 
     worked very hard to make my way in this country. I had the 
     opportunity to apply for residency, thanks to the amnesty by 
     President Ronald Reagan and the laws of this country. I 
     presented the evidence required by the immigration process 
     and my request was approved, giving me the temporary 
     residence and my social security number.
       After two years, I had to change from temporary residence 
     to permanent residence, so I just had to request the change 
     of status at any immigration office. I even was able to 
     travel to Ecuador, and Immigration stamped my passport. Then, 
     because my process was done in New Jersey but I had moved to 
     Miami for personal reasons, in 1990 I went to the Immigration 
     office in Miami. Since then, I have been subjected to 
     negligence by Immigration. Instead of giving me the permanent 
     residence, they just put a sticker to validate my temporary 
     residence for one year more. That happened again the 
     following year, and the third consecutive year after that. 
     Then, they didn't want to give me the residency, because they 
     said that LULAC cases in Miami had been fraudulent, to which 
     I responded that actually my case had been in New Jersey. 
     They said that I had to bring my case from New Jersey to 
     Miami, which took three more years After that, I started 
     wondering what was wrong with my case. They always responded 
     to me with endless excuses: a fire took place at an 
     immigration office and a lot of information was damaged, 
     paperwork became too backed up when they had to put all the 
     information of all cases in a computer system, elections were 
     taking place, I needed to complete and return another form 
     and get fingerprinted. I completed and returned the form, 
     then I was fingerprinted and had to wait more. I trusted the 
     agents of this country and the laws, so I waited and waited. 
     They asked me to fill out another form and so on and on. I 
     sent three forms and fingerprints but nothing happened.
       Then the attacks on September 11, 2001, happened, which 
     made things worse. There was no news at all. An executive 
     order by President George Bush was released, ordering that 
     immigration documents should be given to people who got 
     Reagan's reform. I presented it and nothing happened. I 
     called two or three times every months asking about my case 
     and nothing happened. I was told that the process took up to 
     six months, but I already had spent two years waiting and 
     nothing. In 2005, I found out about a brain tumor through my 
     medical exams. I received surgery and after that I couldn't 
     work so I lived in a critical economic situation. I lost 
     everything I had. That same year, there was another executive 
     order request to resolve immigration cases because of the 
     many complaints from victims of the immigration service. I 
     sent documentation by mail to the correct address and on 
     time, and they rejected it three times. I found an honest 
     lawyer that took the case (pro bono, because of my financial 
     situation), and from there I had legal representation. We 
     sent copies of the pages with the LULAC law, and we always 
     got negative responses, so we filed appeals but received 
     again negative responses. They asked me for proofs that were 
     impossible to find after 23 years, but nevertheless I was 
     able to find some. All of this just to make me lose the hope 
     of solving my case.
       In the last response not only did they deny my case, but 
     also they took away my temporary residence. I demand my 
     permanent residency and a path to citizenship without more 
     delay, because I have tried for over 24 years with my 
     residency, in the name of God, Jehovah, and the signed and 
     executed laws of this country. Don't allow injustice to win 
     in this country. You are politicians first for this country.
       Story 2: Alex came here when he was very young. He's from 
     Honduras. Honduras is a very poor country. His family is very 
     poor, but he speaks fairly fluent English. He came here to 
     get a better life. There's no work in Honduras and very high 
     crime. He came here when he was probably 17 or 18 years old. 
     He hitched rides on trains, travelling on boxcars with only 
     the clothes he had and no money. So, he basically crossed 
     three countries, I believe Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico. When 
     he got to this country, of course he came here illegally, but 
     he ended up in Virginia and he then went to Knoxville, 
     Tennessee. During the time he was in Virginia and Tennessee, 
     he was greatly exploited by people who had him working for 
     them. He was all alone. He had no relatives and did not know 
     anyone here in the United States. He met a girl, who was 
     maybe four or five years older than him. She already had one 
     child by a man from Honduras. She and Alex hooked up together

[[Page E1748]]

     and she got pregnant by Alex. They came down here to 
     Pensacola after Hurricane Ivan, that's when I met Alex. By 
     that time, he had married the girl. They had her child, and 
     two children that they had together.
       Alex was a great worker. I met him, actually, through a 
     neighbor who he had worked for. So, we became friends. For a 
     while there, I was in a wheelchair and Alex took care of me. 
     He's just an incredible person. He just seems to have been 
     born knowing what to do with children. He was a great father. 
     He was great with older people and with people who have 
     disabilities. He loved animals; he was constantly rescuing 
     animals.
       He came home one day, and when he got out of his car to 
     walk into his house a police officer or sheriff's deputy, I'm 
     not sure which, approached him and asked him for his ID and 
     driver's license. He did not have a driver's license. He did 
     have a previous traffic violation that he had not paid, again 
     it was probably for driving without a license, so he was 
     arrested. When he was taken to the Escambia County Jail, 
     within a week, the ICE came through the jail making a sweep, 
     looking for undocumented people, and they found Alex. From 
     that time, Alex never got out of jail. He served a sentence, 
     a short sentence for the traffic violation. He was 
     subsequently sent to prison or a holding area in Texas where 
     they incarcerate undocumented people. In the mean time, he 
     had had another baby before he got arrested, so now they had 
     three children and the little baby was only about, maybe, 
     four months old at that time. As a result of Alex not being 
     around to help financially take care of the children, his 
     wife had a nervous breakdown and could not take care of the 
     children and so she turned them in to foster care. The foster 
     care mother, who got the children, I believe, got them with 
     the full intent of adopting them because she knew these 
     children from their nursery school. Alex has not seen his 
     children since, and this has been about two and a half years 
     ago. But, what he did do is he tried every way he could to 
     get his children back; to get his children allowed to go to 
     Honduras with him. He wrote numerous letters to his children. 
     He sent those letters to me and I would send them to an 
     attorney who was supposedly representing him in a dependency 
     case. It became obvious to me that the foster mother was not 
     letting the children read the letters that Alex wrote to 
     them. He also was not allowed to call the children. She did 
     not want him talking to his children, so he was not allowed 
     to talk to them on the phone, they were not allowed to see 
     his letters, he was not allowed to have any communication 
     with his children. He eventually got deported. He continued 
     trying to get his lawyer here to help him communicate with 
     the children and to get a home study done there in Honduras 
     in order for him to get his children back.
       What I'm going to read are some letters to give you an 
     example of the types of letters he wrote his children. After 
     he was deported, he came back to the United States again. He 
     came back on a train, hiking trains, riding on boxcars, going 
     through three countries, no money, just the clothes on his 
     back. He crossed the border and was apprehended by the border 
     guards within minutes, so again he was in jail. But he came 
     back only for one reason, and that was to get his children. I 
     believe that was his only hope of getting his children back, 
     was coming back to the United States.
       It says, in beautiful writing, stylized writing, it says, 
     ``I love you,'' it says, ``with all my heart. You are in my 
     mind. I'm trying to be with all of you. But it's only me and 
     God. I hope these people here let me stay with you because I 
     really want and love you all. I hope you all like this. 
     Kisses, hugs, love, your papa.'' I can't read anymore.
       So, that's all I'm going to read, Alex.
       Alex: Yeah, I know and I've been thinking about them and 
     this thing, you know. But, there's nothing I can do, so maybe 
     I'll see them one day
       Well, I don't know what we can do, but we certainly are 
     going to let people know what happened to you, okay?
       Alex: Yeah And, hopefully, we can do something with your 
     book, and at least, maybe one day, when they're older, I 
     believe they will find you and this book. They will know how 
     much you love them and that you fought for them and what you 
     went through to get them back.
       Story 3: My story begins in 1998 when my mom and my three 
     sisters decided to come, well, my mom decided that we all 
     would come to the United States as a result of my little 
     sister being sick. We did not have the money to cure her. She 
     needed surgery and stuff. I was in high school and had no 
     money for college, even though education was one of the 
     things that made my mom determined that we come to America. 
     So then I came to Mexico with my mom and my three sisters. In 
     1998 we crossed through Arizona and arrived in Florida about 
     two weeks later. When I got here, the obvious thing was for 
     me to study. My goal was always only to collect enough money 
     to pay my university in Mexico. Once we got here we found 
     work, but I had an accident about three months after I got 
     here and then for a while, like a year and a half, I had to 
     go and live in Colorado with my brother because I could not 
     work. I had an accident at work and I never got compensation 
     or anything. I have hands that do not work very well, mostly 
     my fingers, because I had to have a transplant in my hands 
     because I lost part of my bones and tendons in the accident. 
     There are many who are injured on the job and are entitled to 
     be served, to receive therapies and receive a salary. But at 
     the time I was a child, I was 18 if I remember correctly, and 
     I had not filed an application. It was just one of those jobs 
     where you say you go, then the company denied that I had 
     registered, but I said, ``If I was taken from there, the fire 
     department took me out of work,'' but I did not have 
     insurance, I did not have a social worker to help me, I had 
     no one. I had to pay all expenses. I did not know the 
     language or the laws. I came across a social worker when I 
     was in the hospital and they told me that if I tried to do 
     something with the company all that would happen was that 
     I would be deported. What remained was a deep depression 
     after the accident because I could not work and was in 
     therapy for over a year. But I still had the dream of 
     wanting to study. Then I had to learn to deal with my 
     condition, not being stuck at this point. Since my 
     accident, I could not carry heavy things when I was at 
     work, but I still had to work. I try to do everything with 
     one hand because I cannot put much weight on the other 
     hand. Right now I live with someone and I have two small 
     children, one age six and one four, and I live with my 
     sister. All my immediate family is in the United States. 
     My mom passed away about twelve or thirteen years ago and 
     is buried here in Florida. I say deport me if I'm not 
     going to have even the right to visit the grave of my 
     mother. This is not politics, these are human lives. Maybe 
     I do not speak perfect English, or write perfect English, 
     but my life is in this country. If I were deported to 
     Mexico I will be foreign in that country, because I 
     already have been living here for many years. I have no 
     family there, it's like I will be tossed into a city I do 
     not know. My sister took care of her residence when my 
     brother-in-law married her. I have a U.S. citizen sister 
     who was born in this country, and my other sister, Andrea, 
     was still a minor when my mother died. Of all my siblings, 
     I am the only one who does not have legal status. I have 
     an application but that supposedly takes many years and I 
     have gotten no response. This is not politics; we are 
     human beings of flesh and blood. For many it is very easy 
     to say why we came here illegally, they don't see the need 
     to leave our home countries. They do not know what it is 
     to have someone get sick and not have to medicine. They do 
     not know what it is to go three days without eating. This 
     is not politics, these are human lives.
       Story 4: I came to the United States 13 years ago. I am 
     undocumented, I have two kids, one who was born here. I'm 
     with my husband. We fled from Nicaragua because even though 
     the Sandinista government was in power, there was still a 
     threat from the mobs, and our lives were in danger. It's for 
     that reason that we decided to come to this country. We asked 
     for political asylum, for which we were denied, because 
     according to the United States, Nicaragua has a democracy, 
     which is not true. Everything is limited by the Sandinista 
     government. I say yes to citizenship and yes to immigration 
     reform, because I feel a part of this great nation, because I 
     pay my taxes, because my daughters have adopted this 
     lifestyle, because my country doesn't have economic 
     priorities, it doesn't enjoy democracy as it should be. For 
     those reasons I would like immigration reform. I say yes to 
     citizenship so I have the ability to buy my house, so I can 
     keep studying, so that I don't have to be nervous to keep 
     driving without a license, so that I don't have to keep 
     having to fear if my husband with come back or if it will be 
     the last day that we see him. I ask the legislators to give 
     us the opportunity for a new path to citizenship.
       Story 5: I've been living here for 23 years. I came from 
     Mexico and I've worked very hard in this country. I left 
     ahead of my family in Mexico. Here too. I'm tired of living 
     in the shadows. I have a son who is an American citizen, and 
     I thought that when he turned 21 we could ask immediately, 
     but that not the case because we came here illegally. I say 
     yes to citizenship, for everyone like me that has worked 
     hard, that pays their taxes and that haven't asked the 
     government for anything. I say yes to give us an opportunity 
     to move forward.
       Story 6: I have 23 years here, and I like that Rep. Dennis 
     Ross is making laws here that bring people hired from Mexico 
     to here. That doesn't benefit me because I've been here for 
     23 years and I want to help people who are here, not the ones 
     that are going to come. I say yes to reform for the 11 
     million undocumented people that are here. I'm going through 
     a problem with immigration. I have for kids who are citizens 
     here, I have my house, I pay taxes. Unfortunately, if there's 
     no solution by May 7th, I'll be deported. I ask Denis Ross to 
     support me with a green card or papers so that I won't be 
     deported, because I want to see my family united, I don't 
     want to be separated from my kids so they're not left on 
     their own.
       Story 7: I'm Cuban and I come from the Apopka Farmer's 
     Association. My goal in participating in the caravan because 
     I am also an immigrant, even though it's legal, but I'm an 
     immigrant, my main goal is to support people who are illegal 
     and are fighting for immigration reform. I understand that 
     they have come here for work, to give to this country, and 
     when I think of all of them that have come to contribute to 
     the society of the United States, they deserve the

[[Page E1749]]

     right to be a legal citizen.
       Story 8: I'm saying yes to citizenship. I'm a social 
     worker. As a social worker at Hialeah hospital, I came in 
     contact with a victim of domestic violence. The woman, I 
     spoke to her, listened to her, built trust with her and I was 
     able to connect her to a women's shelter. She was, during our 
     conversation, she was very scared of having contact with the 
     police because she was undocumented, and it was, you know, I 
     worked with her and at the end I was able to connect her to 
     the women's shelter. Her abuser was, he was a citizen, a 
     Cuban-American or a Cuban citizen, and he would manipulate 
     her because of her immigration status.
       Story 9: Hello, I am saying yes to citizenship and yes to 
     immigration reform for illegal immigrants here in the United 
     States. I am a United States citizen and my parents are 
     illegal immigrants. They've been in this country for about 23 
     years, 24 years, and usually, I was born in Oregon, and 
     usually at the age of 21 I believed I would be able to grant 
     them a path to citizenship. When I turned 20, I started 
     investigating and talking with lawyers to see how they would 
     be able to get that accomplished and it turns out that it 
     wasn't that easy, wasn't that simple and I wasn't able to get 
     them a path to be a resident, to go ahead with this process 
     to become a US citizen. It didn't work. I'm just, I've been 
     time and time again, for every lawyer, kind of lawyers, 
     immigration lawyers, everything, to marches of, to say yes to 
     immigration reform and I just feel like right now is the 
     right time to just keep pushing forward and I say yes to all 
     the families and everyone. We the immigrants, most 
     immigrants, everyone's an immigrant in the United States, and 
     it's just hurtful that those immigrants make up part of this 
     economy and help with the economic growth and to keep taking 
     these parents away from their children and keep separating 
     families, it's not the way this country was built and I'm 
     just calling to say that I'm saying yes to immigration reform 
     and yes for a pathway to citizenship for all illegal 
     immigrants.

                          ____________________