Mother of Texas teen runaway deported to Colombia files lawsuit

[struggle4progress]

By Juan A. Lozano
The Associated Press

HOUSTON – The mother of a Texas teenage runaway who gave authorities a false name and wound up deported to South America has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against officials with the Justice Department and Homeland Security contending her daughter was illegally detained and deported.

The suit, filed Tuesday by Johnisa Turner on behalf of her daughter Jakadrien Turner, is asking for $15 million in damages. It also discloses publicly for the first time that while in Colombia, Jakadrien Turner became pregnant by a 29-year-old man ...

The suit also said that while living in Colombia, Turner worked at a call centre and lived in a group home for unwed mothers.

“She was afraid that she would be jailed in Colombia and never see her family again,” according to the suit ...

http://metronews.ca/news/world/235658/mother-of-texas-teen-runaway-files-lawsuit-saying-daughter-was-wrongly-deported-to-colombia/

[rocktivity]

1. Sounds like there's some major domestic dysfuction going on here

Jakadrien Turner, who was 14 at the time, was picked up for shoplifting last year at a Houston mall and identified herself to authorities as a 21-year-old Colombian national. She subsequently was deported and spent seven months in Colombia living in shelters before she was returned to the U.S. in January after her grandmother and Dallas police tracked her down...

U.S. immigration officials have insisted they...found nothing to indicate that the girl wasn’t...living illegally in the country. The Colombian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said Turner was issued travel documents at the request of U.S. officials using information they provided.

A review by the AP of more than two dozen telephone calls Turner made while in custody in Houston showed the teenager never expressed concern that she was being misidentified as an illegal immigrant from Colombia. Jackson said the lawsuit would explai...“why she did what she did”

The grandmother did the legwork, but it's the mother who's filing suit? It makes her sound like she's just trying to cash in. And since the lawyer is tacitly admitting that the girl lied, the suit is on shaky ground anyway. At any rate, I'm looking forward to hearing about "why she did what she did..."


rocktivity