Pedro Guzman, a U.S. citizen, wandered in Mexico after being wrongly deported. Family, ACLU criticize immigration officials.
By Sam Quinones
August 08, 2007
A U.S. citizen who had been in the custody of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department before he disappeared in May after being wrongly deported to Mexico was found this week and ordered released to his family.
Pedro Guzman, 29, who is developmentally disabled, was taken into custody Sunday while trying to cross the border at Calexico, Mexico, said Michael Soller, a spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California. The ACLU has represented Guzman's family in its attempts to get the federal government to help find him.
Guzman, of Lancaster, was transported to the Los Angeles County Jail. On Tuesday at a hearing in the Antelope Valley, Superior Court Judge Carlos Chung ordered him released to his family.
Guzman, who cannot read or write, spent much of the 89 days in Baja, California, on foot, avoiding human contact, eating from garbage cans and bathing in rivers, family members said at an afternoon news conference at the ACLU's Los Angeles office. Guzman, who was said to be malnourished and afraid of people, remained at home in Lancaster with relatives ...
http://articles.latimes.com/2007/aug/08/local/me-found8Wednesday, August 8, 2007
L.A. County Jail Deputy Blames INS for Pedro Guzman's Deportation
... The Deputy I spoke to was very forthcoming about the jail procedures, explaining that when inmates are booked they're asked to identify their birthplace. If it's outside the United States, then the jail contacts the INS for an interview to ascertain their legal status. However, it's clear from all the records that Guzman initially identified his birthplace as California, so there would be no reason for the jail to initiate Guzman's INS interview.
I pressed the deputy a bit, asking if they did any screening on their own to ascertain if arrestees lied about their birthplace. He told me that they protect against this through consulting earlier records when the "roll" the arrestees for fingerprints, but if there's nothing there, then they would never call the INS: "We don't do background checks. We just process inmates here. We don't waste our time on that; we don't intervene in any way, unless we see someone who says they're born outside the country."
I then asked if he was familiar with Guzman's deportation--again this was last week--and he was not, so I gave him a summary and asked how Guzman would have come to the attention of the INS. He told me that the INS agents in the jail do their own screenings and he didn't know how those worked. When I told him that Guzman definitely was born in the United States and his mother had the birth certificate to prove it, he said, "That would have been their foul up. The family should have had the opportunity to bring in a birth certificate and clear things up."
This is obviously true, and underlined by the fact that all of the Guzman's documents in his criminal record indicate that he was born in California. Indeed, if the judge who sentenced Guzman to 90 days in jail on April 19, 2007 had the slightest idea that Guzman would be deported as a criminal alien he would not also have sentenced Guzman to 3 years probation, and the state would not have issued a warrant for his arrest for missing the probation hearing, which, ironically, appears to be why the DHS finally allowed him back into the country. In other words, there was plenty of information available to any interested parties that would indicate Guzman's nationality ...
http://stateswithoutnations.blogspot.com/2007/08/la-county-jail-deputy-blames-ins-for.htmlFamily of deported man sues the U.S.
By Sam Quinones
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" ...
http://articles.latimes.com/2007/jun/12/local/me-deport12
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