13 January 2012, 7:07 pm
LOS ANGELES — The last time Leslie Parro saw her dad, he was gulping down coffee before bolting out the door for work. Outside his San Fernando home near Los Angeles, however, federal immigration agents scooped up Heriberto Parro on Thursday after he had unknowingly applied for political asylum. "I need my daddy," said Leslie, crying before a half dozen TV cameras Friday at the Hermandad Mexicana Transnacional Youth Center in Panorama City. "I can't sleep at all." Nationally, immigration advocates Friday celebrated a federal plan to go lighter on some illegal immigrant applicants, while cheering a failed attempt to undo the California Dream Act. But in the San Fernando Valley, they protested the deportation of residents like Parro, taken from their families after they unwittingly had applied for asylum through unscrupulous immigration services. "Here we are, once again, facing the tragedy of a father and hardworking man with diabetes being deported," said Rubin Rodriguez of the Justice For Immigrants San Fernando Valley Coalition. "Please, help this family out." The 36-year-old handyman and father of four American-born children was arrested early Thursday by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement fugitive operations team. After his arrest, he was transported to a local hospital for treatment of his medical condition. An ICE spokeswoman said Para became an ICE fugitive when he failed to comply with a voluntary departure order handed down by a Department of Justice immigration judge in 2003, and his subsequent legal appeals were denied. "Mr. Para's immigration case was reviewed by judges at multiple levels of our nation's legal system and they determined that he did not have a legal basis to remain in the United States," said ICE spokeswoman Virginia Kice, in a statement. Immigration advocates, however, were more quick to blame unscrupulous notary publics, known to immigrants as notarios publicos, which in Latin American countries wield greater legal powers than in the U.S. Parro, who immigrated illegally from Jalisco, Mexico about 15 years ago, had paid a notario publico $4,000 to help him gain legal status. But instead of applying for a work permit, as promised, the notary marked him down for seeking political asylum. "These people will play on (their) confusion and promote themselves as legal experts," said David Rowe, an immigration attorney in Palmdale. "These people don't have any scruples." "The issue here is really about that fraud with notary publics," added Alex Reza, of the Justice For Immigrants coalition. "It's been common: there's lots and lots of fraud." The Chatsworth-based National Notary Association acknowledged many who advertise as notarios publicos have preyed upon unwary immigrants. In June, the federal government announced a crackdown on such immigration assistance scams. "Many unethical individuals exploit the confusion over these different roles to take advantage of unsuspecting immigrants," said Bill Anderson, the association's vice president of Best Practices & eNotarization, in a statement. "The NNA fully supports this initiative to combat abuses of consumers and immigrants." Meanwhile Parro's family waits for the next shoe to drop. "I never thought it could happen to us," said Maria Gonzalez, 33, the mother of his children. "If he's deported, I don't think we can stay" in the U.S.... Read More »
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