A Fugitive from Justice’s Agony -- November 23, 2008

            This Christmas holiday, Ricardo is spending an extended vacation in Manila. He has not returned to the Philippines for more than twenty years. He will fly to Manila ahead of his family and his children and spouse who resides in San Diego CA will follow.

            After more than twenty years in the United States, Ricardo was able to attain his American dream. He has a home and a family: spouse, two children who are green card holders and two minor US citizen children.

            One early morning, Ricardo’s family members were shocked when they discovered that he was picked up by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent from his work place. Except for his wife, his children have no idea that ten years ago, Ricardo had a final order of deportation issued by the Immigration Judge. This order has been appealed and the appeal was subsequently denied by the judicial court. His wife’s petition as green card holder may not legally help him immediately. Considering that the judgment on his case became final and that he ignored all court notices and request to appear, Ricardo is considered a fugitive from justice. He is deportable to the Philippines. He will be sent back to the Philippines this December 2008.

            To preserve their family tradition of Christmas reunions, his family will follow him to Manila to celebrate the holidays. Ricardo will be barred from entering the United States for the next ten years. After the Christmas holidays, Ricardo will be left behind by his family and he will await the issuance of another immigrant visa.

The major challenge in immigration is the increasing number of undocumented aliens in the US. As there are an estimated 12 million undocumented foreign nationals, the Bush administration decided to increase its budget on enforcement of the immigration law than in fixing the broken system.

There is no study on how many percentage of this undocumented are Filipinos. What is certain is that an increasing number of this population is surfacing as a result of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) increased enforcement activities. The enforcement is through an agency under the DHS called the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). These special agents and detention officers are often referred to derogatorily as the “ICEmen” or  the “ICE that is never cool.”

When a visitor in the US applies for an immigration benefit and gets denied, they shall be considered as out of status. Some of those who had fallen out status went to court to seek relief from deportation. While most are successful in obtaining relief, there are quite a number who were denied their request to stay in the US after hearing. If they follow through their appeal process, there are those who are able to successfully remain in the US depending on what immigration application they submit.

Unfortunately, there are also those who do not follow through their cases and without them knowing it, their deportation cases became final. The decisions notifying them of their deportation orders are often mailed to the last known address of the deportee. This is where the word Tago Ng Tago (TNT) arose. The TNTs evade being deported and have addresses that are not reported to the immigration service.

The ICE has a separate program for the TNTs called the National Fugitive Operations Program. The goal of this program is to identify, locate, arrest and remove three categories of undocumented namely the criminal aliens, the fugitives and other immigration violators.

The criminal aliens are still a priority but recently even non criminals are being taken into custody if they are fugitives. The fugitive is an alien who has failed to depart the US pursuant to a final order of removal, deportation or exclusion; or has failed to report to the Detention and Removal Officer of ICE after receiving notice to appear.

So far the ICE has utilized intelligence based information and leads to identify the fugitives and immigration violators. This was how Ricardo was located and subsequently detained.

If one is an immigration violator or a fugitive, it does not necessarily follow that there are no remedies that he or she may avail of to legalize his or her stay. For a “fugitive”, in limited cases, Motions to Reopen final orders of removal/deportation may be filed to prevent deportation.

Prevention of a serious consequence of deportation may be the best route for an immigration violator. One must be mindful and vigilant of his/her immigration case and must always inquire on the status of an application that is filed. Orders and notices especially from the Immigration courts should not be taken for granted at the risk of a serious consequence of deportation.

For an overseas Filipino worker who leaves his/her family to find greener pastures abroad, the separation is seen more as a sacrifice and valuable in exchange for a better life for the family. But separation because of a deportation order is not just punitive to the deportee but also to the family members. The consequences are indeed severe.

For the deportee, the ten year bars to admission applies unless an application to apply for readmission is granted by the US Department of Homeland Security. But until then, the deportee has to endure the agony of separation.