Winston-Salem Journal (Article by Bertrand Gutierrez): If Orfilia Sagastume-Reyes, a Thomasville resident facing possible deportation to Guatemala, could have talked with Vice President Joe Biden when he was in Winston-Salem on Wednesday, she would have asked him for a little help.
"I would ask that he would live up to the promises (the Obama administration) made. They said that they would do immigration reform. I would ask it not only for me, but also for millions of people like me, who are not criminals — and that they have a little compassion for us, that they put themselves in our shoes," Reyes said in Spanish.
This morning, Sagastume-Reyes, who says she has been in the U.S. for 22 years, must report to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Charlotte about her deportation case.
In 1990, Sagastume-Reyes fled Guatemala as the Central American country was going through a civil war. She received death threats because of her father's involvement in government, she said, and her brother was assassinated. Sagastume-Reyes entered the U.S. legally with a visa, but it has expired, she said.
Attempts to gain legal residency status by seeking asylum have failed.
Hispanic vote
Sagastume-Reyes' situation represents one of the hot-button issues of the presidential race and brings to light the importance of the Hispanic voter, particularly in North Carolina.
Nationwide, Hispanics voted 67 percent in favor of Barack Obama, according to exit polls, but his administration's record number of deportations has left some Hispanics less than thrilled with him.
Deportations have risen to an annual average of nearly 400,000 since 2009, about 30 percent higher than the annual average set by President George W. Bush's administration in its second term and about double the annual average during Bush's first term, according to the Pew Hispanic Center. By a ratio of more than 2-to-1, Hispanics disapprove of the way the Obama administration is handling deportations, according to the Pew Hispanic Center.
Given that Obama won North Carolina in 2008 by a thin margin of about 14,000 votes, the president's campaign is keenly aware of the state's growing Hispanic vote. In 2008, there were about 68,000 registered Hispanic voters, according to the N.C. State Board of Elections. Now, there are nearly 92,000, an increase of about 35 percent.
Gabriela Domenzain, Obama for America's director of Hispanic press, defended the Obama administration by saying, among other things, that under Obama's policies, millions of Hispanics have more access to affordable health care and an affordable college education.
"President Obama is fighting for an economy built to last — where we create jobs for all Americans, grow the middle class, and reward hard work and responsibility. The president believes that Congress should pass the DREAM Act and is committed to pursuing comprehensive immigration reform."
On the other hand, she said, Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, has been "on the wrong side of every Hispanic voter priority."
Aides for the Romney campaign said their candidate favors an immigration platform that rewards people who apply legally to enter the U.S., gives priority to those seeking asylum, and supports reforms that don't encourage illegal immigration.
"Despite then-candidate Obama's promise to tackle immigration reform in his first year in office, he hasn't even proposed a plan," said Robert Reid, a spokesman for the Romney for President campaign in North Carolina. "The immigration issue is too important for the president to use this as a political tool during a campaign and then fail to follow through."
Narrow options
Sagastume-Reyes has never been in trouble with law enforcement since she arrived in the U.S. in 1990, she said.
In 1993, she tried to apply for asylum, which would have given her legal residency status, but her attorney at the time told her that her application would likely be denied. To avoid being sent to jail with her family, which includes two sons and a daughter, she agreed to withdraw the application and accepted what is known as a voluntary departure order in 2000.
It was bad legal advice, she says.
Now, she is hopeful that ICE officials will show leniency and allow her to stay in the U.S.
One of her current attorneys, Jeremy McKinney, said ICE officials have in fact agreed to look further into her case, a move that does not guarantee against deportation but does give her some more time.
If she does get deported, her 15-year-old son, Fredi Reyes, a U.S. citizen who recently scored the highest grade possible on his end-of-course English exam at East Davidson High School, would face two options: Go with his mother to Guatemala or go into foster care.
"My options are as narrow as it gets," Reyes said. "It's just a fact of life. I just have to deal with it. But I don't really want to think about it."
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