Pacific Sun 10.30.2009 - Section 1

Page 12

4XFEJTI .BTTBHF IS 4QFDJBMUZ .BTTBHF IS Â… %FFQ 5JTTVF Â… 1SFOBUBM Â… 4QPSUT Â… 4IJBUTV Â… .BOZ "EEJUJPOBM 4UZMFT

)PU 4UPOF .BTTBHF IS

›› UPFRONT

Gilbert Mejia deportation delayed Parents say gangs will ‘kill him’ if Novato High grad sent to Guatemala by Ronnie Co he n

P

0QFO %BZT B 8FFL 5VFÂŹ4VO ÂŹ .PO ÂŹ XXX NJMMWBMMFZNBTTBHF DPN

$BNJOP "MUP 4UF Â… .*-- 7"--&:

$ 4USFFU Â… 4"/ 3"'"&-

ALAMEDA COUNTY

Affordable Professional Massage .JMM 7BMMFZ t 4BO 3BGBFM

AUCTION

THIS PRODUCT OR SERVICE HAS NOT BEEN APPROVED OR ENDORSED BY ANY GOVT. AGENCY AND THIS OFFER IS NOT BEING MADE BY ANY AGENCY OF THE GOVT.

T h e P r e m i e r Ve h i c l e A u c t i o n s /VER #ARS 3OLD 300+ Luxury & Economy Autos s 2AIN OR 3HINE &REE !DMISSION Saturday, November 7th– 9am sharp! s &INANCE AND 7ARRANTIES

/N #REDIT !PPROVAL n #ALL EARLY Preview Fri., Nov 6 th 10am-4pm & Sat., Nov 7th 7:30am-9am

www.acauction.com

6438 Sierra Ct., Dublin

12 PACIFIC SUN OCTOBER 30 – NOVEMBER 5, 2009

$EALER s "UYER &EE

925-829-5999

arents of a recent Novato High School so badly that he now walks with a cane. At graduate facing deportation recounted about the same time, Perez believes a driver a litany of violent acts against relatives purposely rode his car into her brother’s in their native Guatemala and told an immimotorcycle, breaking his leg. gration judge in San Francisco on Thursday The intimidation worked. The family they fear a gang will kill their son if he returns abandoned its plot of land. But Perez, who to the country he left when he was 1 year old. described herself as submissive, told the Immigration ofďŹ cials have ordered Elida immigration judge that the son she raised in Perez, 40, and Salvador “Samâ€? Mejia, 38, to America would not sit idly by but would try leave the U.S. by Nov. to right wrongs. 2. Their 18-year-old “He’s one of those son, Gilbert Mejia, “So many people are killed down types of people who came to Marin there they don’t even take the who want to help County with them other people, and he illegally 17 years ago, bodies away.â€? doesn’t like injusticfaces separate imes,â€? Perez said. “Down migration proceedings. On Thursday, after in my country, that’s dangerous. If he starts to hearing from his parents, Judge Miriam help out, for example, in the case of my parHayward continued Gilbert’s deportation ents, or tries to ďŹ nd out who hurt my brother, hearing until July 28. At that time, the ďŹ rst he’s going to get himself in trouble.â€? free day in the judge’s court calendar, Gil“I have no doubt that when he shows up bert is expected to testify in support of his down there,â€? Mejia said of his son, “that some application for asylum. gang is going to call him over, and if he refuses Mayans who ed their country during a to join, he’ll be killed.â€? civil war, Gilbert’s parents described how both Last year, Mejia said his cousin was found their fathers were brutally beaten, their cousin shot to death in the taxicab he drove. “They was murdered and a car intentionally hit didn’t steal anything from him,â€? he said. Perez’s brother while he was riding a motor“They just killed him.â€? cycle. The violence—some inexplicable, some Mejia said his relatives have no idea and no they believe political—spans their adult lives. way to ďŹ nd out why his cousin was killed. “My Sitting next to an American ag, they testiaunt doesn’t have money to pay for an investiďŹ ed in Spanish, which an interpreter translatgator,â€? he said. “Down there, people who have ed into English. “The police down there don’t money can pay to have people follow up on carry out justice,â€? Sam Mejia said. “The police the case. The people who have money there are bought and sold for money. And the gangs pay the police so they can have justice.â€? down there have a great deal of power.â€? When Mejia was 15 years old, he said Mejia and Perez said they feared that if about 20 military men came to his parGilbert—a Santa Rosa Junior College student ent’s restaurant seeking revenge against his and an aspiring architect—returned to Guate- father because he had removed a drunken mala, gangs would recruit him, and he would and belligerent relative of a military combe forced to join or be subject to violence. missioner. While Mejia, his mother and “If he doesn’t join the gang down there, his sister watched, the military men tried he’d be viewed as an enemy,â€? Perez said. to take his father out of the restaurant. “They’ll kill him. Down there, the police don’t Mejia attempted to block the door, but they even investigate things that are clear as day. So pushed and kicked him out of the way. many people are killed down there they don’t Later, Mejia said his father described the even take the bodies away.â€? beating he took. “My father told me he had Her voice cracking, her eyes ďŹ lling to kneel before the military person, and with tears, she added: “Unfortunately, my they kicked him.â€? Dressed in a blue striped country is a place that’s not safe, especially shirt and blue paisley tie, Gilbert propped for people his age, and that’s why I’m very his clenched ďŹ st under his chin while his afraid for him to go back. It would break father testiďŹ ed. my heart for him to go down there because Judge Hayward had to continue the hearthat’s why I brought him here.â€? ing when she ran out of time before Gilbert In 1995, at the end of the civil war, which could testify. While Gilbert remains in the started in 1954 with a CIA-led coup, Perez U.S. illegally but without a deportation said the government gave her father and date, his parents are packing up the Novato other indigenous farmers land to harvest home they own and preparing to leave the crops. About three years ago, in what her country with his American-born 4-year-old family believes was an effort to force her 68- and 13-year-old sisters. < year-old father off his land, he was beaten Contact Ronnie Cohen at ronniecohen@comcast.net.

Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.