Ruling crushed hopes, aliens say

‘Living in the shadows’ in U.S., laments mother of 3 in LA

Police officers restrain a man Thursday in Phoenix from a protest mounted by than 60 people after the U.S. Supreme Court’s deadlock on President Barack Obama’s immigration order.
Police officers restrain a man Thursday in Phoenix from a protest mounted by than 60 people after the U.S. Supreme Court’s deadlock on President Barack Obama’s immigration order.

NEW YORK -- After learning the Supreme Court deadlocked on an immigration plan that would protect her from being deported, Marta Gualotuna could barely speak through her tears.

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AP

Demonstrators protest against a Supreme Court decision on immigration Friday outside the New York Supreme Court in New York.

"This decision is very, very painful for me," Gualotuna, 57, said in Spanish through a translator. The illegal immigrant from Ecuador had hoped the court would uphold President Barack Obama's 2014 executive order, which was designed to reduce the threat of deportation for certain immigrants living in the U.S. illegally.

Gualotuna, a New York City resident who's been in the country for more than 20 years and has three American-born children, remained determined. "The only thing I know is we're going to keep fighting," she said.

It was a sentiment expressed by other illegal aliens and their advocates Thursday after the high court's deadlock left intact a lower-court ruling blocking Obama's order.

"For me, living in the shadows, it's like I don't have a life. I'm like nobody. I feel like nobody," said Betty Jaspeado, a mother of three in Los Angeles.

The illegal alien from Mexico described her working life in the United States as one devoid of hope, one where she constantly watched her back in fear of deportation. The possibility of protection offered by Obama had given her something to hold onto.

"I was thinking I could feel human again," Jaspeado said.

In November 2014, Obama proposed Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents, and he expanded the 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals to effectively shield up to 4 million illegal aliens. His executive orders to this effect were put forth in a political climate where the chances for a legislative overhaul of the nation's immigration system were remote at best.

But 26 states -- including Arkansas -- filed suit against those orders, and a divided Supreme Court had no definitive answer. Stuck in the middle were people like the parents of Giselle Gasca, 22, of Fresno, Calif.

Gasca said her parents, whose names she did not reveal, were eligible for the Parents of Americans program through her sister, a U.S. citizen. She had hoped they would get a chance to experience the opportunities she has been able to get through the original Childhood Arrivals program, such as the ability to travel outside the United States with the right permits. The travel limitations, Gasca said, prevented her mother from returning to Mexico to visit her own parents.

"That's something that my mom was hoping for, and I was hoping for her," Gasca said. "When her dad passed in 2009, she wasn't able to go back to Mexico and say her final goodbyes."

Tampa-based immigration lawyer John Ovink said the protections for parents of legal residents never took effect because they faced an immediate court challenge. Now that they're effectively blocked, he said, "it's a humongous setback."

Officers with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement "can pretty much continue to deport family members as badly as criminals," said Ovink, who has clients throughout the Tampa Bay area and Florida. "That's pretty much what it does."

Nothing will change for illegal-alien families, he said.

"It didn't take any rights away," Ovink said. "It didn't take status away. It took hope away."

Obama said the ruling was "heartbreaking." He tried to offer assurances, saying his administration's priorities for deportations would continue to be new arrivals and those with criminal records.

That wasn't reassuring to many illegal aliens and their advocates, who have long criticized Obama for tightening enforcement of current laws at the border. Many of them call him the "deporter in chief," and some didn't waste any time making their unhappiness known.

In Phoenix on Thursday, more than 60 people blocked a major thoroughfare outside the . Immigration and Customs Enforcement building, carrying signs in sweltering heat and chanting in Spanish and English. Protester Eduardo Sainz of the nonprofit advocacy group Mi Familia Vota said the Supreme Court's deadlock brought tears to his eyes.

"This is a demonstration to show our community members that they're not alone and to also show our elected officials that we will hold them accountable. And that we will explore all the different scenarios that we have to do in order to move our agenda forward," Sainz said.

"There's a lot of broken hope" among Florida's immigrant population, said Francesca Menes, policy and advocacy coordinator for the Florida Immigrant Coalition, in a news conference. Her organization is committed to educating immigrants about citizenship and, once naturalized, getting them registered to vote.

"We stand here unified," Menes said. "This is not going to break us. You just fueled the fire."

Information for this article was contributed by Deepti Hajela, Janie Har, Astrid Galvan, Anna Gronewold and Russell Contreras of The Associated Press and by Samuel Howard of the Tampa Bay Times.

A Section on 06/25/2016

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