Mother risks it all to retrieve son from smugglers (South Florida Sun-Sentinel)

Mother risks it all to retrieve son from smugglers
A mother puts her life in America on the line to enlist police help to retrieve son from smugglers

By Jerome Burdi | South Florida Sun-Sentinel
November 7, 2008

West Palm Beach - The kidnapped boy turned 5 on Nov. 1, known to Guatemalans as the Day of the Dead.

His mother is grateful he's still alive.

Marleni Garcia-Velasquez is awaiting her son's return from Mesa, Ariz., where he is in foster care after law enforcement rescued him from alleged smugglers. After investigators get the results of a DNA test, Yebi Ramos Garcia will be reunited with his mother, an undocumented immigrant who may be deported to Guatemala.

A mother's love outweighed her fears of possible deportation.

When she got an Oct. 20 phone call from the smugglers who said they were holding her son for a $3,000 ransom, she cried all night. The next day, she called police, though she knew it might bring unwelcome attention to her immigration status.

"I love my children. It's not important what the police do to me," Garcia-Velasquez, 27, said Thursday at her home.

The smugglers sent her a photo via cell phone of her son wearing Spider Man pajamas. That, along with recorded phone conversations, led investigators to find Yebi in a hotel.

Yebi and his sister, 6, are U.S. citizens. Because the girl lives with her mother and Yebi will join them soon, Garcia-Velasquez is on house arrest until a court hearing instead of in a detention center, authorities said.

Yebi was found in good health and the smugglers were arrested the day after Garcia-Velasquez called West Palm Beach police, who contacted U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, authorities said.

Arrested were Marcelino Ramirez-Velasquez, 34, of Guatemala, and Jose Luis Torres-Pais-Paez, 25, of Mexico. They're facing Arizona state charges of kidnapping and theft by extortion.

Garcia-Velasquez, a cook at a fast-food restaurant, has lived mostly in West Palm Beach for 7 years.

According to a police report: She moved back to Guatemala to escape an abusive husband, who found her there and beat her again. In May, she paid smugglers to bring her and her daughter back to the United States. She left Yebi with family until she saved money to send for him, a month later.

She contacted the men who smuggled her in by bus with other immigrants through Mexico and Arizona, she said, but they sent someone else to smuggle Yebi.

West Palm Beach immigration attorney Aileen Josephs, who is involved in the case, said Garcia-Velasquez probably didn't realize that because her son is a U.S. citizen, she did not have to smuggle him.

"There's a lack of guidance," said Josephs, also an honorary consul of Guatemala. "You have to teach them: 'Now you can purchase a ticket.'"

The case, Josephs said, is a good example of how undocumented immigrants should work with law enforcement.

"She did the right thing," Josephs said. "ICE should go after the smugglers and go after these rings."

The lawyer will try to get her a special visa for those who help law enforcement.

When Garcia-Velasquez fled Guatemala, she left everything behind. One of the only photos she has of her son was sent by the suspected kidnappers.

"I feel happy," she said, smiling at the photo, "that my son will be with me soon."

Staff Writer Luis F. Perez contributed to this report.