School fight leads to student deportation (La Noticia Online)

School fight leads to student deportation (in Spanish)
Rosario Machicao
25 to 31 May 2011

h/t Twitter user @RespectRespeto [send your tips to @ICE_Raid_Report on Twitter]

After a fight at school, Matías Cabrera, an undocumented student went from being suspended from school, arrested, tried for the 287 (g), moved to Atlanta in a few days to be deported to their country of origin.

The family of the boy who was 17 last October, when the fight occurred and was enrolled in the eleventh grade in high school, did not imagine that their lives would change overnight.

"As parents we always want the best for our children, but a fight can change everything and the world will come down. A few days before the incident I had told him not to meddle in trouble and he told me not to worry, but a few days not imagine what happened, "said tearful Sonia, his mother.

The charges were dropped in February, but that did not stop immigration officials from doing their job and a month ago in late April, just days after 18 years, Matthew was arrested the next day sent a immigration jail in Atlanta.

"We have said that it sent back to Argentina this or next week," said Sonia.

The whole family lives in Charlotte, at home only found his maternal grandmother. "He's going to a country not known because it came when he was 7 years. We will be very hard to start again in a country where he was born but it is completely unknown, "said his mother.

Students and deportations
Andres Lopez, an immigration lawyer with the firm of Immigration Law Firm Forsythe said that a minor incident for a student resident or citizen can mean a community service work or a fine, but for an illegal alien an incident of this nature could cost even deportation .

"In the case of Matthias, to be deported soon be 18 years and six months, no penalty will return to the country, but must qualify for a visa or a working family," Lopez said.

"If deportation occurs at a young man aged 18 years and six months to 19 years triggers a punishment of up to three years in which the immigrant can not return to the U.S. and after 19 years on, the punishment is ten years, "says Lopez.

The lawyer has seen cases in which young people are arrested and carried to jail and go through the 287 (g) and others that are brought to juvenile court.

"It depends on the police, is always the option of them and also depends on the severity of the case and the student's age," said an immigration specialist.

According to the Police Department Charlotte Mecklenburg School System, any student more than seven years may be arrested and taken to a juvenile court or a civil or criminal, according to the offense and the student's age.

In some cases students are not deprived of education so they send them to alternative schools, while others do not give them no chance and sent to jail.

"That is so important for parents to know who they link their children to avoid being taken by inadequate roads and if they are good students, remind them out of trouble that will lead to an arrest and possible deportation and suffering and separation of families" he added.