Friday, July 13, 2007
LOUISVILLE: The mother of the 4-year-old boy whose body was found in the trash last week is the subject of a deportation order, officials said today.
Rosalina Cano, 39, mother of César Ivan Aguilar-Cano, has an outstanding order issued by an immigration judge in 1996, said Tim Counts, a spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
He said he could not elaborate for privacy reasons or say whether she would be taken into custody.
The boy, known as Ivan to his family, disappeared June 29 while playing behind his apartment building near Churchill Downs. His body was found in a city garbage truck last Saturday.
Family spokesman Christopher 2X (EMB: "Yes that is his actual legal name. I guess they ran out of all the cool ones") said the order was issued in Los Angeles, where Cano lived until nine years ago.
Cano has been meeting with her lawyer to figure out how she can escort her son's body to Santa Rosa, Guatemala, her hometown, and then return to the United States.
Cano filed paperwork Thursday for a special visa status that is given to immigrants who have been victims of serious crimes and whose assistance is essential to authorities. Cano is an illegal immigrant.
Cano has said repeatedly that she wants to accompany the body to Guatemala only if it can be guaranteed that she can return to this country to help with the search for her son's killer.
"The lawyers feel that there are ways to work this out so that she can see justice for her son but also try to work towards her potential American citizenship," 2X said.
2X said that Cano's deportation order complicates her pending application, but he believes Louisville Metro Police may have helped her case by saying she is important to the investigation. That is a requirement of the special visa status Cano is requesting.
It was not immediately clear why the deportation order was issued. Cano's lawyer has declined to speak to the media, 2X said.
Cano said she was denied a request for political asylum 11 years ago.
It was not immediately clear whether Cano's deportation order came before or after her application for asylum.
Counts declined to comment specifically about this case but said: "Many times applying for immigration benefits that one doesn't qualify for gets one into the system."
As of tonight, immigration officials had not contacted the family or its lawyers, 2X said.
The Guatemalan Embassy will pay part of the funeral costs, including transporting the body to Guatemala, said Hector Pallacios, consul of the embassy in Washington, D.C.
A private wake will be held tonight at Holy Name Catholic Church on South Third Street, with a public vigil there later.
Reporter James Wagner can be reached at jwagner@courier-journal.com.
Now, I don't want to seem like I am piling on to a mother that has lost her son in a very gruesome manner but I guess I am. I sincerely feel for her. I don't know what I would do if my son (not much older than her son was) were to disappear for over a week only to be found stuffed in a garbage bag in the back of a garbage truck.
That not withstanding, she is here illegally. She's had a deportation order/warrant for 10 YEARS! There should be no question whether or not she should be allowed to stay here. The only reason she should be allowed back in the U.S. is to help with the police investigation of her son's homicide. Then only under special conditions. Maybe house arrest with electronic monitoring with the condition that when the investigation and/or trial is over that she be sent back to Guatemala. Oh, not for nothing, but in the 10 years+ that she has been here, apparently she hasn't bothered to learn English. Whenever she appeared on TV she had to have a translator.
I don't know when our government (Republicans and Democrats) will get serious about stopping illegal immigration. They had better hurry. Because one day, it will be too damned late.
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