Do the ends justify the means

I firmly believe that the employees at the consulate willfully employ psychological warfare tactics on the people they see every day. If you want a job where you can insult and belittle people on a daily basis, this may be the place for you. On another day I’ll talk about his first appointment at the consulate so that you can make up our own mind about the workers in the consulate. Anyway, yesterday was Alberto’s second appointment with immigration officials at the consulate in Ciudad Juarez. He arrived at 7:30 am for his 8 am appointment and spent the next several hours waiting to be seen. When Alberto was finally seen by an official, he was told that he needed to travel to the Zaragoza Bridge and retrieve a copy of the arrest record which began this fiasco in 2007. Alberto contacted me after leaving the consulate to ask me what he should do. We were in agreement that the likely result of this trip would be his arrest in relation to the warrant for his arrest. He asked me to contact both attorneys to see what each said about this situation and what advice they would give.

I contacted our immigration attorney first and was dismayed to discover their phone system was set to the answering machine in the middle of the business day. After calling several times, the receptionist returned from her lunch break only to tell me the attorney was currently out to lunch. I made her promise to have the attorney call me the minute he returned to his office because I needed to talk to him as soon as possible. I received the call approximately 30 minutes later and spoke with Lance. Lance said that based on our situation and the problems we have been experiencing with immigration; we would never get the opportunity to fix Alberto’s legal status without resolution of the warrant and criminal case. Lance was also of the opinion that the idea was to have Alberto arrested and extradited to Minnesota to stand trial. Lance also stated that there was the potential, given a favorable conclusion of the criminal case that Alberto would be allowed to adjust status from within the United States. Since Lance was not handling our criminal case as that is not his sphere of expertise, he said that he could not advise us as to what Alberto should do. My next contact was to speak with Brian, our criminal defense attorney. I last spoke to Brian a few months ago about our case and what our chances were if we went to trial. Brian is still of the opinion that they don’t have a case against Alberto and we have a good chance of getting this taken care of without having to take a plea bargain. To make this 100% clear to everyone, Alberto did not do what they’re accusing him of. However, if for some reason a miscarriage of justice were to occur and he were to be found guilty of a felony, he would NEVER be allowed reentry into the United States. Hence the option of plea bargain is on the table if it looks like we could lose, with the idea to reduce the sentence and severity of the crime to misdemeanor level. Because family come first, as it always should.

When I spoke with Alberto again and told him what I was told by both attorneys, I advised him that his was his decision. As he would be the person to pay the price, he alone would have to make the decision. I told him what I would do in his shoes and what my opinion was because he asked. I told him mother to call him so that he could talk to her about it. I told Doña Gisela what the attorneys had said, what Alberto had said, and what I felt about this situation. She said she would follow my lead and stay away from even suggesting what Alberto should do in regards to this situation. Neither of us wanted Alberto to say later that he should never have listened to us, or that he would never have gone through with this if we hadn’t said whatever it was we said to convince him.
That night when I spoke to Alberto for the last time he seemed to be at peace. He said he was going to go out and eat something delicious for supper as it could be the last thing tasty he has in a while. He said he would go to bed peacefully knowing that he would do what needed to be done and leave the rest in God’s hands. Faith is the last thing I have left to hold onto myself, so I understand how comforting it is to place your worry in the Lord’s hands. I told Alberto that there was a reason that so many good people have come into our lives these last 6 months. Alberto has Noemi and Agustin in Ciudad Juarez to help him, and I have Nora and the support group to help me.

This morning Agustin and Alberto left for the bridge to get the documents around 7:30 am. When they arrived, Alberto was taken into custody as we predicted and transported over the border into Texas. I spoke to Agustin several times today about who had arrested Alberto and where they would have taken him since he was not showing on any jail rosters and immigration claimed he was not in their custody. Agustin said that I should not worry about Alberto’s suitcase or the bill for the 2 nights he stayed with them and that I could take care of the issues when I was able to. Agustin offered to travel to El Paso in the morning to speak with Alberto if I was unable to communicate with him by that time to bring him a message if I needed such a service. I think I will ask Agustin to send me the suitcase by FedEx/DHL/UPS so that we have clothing here for Alberto. I just wish I knew which service would be cheapest, but I’m certain that sending the package from El Paso would be cheaper than doing so from Ciudad Juarez. Alberto called me around 7:45 pm and we talked for about 15 minutes. I was so happy that the call went through to my cell phone that I didn’t mind that the call just cost me $9.99. He’s not happy that he was locked up, or that the judge said it will take between 10 to 30 days before law enforcement from Minnesota show up to escort him home for the trial.

We both hope that Nemesio and company don’t show up to press charges. He already got what he was after, so he has no reason to slander Alberto’s name any longer. On an interesting side note, although Nemesio has managed to stay out of trouble as far as we know, Tecla is a convicted felon. I wonder how this knowledge would affect her credibility in court to a jury. I don’t know anything about KC (witness and minor at the time of the incident) other than she will be 18 this year and can be tried as an adult for perjury should she lie on the stands. I hope I get the opportunity to tell each and every one of these people that there is no payment that would be sufficient compensation for the damage they caused with their lies against my husband. I hope they get what they deserve in the end for causing us to lose almost 3 years of our lives to their games. Alberto is not guilty and was not involved in this incident and I need to believe that the jury will see the truth should it come to trial.

Ciao