The light at the end of the tunnel

Frustrated doesn’t begin to describe how I feel right now. I registered with Offender Connect after I wasn’t able to talk to Alberto last night when he called 5 times, and today my account showed the credit available. I should have been about to talk to him when he called me in the afternoon during my lunch break, but for some reason the call wouldn’t connect. So I called Offender Connect and they stated that I had the wrong number attached to my account. Considering how precise I am when it comes to things like this I highly doubt it, but the CSR I talked to said that she would fix it however it could take between 2 and 24 hours to be effective. I did check my account online 4 hours later and there was no phone number whatsoever attached to my account so I added my cell phone again. I finally got to talk to him when he called at 8 pm, so at least that was something. Apparently they brought Alberto before a judge again yesterday who told him he could wait 90 days or he could wait 10 days for the sheriff to send someone to go and get him. I guess I’m not sure what that was about or what was the difference, but I’ll make sure I find out tomorrow since he chose to wait 10 days. Lance is of the opinion that this will quash the warrant, so the criminal matter will no longer be blocking our immigration proceedings. I wonder what Brian, the criminal defense attorney, will say about this new situation.

Yet another irritating thing that happened today was when I was making phone calls to find out who made the arrest on Tuesday and where I could get a copy of the record. I called the police first, and they said to check with county. I talked to the county and they said to call the police. When I spoke to the records department in the police station they couldn’t pull it up by name, so I had to call the county back and get the case number. After I had the case number I called the records department of the police again and was told they cannot tell me anything about the record, I would have to go down and get it a copy of it in person. At this point I was pretty irritable and said that this feat would be quite impossible since I was in Minnesota, not Texas. I was then told that was not her problem and I would have to send a written request by mail only with a $1.50 to receive a copy. I hope for her sake the police report states that Alberto turned himself in and that he said he had no intention of entering the United States illegally.

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.

The Consequences

Tonight is pretty much guaranteed to be horrible and there’s not much I can do about it. Tomorrow is the next big appointment for Alberto with immigration and anxious does not begin to describe how I’m feeling right now. I’ve tried to push this from my mind all weekend, and thankfully we had a family get together that helped me do just that. I was never able to go and get that pedicure with Lizzy that I was counting on for relaxation, but I’ve gotten pretty good at handling mild anxiety these last few years. I swear I wasn’t a basket case like I am now even 4 years ago.

Noemi in CDJ contacted me around 10pm to tell me that Alberto had called her husband Agustin from the bus station. Agustin left immediately to go get Alberto from the bus station because it is not safe to be out after dark in Ciudad Juarez. If you need an example of just how dangerous CDJ is consider this: on March 13, 2010 the spouse of a consulate worker was killed while his two young children in the vehicle at the time were wounded, only minutes later an employee of the consulate was shot and killed along with her husband while their infant wailed in the backseat. If you consider the first victim was a Mexican National, you cannot simply say this was a demonstration of violence against Americans. I’m afraid for the safety of my husband, and more than a little angry that the USCIS thinks nothing of causing me this extreme level of anxiety.

A jumble of thoughts in text format

I talked to Marcos yesterday.  He says he doesn’t remember hitting the pedestrian/cyclist, but he does remember talking to be about the bill I received from the insurance company.  He claims that he was in a dark part of his soul those days and his actions were inexcusable.  Finally someone can admit that they screwed up besides me!  I explained the facts of the matter to the best of my knowledge.  After I reviewed the letter of collections and compared it to what I know now about personal injury law, I would say the insurance company paid a liability claim to the victim.  Since there was no insurance on the vehicle at the time of the accident because we had not purchased any yet, the insurance came after me for reimbursement of the claim they had paid to the injured party.  I prepared a cover letter in Spanish along with all the documents I needed to support my claim for repayment and mailed it to Marcos.  Hopefully he decides to make good on his debt because we really need the money.

I know that my blog posts are defying the concept of chronological order, but since when does anything in life have a clearly defined beginning, middle, and end?  My stress level is through the roof right now and it will only get worse until Monday morning when we have a decision from immigration officials in Ciudad Juarez.  In response to my elevated level of anxiety, I have had a tension headache all week.  I am hoping to be able to get away with Lizzy for a pedicure at the local nail salon this weekend.  I can’t go by myself or I’ll stress myself out even more about a situation that I can’t do anything about.  I hate having to ‘wait and see’.  This is our lives, our family that is hanging in the balance not some stupid telenovela where no one is ever happy!  What am I going to do if they say no?  Do I just pack up and leave the only life I’ve ever known, leave my family, and friends?  Go to Mexico where instead of Alberto living in fear of the USCIS here, we can all live in fear for our very lives?  How is that remotely fair to me and our daughter?  Don’t we have any say since we are US Citizens?

Alberto is planning on leaving his house for Ciudad Juarez on Saturday.  He will be taking the bus, which he said is about a 24 hour trip.  I feel sorry for him because of how long the trip will take, but it was his decision on how to go.  We discussed the difference between a flight there and the bus so apparently the place ticket was just too much to handle.  We have to see this process through to the very end.  We’ve invested so much time in the whole process, but the Attorney definitely got the lion’s share of the money.  The Attorney is a subject that I should just avoid talking about, so that’s all I’ll say for now.

I know a few people that are pregnant right now, so a popular topic has been baby names and pregnancy oddities.  It’s too bad that all the popular names are the ones I like the best.  Alberto is the one that chose Ashley’s name; I had wanted to name her Bianca.  I thought it was very difficult to find some names to start with where I didn’t personally know someone with that same name.  Another difficulty is making sure that the initials don’t spell anything, and the mean kids at school won’t have an ugly nickname to call your child.  Initials like C.A.T, or names like Richard paired with awkward last name like Player who then become ‘Dick Player’ to all the mean kids at school around puberty.  Cravings are a good conversation starter (chocolate chip ice cream and buttered popcorn) and weird situations (like the time I almost knocked over a display of pots at Macy’s because I lost my balance while walking) often get everyone laughing.

This is a good time to reiterate that I am not using anyone’s real name in this blog.  EVER.  Not my own name, my husband’s name, our daughter’s name or anyone else’s name.  I’m just making up the names as I go, and if you don’t like your blogged name, submit a change request with a $15 dollar fee and your requested name. 

Ciao