Council Passes Resolution Supporting Fourth Grader Denied Entry to U.S.

By Bay City New Service

The Berkeley City Council has voted unanimously to approve a resolution in support of a Berkeley fourth-grader who wasn't allowed to return home when his family tried to come back to the U.S. from Mexico in January.

Councilman Kriss Worthington, who authored the resolution along with colleagues Jesse Arreguin and Max Anderson, said 9-year-old Rodrigo Guzman and his parents, Reyna Diaz Mayida and Javier Ponce Guzman, were detained by federal authorities in Houston on Jan. 10 when they returned from a trip to Mexico because the parents' visas had expired.

The family was told that they could not re-apply for a visa for five years and was sent back to the Mexico City area, Worthington said.

Rodrigo has lived in Berkeley since he was two years old and was a student at Jefferson Elementary School in Berkeley, Worthington said.

A similar resolution was passed by the Berkeley school board last week.

The City Council's resolution, passed at its meeting Tuesday night, says Rodrigo and his family were detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials in Houston and prevented from returning home to Berkeley. But ICE spokeswoman Virginia Kice said her office wasn't involved in the matter and it was handled by U.S. Customs and Border Protection because it's the agency responsible for determining the admissibility of aliens at ports of entry.

Yolanda Choates, a spokeswoman for the Customs and Border Protection office in Houston, said she can't comment on the specifics of Rodrigo's situation because of privacy laws.

But Choates said that under immigration law applicants for admission "bear the burden of proof to establish that they are clearly eligible to enter the U.S."

She said, "In order to demonstrate that they are admissible, the applicant must overcome all grounds of inadmissibility."

Choates said there are more than 60 grounds of inadmissibility, including documentation requirements. She said that if a child has a valid visa but his parents don't he would only to be allowed to enter the U.S. if there was an adult who was prepared to receive the child and accept custody of the child.

The resolution approved by the City Council calls on President Obama, Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, and U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, D-California, to support the family's return.

Worthington said five of Rodrigo's classmates are hoping to travel to Washington, D.C., during their upcoming spring break to lobby Congress and even the president for Rodrigo and for immigration reform.

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