‘I didn’t plan on going back. It was unthinkable.’ : If Deportation Tale Had Music, It’d Be ‘Rocky’

As he anxiously awaited his fate Friday, Jose Luis Romero, a 20-year-old paraplegic facing deportation to Mexico, thought that background music should be playing, as if it were a television drama, instead of an immigration hearing.

His reaction was a measure of the feeling in the small, plain government hearing room in downtown Los Angeles as Immigration Judge Thomas Y. K. Fong reviewed the evidence and dictated his decision suspending the deportation of the Cal Poly Pomona hotel management student.

“Wow,” Romero said afterwards. Tears came to his eyes, and at first, he spoke only in incomplete sentences--words like “very pleased,” and “elated.”

Damp-eyed witnesses, who had testified on his behalf, leaned over his wheelchair to embrace him.

“I didn’t plan on going back,” Romero said. “It was unthinkable.”

Had Been a Possibility

Nevertheless, deportation to Central Mexico, where his impoverished parents still live and which he last saw as a 7-year-old paralyzed polio victim, was a possibility, despite Romero’s refusal to think the unthinkable.

And, the fact that he now will be allowed to stay in the United States is the result not only of Romero’s own qualities, discussed at Friday’s hearing, but also the concerns of friends and strangers who offered their support.

To the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, Jose Romero was an illegal alien, even though he had been brought to the United States by relatives who abandoned him in Southern California when he was 9, and he had became a ward of the Juvenile Court.

No one had obtained citizenship for him, even though his first foster parents, Roby and Connie Paul of San Dimas, urged Romero’s social worker to resolve the question of his status. They said they were told, “This takes time. Be patient.”

Romero was told in late 1983, however, that he could be deported after graduating from high school.

“I was terrified,” he told a Times reporter last year. “It was scary thinking about going back to Mexico. I’ve been here so long that I feel I am an American, a part of this society. When I hear people say those words-- illegal alien --I pull back, I contract into myself. I’m afraid people will reject me.”

A Times article on Romero’s plight attracted the attention of attorney Jack Golan of the Los Angeles legal firm of Popkin, Shamir & Golan. He offered legal assistance to Romero without charge.

Uses Rare Maneuver

Deciding on a rare maneuver, the attorney surrendered Romero to the INS for a deportation hearing, then moved to suspend deportation under provisions in the law.

“In this particular case, the Immigration Service behaved like an organization with a heart,” Golan said. “Normally, the channels inside the Immigration Service are very clogged but in this case, when we requested the procedure, they really acted with great dispatch.”

Romero’s case came up for a hearing in less than a year.

“I would say you could compare it to an iceberg sprouting wings and flying,” Golan said. “The Immigration Service acted with great consideration in this case.”

U.S. Sen. Pete Wilson joined in attempting to help Romero. After first considering the introduction of a special congressional bill on Romero’s behalf, the California Republican settled on seeking an administrative remedy. In a letter submitted as evidence Friday, Wilson “strongly supported” Romero.

Others came forward Friday to do what they could on Romero’s behalf: Michele Patterson from Wilson’s office; Blanca Lowry, a travel counselor from Glendale; Art Mason, a guidance counselor at Gladstone High School in Azusa; Dorothy Fleck, a counselor at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, and Carol Goldstein, the university’s director of services for disabled students.

They described him as an “above-average student,” “a good student,” and a conscientious individual who gets along well with others. They predicted Romero’s success in business.

Reviewing the evidence at Friday’s hearing, Fong noted that Romero had graduated 30th in a class of 205 at Gladstone High; that his major language ability is in English, not Spanish; that he has lived in the United States for about 12 years, has good moral character and would suffer “extreme hardship” if forced to return to Mexico.

Romero now has a job as a student assistant at Cal Poly, where he lives in a dormitory.

Has Benefactor

And he has a fund for his education. A Hollywood businessman, who read about his plight, became Romero’s benefactor. Instead of sending his customers Christmas cards and the usual bottles of liquor, he mailed cards saying that donations had been made in each of their names to an education fund for Romero.

The businessman also made Romero the guest of honor at an annual employee Christmas party, and gave the young man a station wagon equipped with hand controls.

Outside the hearing room after Fong’s ruling on Friday, Romero and Mason looked at each other and warmly embraced.

“We did it!” they chorused.

If it had been set to music, it might have been the theme from “Rocky.”