Resident Alien Illegally Deported to Tijuana by INS Is Asking $1 Million

A 16-year-old U.S. resident who was picked up on a Santa Ana street and deported to Mexico three years ago filed suit Friday against the Immigration and Naturalization Service, saying he has suffered severe emotional problems because of the experience.

Mario Moreno-Lopez, who had been granted permanent-resident alien status by the INS before his deportation, is seeking $1 million in damages, according to the lawsuit filed in Los Angeles federal court.

In a case that attracted widespread attention, Mario was arrested by federal agents during a February, 1984, sweep and was sent by bus to Tijuana, Mexico. The boy, who had no money, tried to cross the border a few days later but was sent back by INS agents. Six days after his first arrest, he made his way into San Diego and was reunited with his family.

Mario and his father, Juan Moreno Garcia, who now live in Houston, filed suit because the INS had not responded to an administrative claim filed by the family against the agency, said William Blum, one of the family’s attorneys.

“The INS was probably hoping the Morenos would go away and forget this,” Blum said.

“We felt if we allowed the case to sit on the INS back burner much longer, memories would fade and witnesses would disappear,” added Peter A. Schey, the family’s other attorney and executive director of the National Center for Immigrants’ Rights in Los Angeles.

INS officials have denied any wrongdoing in the case but declined to comment on the lawsuit because they had not yet seen it.

Pick-Up Spot for Laborers

Mario was 14 years old when INS agents arrested him and about 30 other individuals at the corner of 5th and Euclid streets. At the time, the Santa Ana street corner was a popular pick-up spot for day laborers.

The boy told INS agents that he had left his green card at home, but they did not believe him and denied his request to call his father, according to the lawsuit. The father had asked that the boy keep his green card at home so he would not lose it, the lawsuit said.

Federal officers, who said they had no idea that the boy was 14, failed to read him a list of minors’ rights, as required by law. Those rights include the ability to have an attorney and the right to contact a free legal services office prior to deportation.

Moreno-Lopez was placed in a van with about 30 other individuals, taken to Los Angeles and then driven by bus to Mexico. While the boy was in custody, he signed a form agreeing to voluntary deportation. But he later told reporters that he had done so because he had been coerced and was afraid of being beaten by INS officers.

Sharon Greenspan, assistant regional counsel for the INS, said: “It is our belief that the officers were not acting at all improperly. The issue in this case was whether or not he ever made it known to officials that he was a juvenile.”

Looked Older When Arrested

The federal agents who arrested the boy said he looked much older than 14. Moreover, INS agents said, Mario had told them he was in the United States illegally, an allegation that Moreno-Lopez’s attorneys have denied.

Greenspan also said it has never been “shown what the damages really are in this matter.”

Schey said Moreno-Lopez is working with his father on construction jobs in Texas. He said the teen-ager wanted to leave Santa Ana because he “lived in a constant state of fear . . . “ after his experience with the INS.

The controversy over Moreno-Lopez’s deportation prompted a federal judge to issue a temporary restraining order against deporting juveniles. The order, however, was later lifted by another judge.

“I’m rather appalled that the INS operates in the form it does,” U.S. District Judge Terry J. Hatter Jr. said when he issued the ruling. Hatter, a former Juvenile Court judge, said such mistakes can cause “irreparable damage” to juveniles.