‘Where Is He? Where Did They Take Him?’ : Wives Agonize After Husbands Are Seized

Tears welled in Maria Gomez’s eyes as she asked in Spanish, “Where is he? Where is my husband? Where did they take him?”

Minutes earlier, the tiny woman learned that her husband, Angel Gomez, 28, of Santa Ana, had been taken into custody by police in the city of Orange about 8:30 a.m. Tuesday.

Two hours later, her husband had been turned over to immigration authorities and was being taken to the U.S.-Mexico border, she learned.

Windshield Wipers Didn’t Work

Gomez was stopped for driving a battered old truck with windshield wipers that didn’t work and for having a dirty license plate. He was taken into custody because “he did not have a California driver’s license or any other identification on him,” Orange Police Officer Jack Nanagian explained.

Gomez was one of 12 men taken into custody Tuesday in Orange on the seventh day of the Police Department’s controversial crackdown on Spanish-speaking laborers who gather on street corners in search of jobs. City and police officials have said the enforcement effort resulted from complaints by local business owners and residents, who say the workers create a public nuisance. The most frequent complaints, city officials said, have been about drinking and urinating in public and use of profanity on store customers.

Since the sweeps began last Wednesday along a one-mile stretch of Chapman Avenue in east Orange, police have been stopping and citing people for minor infractions such as driving with bald tires or inoperative windshield wipers, loitering and jaywalking. Those who cannot produce proof of legal residency are being turned over to the U.S. Border Patrol for possible deportation.

As of Tuesday, 106 people had been taken to the Border Patrol checkpoint south of San Clemente, police said. Two of the 12 arrested Tuesday were returned to Orange after Border Patrol officers determined that they were eligible for amnesty under the new immigration reform guidelines.

But behind those statistics there is also the human toll, the anxiety of friends and loved ones left behind.

Angelica Lara said she last saw her husband when he left their apartment in Orange early Tuesday for his job as a roofer.

Jose Luis Lara, 21, and two other men had shared a ride with a friend, Mario Gonzales. But Gonzales’ vehicle was pulled over by police in Orange. Lara and another acquaintance, Geraldo Gomez, were to be cited for not wearing seat belts. But they were arrested when they could produce no identification.

“What kind of a country is this where you get arrested for not having a seat belt? My husband’s not a criminal,” Angelica Lara said as she hugged the couple’s 4-month-old son, Juan Luis.

When Gonzales contacted her later to explain what had happened, Lara said she peppered him with questions.

“I asked his friend, Mario, if he was driving too fast. But Mario said, ‘No.’ I asked him, ‘What were you doing then?’ He said, ‘Nothing. Just driving and they stopped us.’ ”

Later, during a telephone interview, Gonzales asked one question: “Why?”

“We weren’t doing anything wrong, just going to work. And two of my friends get deported for not having seat belts. This is wrong,” Gonzales said. “They (the police) are treating us like criminals, as if we’re robbers or something.”

Angelica Lara said the couple have no telephone or funds to hire an attorney and fight her husband’s arrest. “I’ll just have to remain here in our apartment until he can find a way to communicate with me. There’s no other way.”

A family friend said her husband was at least fortunate that he was apprehended with a companion. But the two had only $15 between them, the friend said.

Rather than sit and do nothing, other friends suggested Angelica hire a smuggler, a coyote, to help smuggle Lara from Mexico into the United States and eventually back to Orange County.

But Angelica Lara said the cost--usually from $250 to $400--is exorbitant. The new mother said she is presently unemployed and that the couple have been living with two other families, who help share living expenses, in a $650-a-month, two-bedroom apartment.

Angelica Lara said the couple had hoped that he could find steady employment and earn enough money to eventually obtain a work permit. Although she was born in Mexico, their infant son was born in San Jose, Calif., where Lara had been employed as a carpet layer.

By nightfall Tuesday, several family friends were leaning toward the coyote idea.

But Angelica Lara insisted that any added bills, such as paying a coyote, would quickly deplete what little the couple had saved since their move from Northern California to Orange County late last year.

Meanwhile, in her Santa Ana home, 24-year-old Maria Gomez was doing her best to keep from falling apart emotionally.

It was only three months ago that she and her husband, Angel, left their five children with relatives near Guadalajara and immigrated illegally to Santa Ana.

“We heard there were plenty of jobs here in Orange County,” Gomez explained.

They were told that their dreams could be realized here in the promised land, she said.

But with large companies facing pressure from the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service not to hire illegal aliens, her husband only found day labor, she said.

A carpenter in Mexico, she said, her husband first worked shoveling dirt in the United States, then gardening. Eventually, his wife said, he landed a semi-permanent job with a Santa Ana family who ran a tree-trimming business.

On Tuesday morning, Gomez was driving the tree trimmer’s heavily laden truck along Chapman Avenue through Orange, heading for a landfill.

Light rain showers that had dampened hillsides also proved to be Gomez’s downfall when a traffic officer noticed that the truck’s windshield wipers were inoperable.

He was stopped with three other men, who were released. Only Gomez was taken into custody when he could not produce identification.

A fearful Maria Gomez said Tuesday afternoon that her husband had no money when he was arrested, and she did not think he knew the telephone number of the tree trimmer’s home, where they had recently moved.

Ironically, she said, the couple recently had concluded that life in the United States was “too painful, too difficult” and that they wanted to return to Mexico.

Now, she is alone, living with the tree trimmer, Sikipio Fehoko, who is Tongan, and his wife, who do not speak Spanish or enough English to communicate with Gomez.

“It’s mostly hand signals,” said Nyoko Mataele, a family friend.

“We’re Tongan. We’ll take care of her until her husband comes back,” Mataele said.

Maria Gomez leaned against a wall and began sobbing.