Immigration Law Separates Valley Pair

As the blackness of night surrounded them, Luis Gabriel Gurrea and his wife, Mireya, slept soundly in their bed, unprepared for the nightmare that was about to unfold.

About 4:30 a.m. they were awakened by rustling sounds in the backyard. When they sat up, a harsh spotlight was beamed into their eyes. Fists pounding on the door followed. Then, immigration agents stormed the house and asked, “What’s your name?” When Gurrea answered, officials twisted his arms behind his back, handcuffed and arrested him.

Terrified and in tears, Mireya grabbed their 6-month-old daughter Megan and cried, “Stop! It’s a mistake.”

Within 48 hours of the Sept. 15 raid, Gurrea--who entered the country legally in 1988--was separated from his family, thrown into jail and deported to his homeland, Argentina. Left alone to support their daughter, Mireya wondered how the life they built in this country had so easily been ripped apart.

“Do they just destroy families like this?” she asked.

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Under tougher immigration laws passed by Congress in 1996 that expanded the definition of who is deportable, Gurrea became caught in a bureaucratic snare that ruined his family. The law was designed so the Immigration and Naturalization Service could easily deport illegal immigrants. But, critics complain, the law overextends its reach to include legal entrants like Gurrea who misunderstood the new process and failed to file documents for permanent residency on time.

Whether the soft-spoken office supervisor with no criminal record is allowed to return to his family could become a litmus test for how the new rules should be applied. Although the law says Gurrea is barred from entering the country for 10 years, a new waiver makes an exception if the spouse will suffer extreme hardship by the separation.

Few would argue that Mireya is not enduring emotional hardship. Earlier this year, she testified in a Van Nuys courtroom that she was the victim of a vicious rape.

“I need my husband home,” said Mireya Gurrea, 32. “I’m not a regular person. I’m still recovering from this horrible sexual attack. How do they think I feel when I’m home alone?”

Meanwhile, the 39-year-old man sobbed on the telephone from Buenos Aires as he described the traumatic episode that has transformed his life.

“They never let me explain anything,” he said of the INS officials at the San Pedro jail, where he was held for two days. “I’m not a criminal. I paid my taxes every year. I just want to be back with my wife and daughter. Here in Argentina, I have nothing.”

Gurrea came to Los Angeles in 1988 and applied for temporary residency under the late amnesty program. In January 1994, he met Mireya and was immediately captivated by her. They found an apartment in Sherman Oaks and began living together that summer.

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When he returned to the United States after a brief trip to Argentina in November 1995, his problems began. Immigration officials stopped him at Los Angeles International Airport and entered his alien registration number into the computer. The agents discovered his temporary visa had expired and ordered a hearing before an immigration judge.

At the hearing in early 1996, Gurrea was told his application to change his status from temporary to permanent residency had been denied because he never filed the proper paperwork. The judge ordered him “excluded” on March 13, 1996, which meant he had to leave the country. But, Gurrea said, on the mistaken advice of an attorney, he ignored the exclusion order. The attorney said that since he planned to marry Mireya the next year, Gurrea could remain in Los Angeles and file for change of status as spouse of U.S. citizen.

In 1996, President Clinton signed the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, which cracked down on illegal immigrants living in the United States. Because Gurrea had not filed for permanent residency, the INS argued he was in the country illegally at that time and under the new law, exclusion became an order of deportation.

To make matters worse, on Dec. 30, 1996, Mireya was brutally assaulted outside her home by a serial rapist preying on Latinas. To help cope with the trauma after the attack, she sought therapy. But, she said, it was her husband who pulled her through.

“Throughout the whole ordeal, he was so patient. Every time I started feeling bad, he would run a hot bath for me or just talk to make me feel better,” she said. “I could’ve never done it without him.”

Due in part to her testimony in court, the attacker, Jose Zarate, was convicted and sentenced to 157 years to life in prison.

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Now, the horrible incident may help bring her husband back home. She is seeking a waiver that would allow him back into the country based on her still fragile emotional state. She has also written to U.S. Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer for assistance in her appeal.

INS officials said that only a handful of the waivers have been granted since the law was enacted. But to be issued a waiver, the consulate of the immigrant’s native country must approve it. Requests are decided on a case-by-case basis.

“The way you survive something like this depends on the daily support you have at home,” she said. “I’m always going to have these emotional scars. They never heal.”

Since the new laws went into effect, deportations in the Los Angeles area have increased dramatically. In 1996, the INS deported 6,890 illegal immigrants. The next year, the agency ordered 9,278 illegals to leave the country.

“The law was meant to target people who had orders to leave and did not comply with those orders,” said INS district director Richard Rogers.

Currently, there are 4,925 illegal immigrants in Los Angeles who have been issued final deportation orders.

But Jean Butterfield, executive director of the American Immigration Lawyers Assn. in Washington, D.C., believes the law goes too far and snags people simply confused about the requirements, like Gurrea. Her organization and several others are contemplating appeals to the legislation, saying it was blindly put into effect without any regulations or guidelines.

“On the face, he is deportable. Yet, it seems cases like this should not be high priorities for the INS,” she said.

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Mireya and Gabriel Gurrea married on Oct. 25, 1997. Shortly after, Gurrea applied for an adjustment to his status and paid the fee: a whopping $1,210. In April, he received a letter and receipt for the fee, which gave him the impression that his paperwork was in order. The letter said: “Adjustment of status has been received.”

“They took the $1,210 check, cashed it and in turn, deported my husband,” she said. “Our marriage was not based on a green card. Don’t they realize what they’ve done to my life?”

Gurrea’s lawyer, Roger Gleckman, said the fact that the INS took the money is irrelevant to the case because the deportation order precedes the application to change his status.

“All that shows is how inept the agency is. The left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing,” he said.

In addition to the waiver that would make an exception to the 10-year ban, Gleckman must also file two other documents to get Gurrea back in the United States--a new visa petition and a waiver of exclusion of deportability.

Meanwhile, Mireya Gurrea is in an impossible financial situation. Because she cannot pay for a three-bedroom house in Van Nuys on her salary, she is searching for a small apartment for herself and her daughter. To raise some extra money, she is selling her husband’s truck and most of their furniture.

“If I was strong enough for the [rape] trial, I have to be strong enough to get him back,” she said.