INS Frees Man After 9 Months

A former gang member who has tried to redeem himself since a 1990 drug conviction walked out of a federal detention center in San Pedro on Tuesday and into the arms of his wife and sons, after immigration authorities agreed to set bail for him.

Tony Alvarado, 29, of San Fernando posted $10,000 bond and was freed from the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service Processing Center on Terminal Island, one of two federal jails where he has spent the last nine months.

“It’s good to be reunited with my family. It’s good just to touch them again,” Alvarado said immediately after his release. “I’ve been dying for this day to come. I feel great.”

Alvarado, who owns a home with his wife, teaches Bible classes and has been honored by the LAPD for wrestling a suspect into handcuffs. But he has been haunted by two realities of his past: He has been an illegal immigrant almost since birth, and as a 19-year-old, he was convicted of drug possession. He has twice been deported and twice returned.

Alvarado says he has not been connected to gang life since his youth. But in August, as local and federal authorities were investigating a San Fernando Valley gang, they asked him to wear a hidden recording device and return to gang life to work as an informant, Alvarado said. He refused.

A month later, he was indicted on charges of reentering the country illegally after deportation, an offense that carries a maximum sentence of 20 years for someone with a criminal background. His trial is set for June 13 in federal court.

“It’s been crazy,” Alvarado said. “The whole thing, since my first arrest, has been following me for 10 years. I can’t live a normal life.”

Alvarado was greeted outside the detention center Tuesday by his wife, Maricela Carmona-Alvarado, and their three sons, Anthony Jr., 7, Andrew, 3, and Adam, 2. They embraced for several minutes before heading to a family celebration in San Fernando.

“We couldn’t believe it. This is such good news,” Maricela said. “We were completely caught off guard by the granting of bail.”

On Monday afternoon, Thomas Schiltgen, the district director for the INS in Los Angeles, signed the order granting Alvarado bail. David A. Katz, Alvarado’s attorney, described the decision as rare for the agency.

“The INS has shown some compassion in this case,” Katz said. “Tony deserves it. His family deserves it. He doesn’t belong in jail. He belongs out in the community.”

Katz contends that his client’s 1990 drug conviction is dubious at best because witnesses have said the drug involved did not belong to Alvarado. The PCP, he says, was found by Los Angeles police anti-gang officers inside a car Alvarado was driving but did not own.

By many accounts, Alvarado has tried to turn his life around since his drug case. He returned to Pacoima and his high school sweetheart, Maricela, a U.S. citizen.

Alvarado says he took a job at the David M. Gonzalez Pacoima Recreation Center, where he organized bodybuilding classes and softball and football games as an alternative to gang activity. He also organized a graffiti-cleaning team and was promoted to assistant park director.

In 1992, when rioting broke out, Alvarado helped protect a local Korean American-owned liquor store. His pastor also has praised his Bible class teaching and called him a “good citizen.”

Katz said he will seek a postponement of Alvarado’s trial and try to discuss the case with federal prosecutors in an attempt to get the illegal reentry charges dropped.

“Tony should never have been convicted in the first place. He should have never been deported,” Katz said. “He is someone who has contributed to society. But the government won’t let him live down what happened as a teenager.”