COLD AS ICE: A STORY OF FAMILY VALUES

Mauricio Barragan, whose parents brought him here from Bolivia when
he was 1 year old, had a bad year when he was 17.

He got a girl pregnant.

And he was convicted and received deferred adjudication for
possessing a small amount of marijuana, a Class B misdemeanor.
Earlier he had a juvenile drug conviction at age 15.

During the next eight years, Barragan, now 26, completed his
marijuana probation successfully. He graduated in the top quarter of
his Katy High School class.

He worked for nearly eight years at Target, rising to team leader in
the electronics section before leaving for another job. He was
described by his Target supervisor as "the kind of leader that any
aspiring business would want on their team."

He faithfully paid child support and provided medical insurance for
his son and has been an active father to him, spending weekends with
him. He and the boy's mother have remained friends.

College Student

He helped buy a house where he and his sister live with his disabled
father and his mother. He paid half the monthly mortgage and
utilities. And he earned enough credits at the University of Houston
to be a senior with a dual major of biology and journalism. Meanwhile
he and his sister, both legal residents, applied for citizenship,
which his parents already acquired. If we were looking for a poster
boy for the criminal justice system working to turn a misbehaving
youth around, Barragan would be our man. But in February 2007,
Mauricio, who is a legal resident and had applied to join his parents
as a citizen, was stopped for a traffic citation and found to have a
suspended driver's license.

Back to Bolivia?

A check by the officer turned up the drug charge. Any past drug
conviction now requires that an alien, even one here legally, be
held. So Barragan was taken to jail.

But if the drug conviction is for less than 30 grams of marijuana, a
judge can rule that the legal alien can stay if his deportation would
cause "extreme hardship" -- not to him, but to an immediate relative.

So Barragan was locked up for eight months in a privately run jail
operated for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) while the
government gathered evidence to have him deported to Bolivia, which
he had not seen since he was a baby and where he has no relatives.

In October, an immigration judge held a hearing in which Barragan's
lawyer presented evidence of "extreme hardship," which would justify
a waiver from extradition for a previous adult drug offense.

The hardship, by law, does not apply to the potential deportee. It
applies only to immediate relatives. With every politician in America
talking about "family values," you might think that the courts would
easily rule that it is an extreme hardship for a 9-year-old boy to be
deprived of a father who was shown to be an active and supportive
parent. You would be wrong. So Barragan's lawyer, Michael Rojas, put
on evidence of hardship on Barragan's son, Angel, including a
psychologist's testimony that the trauma of losing his father had
sent the boy into clinical depression.

Angel is a gifted-and-talented 4th-grader, but his mother, Tina Lara,
said his grades began to suffer. "The psychologist said there are a
lot of anger issues, and putting the anger in the wrong place," she
said. In addition, Barragan's financial assistance had enabled her to
work part-time. With him incarcerated, she had to work full-time,
taking time away from Angel. "The judge told me I wasn't suffering
financial hardship," Lara said. "It was all about money. I told him
if Mauricio never gave me another penny Angel would still need him."

Mauricio's parents also needed him. With a bad back and diabetes,
Jorge Barragan cannot work. His wife, Margarita, taught in public
schools for years and now teaches Spanish privately. Without
Mauricio's payments they could not keep up the mortgage. Foreclosure
proceedings were started while he was incarcerated.

In addition, the strain of having his son jailed and facing
deportation worsened Jorge's condition. It was on the basis of the
financial hardship on Mauricio's parents that the judge agreed to
grant him a waiver, reinstating his legal status and ability to work.

Mauricio was ready to celebrate. But the government said it might
appeal, so he was taken back to prison. On the last day of the 30-day
limit, James Manning, assistant chief counsel of ICE's Houston
office, filed a notice of appeal. That would mean another five months
of incarceration for Barragan, another five months of fear for his
family and depression and anger for Angel.

This story has a happy ending, but that, together with further
details and observations, will require another column.