Immigration case of Willmar boy, 10, goes to court

By Chao Xiong, Star Tribune

Last update: October 4, 2007 - 9:33 PM

Sammy Diaz-Maldonado hung onto his mother's waist when armed immigration officials burst into a friend's home in Willmar, Minn., early one morning in April.

But two Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers pulled the 9-year-old away, questioned the frightened boy for a half-hour about his background and parents, and used the information to start deportation proceedings against him, said his attorneys.

"Horrible, just horrible," Sammy, now 10, said Thursday as he recalled the incident.

The fourth-grader was in immigration court Thursday morning in Bloomington, where his attorneys filed a motion to suppress evidence in his case. They also filed motions to investigate the April 10 incident and terminate the proceedings against Sammy.

A judge will respond to those motions at a hearing on Oct. 25.

Attorneys Gloria Contreras Edin and Rachel Bengtson said ICE officials violated the Fourth and Fifth Amendments by raiding the home and questioning a minor without a parent or attorney present. They also assert that ICE officials violated the Immigration and Naturalization Act.

ICE arrested 49 people during four days of home and workplace searches in Willmar six months ago, which the agency described as "knock-and-talk operations."

Spokesman Greg Palmore said he couldn't comment on Sammy's case, but noted that ICE generally keeps children and parents together in deportation proceedings. He also said that "the letter of the law was followed" in several home raids that occurred in Willmar that month.

"Our job is not to ignore the law," Palmore said.

Sammy's attorneys refused to say whether his parents are facing any immigration proceedings; his mother accompanied him to court Thursday. A male relative also appeared in court for a separate deportation proceeding.

Sammy's mother, Jenny Maldonado-Arriaga, was at the friend's home during the 8 a.m. raid but was kept several yards from her son. She doesn't speak English and couldn't understand what was being said to him, said Contreras Edin, executive director of Centro Legal, a St. Paul-based nonprofit provider of legal services to low-income Latinos.

"[Sammy] was crying, he was shaking, and he was scared," Conreras Edin said, adding that Sammy vomited twice after being questioned.

It's not uncommon for minors to undergo deportation proceedings, but what is unusual in Sammy's case is the manner in which he was questioned, she said. Bengtson told Judge Kristin Olmanson that the statements of a frightened child are "inherently suspect" in court.

ICE officials routinely interview minors without a parent or guardian present and use that information to begin removal, or deportation, proceedings, said Michele Garnett McKenzie, director of the refugee and immigrant program at Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights.

In most of those cases, however, a parent or guardian is not readily available, unlike in Sammy's case, she added.

"This to me doesn't show extremely good judgment by immigration officials to ignore the parent," McKenzie said. "[Children] really are treated as adults in the immigration system."

Sammy's attorneys did not say whether he is in the country legally, saying their case rests on grounds that the government collected evidence against him incorrectly. He is also listed as one of 53 plaintiffs in a civil suit against the federal government.

Chao Xiong • 612-673-4391

Chao Xiong • cxiong@startribune.com

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