Dream Act-Eligible Victim of Fraudster Attorney Walter Pineda Set for Deportation Thursday

By Lauren Smiley Mon., Jun. 14 2010 at 2:11 PM

Categories: Immigration

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UPDATE 5:40 p.m.: An ICE officer called Ramirez to tell her she does not have to leave the country on Thursday, says immigration attorney Mark Silverman. Her deportation is postponed while immigration officials consider whether to grant her another stay or reconsider her case all together. "It's not a complete victory; they don't want to rush their decision," Silverman says. We'll keep you updated as to what happens.

A victim of the San Francisco-based ex-attorney Walter Pineda -- who defrauded immigrant clients out of thousands of dollars to bring long-shot asylum cases that had little chance of winning -- faces deportation Thursday if she cannot win a last-minute reprieve from immigration authorities.

The attorneys of Yessica Ramirez, a 25-year-old Mexican national who has lived in the Bay Area since she was two, applied for a stay on her deportation order last week and contacted Senators Jackie Speier, Dianne Feinstein, and Barbara Boxer to intercede on her behalf. (The number of the congressional switchboard if you're interested in calling yourself: 202-224-3121.) After the press conference today at her pro bono attorneys' firm, Foley & Lardner, in downtown San Francisco, Ramirez was scheduled to present her ICE case officer with her one-way flight itinerary to Mexico. She is hoping something will happen in the next 72 hours so she won't have to board it.

Ramirez was first ordered deported in 2003 when she and her parents lost their immigration cases for which they'd paid Pineda more than $15,000 to represent them. Pineda preyed on the immigrant population yearning for a legal path to legitimacy with a scam we wrote about in a 2006 cover story, "The Asylum Trap." The state bar association was seeking Pineda's disbarment and accused him of "despicable and far-reaching pattern of misconduct," but he resigned before he could be disbarred in October 2006. Pineda is currently not allowed to practice law in California.

Ramirez's 12-year-old U.S. citizen brother Ramon (left) and U.S. citizen husband Gene Cho Padilla (right) will move to Mexico to be with her if she is deported.

Ramirez and her parents had ignored the 2003 deportation order and gone underground -- her mother working as a nanny, her father in construction, and Ramirez attending San Francisco State University and marrying U.S. citizen Gene Padilla, five years ago. ICE tracked down her father in 2008 and deported him; her mother drove back to Mexico soon after. Since then, Ramirez and Padilla have been taking care of Ramirez' 12-year-old brother, Ramon, and are currently seeking legal custody.

Ramirez says ICE officers caught her during a traffic stop during a enforcement action in September, and gave her two weeks to leave the country. Ramirez contacted attorneys, and has won two stays of deportation, the second of which expires on Friday.

Padilla and Ramon plan to join Ramirez in Mexico if she's deported, though Padilla speaks no Spanish. "I have no idea how I'll make a living for my family," he said. Ramon, who is a U.S. citizen, takes daily medicine covered by MediCal to treat his epilepsy. His parents are currently unemployed in Mexico and have no money to buy him medication. Yet he, too, will leave for Mexico if his older sister is deported, because his two other U.S. citizen sisters have their own children and can't take care of him.

Particularly maddening about Ramirez' case is that she is eligible for the Dream Act, the pending legislation that gives immigrants brought as children to the United States and attend college a pathway to permanent residency. (Local college students staged a protest for the Dream Act last week.) Yet to be eligible for the bill's benefits, you have to have been continuously in the United States for five years. Ramirez has been here for more than 20 years and hopes to get a bachelor's and master's degree in sociology, but if she is deported, she could not apply for the Dream Act's benefits from outside the country.

She says she'd like to be a social worker. "I feel like I have to give back to the country for getting a free education. Its been a blessing. I've always wanted to give back." Ramirez attempted to join the Army after high school, but could not be accepted since she was in the country illegally.

Also, Padilla cannot petition for a marriage visa since she has an order of deportation.

So Ramirez is stuck, and hoping that one of many legal avenues her attorneys have sought in the last week comes through -- a stay of deportation, reopening her deportation case, or getting a senator to intervene and potentially sponsor a private bill that would allow her to stay.

What does she have to say to Pineda? "I hope his own conscience is speaking to him right now," Ramirez said. "I really have nothing to say to him. I just hope he has a conscience that speaks to him and lets him know he's ruined a lot of lives. He's given a lot of false hope and I hope he knows that and reflects upon that. Because all that money he has is dirty money."

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