Why was a U.S. Citizen (Child) Forcibly Returned to Guatemala? The Story of Emily Ruiz

Read Ruben Navarrette Jr.’s account of the trevails of Emily Ruiz, the 4-year-old U.S. citizen from New York, who — after traveling to Guatemala to visit relatives with her grandfather — was denied entry into the United States by U.S. Customs and Border Protection and instead returned to Guatemala. 

“It’s outrageous,” David Sperling, the family’s attorney, told Navarrette. “Effectively, she was deported. They treated her like an ‘anchor baby,’ like a second-class citizen. I can’t imagine that they would treat any other U.S. citizen this way.” Sperling was asked if he believed that Emily was treated shoddily because she is Latina:  “Absolutely,” he said. “If this was a Caucasian girl from some European country, this would never have happened.” (emphasis added).

This is precisely the kind of case in which teh U.S. government splits up families in the name of enforcement of teh immigration laws that, as I recently blogged about, gets Ninth Circuit Judge Harry Pregerson riled up.

For more on this story, click here.

KJ