The Emilio Maya Saga Continues

I wrote about this story last month, but the story of Emilio Maya and his sister Analia has quietly continued to move forward with some new twists and turns included. As this new report indicates, it seems that the Mayas have been working with immigration enforcement officials for several years, asked to help gather information on illegal activity in their community in exchange for a series of extensions on work permits and avoiding deportation. But that came to an end last year when Emilio was arrested and both he and his sister are currently scheduled to be deported next month.

The media is once again working hard to build a sympathetic narrative of the poor immigrants, abused – and perhaps confused – by a mean spirited government when they were really hard working, well intentioned folk just trying to fit in. And for all we know, that’s not a completely inaccurate description. But the article does manage to reveal one other point which is otherwise whitewashed from the record.

Like so many other immigrant workers here in the Hudson Valley, the Mayas had overstayed their visitor visas years earlier. Their days were haunted by the fact that they could be deported at any time.

Maybe the Mayas were used like pawns by ICE, though even that story – told almost entirely from the family’s point of view – has been called into question. Their friend and local police officer, Sidney Mills, who has been trying to help the Mayas for some time, saw the results of the ICE response and said, “there must be something I don’t know.”

ICE seems to admit that they allowed the couple to remain in the country as long as they were helping investigate other criminal immigrant activity, luring them with the offer of a Visa for their help, but they say that the work done by Emilio didn’t result in any significant arrests or progress.

But none of this changes the original fact highlighted above. The Mayas entered the country on a short term visitor visa and stayed on for years after it expired prior to contacting and working with ICE officials, knowing full well that they were here illegally and could be arrested and deported at any time. They had the option of beginning the naturalization process at any time, just like everyone else, even if it meant temporarily going back home while working through the steps. They chose not to do that.

This hasn’t stopped their Congressman, Maurice Hinchey (a resident of their home town) from introducing a personal bill in Congress, H.R.4618, to intervene and grant the couple long term legal status. The question, once again, is not whether or not the siblings are “good people” who came here to work and achieve the American dream. The real question is whether or not we take our immigration laws seriously. Do we want to reward those who skirt the rules and knowingly act illegally or those who follow the processes which are in place and join our nation in the legal, conventional fashion. The Mayas may be fine people with the best of intentions, but what of the next immigrants who overstay their visa and have more sinister plans? This is no time to be playing games with immigration laws.