Life after deportation: What it's like to start over in a country you barely know

http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/27/americ...inkId=35908961

Mexico City (CNN)Jorge Matadamas is a Mexican citizen, but at 23 years old, everything about the country is brand new to him.

From the time he was 4 years old, when he says his undocumented parents took him across the border into the United States, he lived in Phoenix. "I had lived there for so long that I considered it my home," he said.
Then, on March 7, he was deported.

Now he's living with his uncle and aunt in La Paz, a suburb about an hour and a half drive from the center of Mexico City.
The house, considered to be middle-class in the area, is small compared to the one where he grew up in the United States. His aunt runs a "deposito," or small snack and soda shop, attached to the front of the property.


Jorge Matadamas
"The first couple of days I think were the hardest," he said, "because they were the most emotional for actually realizing that I am not going to go back (to America) anytime soon."

"I didn't show it, but I was homesick."
When it comes to speaking Spanish, Matadamas can generally hold his own in a conversation, he said. He usually has to think of what he is going to say in English first, then translate it in his head.

But he speaks what is often called "Pocho," an unflattering term for Americanized Spanish, and a word that's used to describe Mexicans who have lost their culture.
Matadamas' aunt and uncle's house in La Paz. The "deposito" can be seen out front.

Matadamas' aunt and uncle's house in La Paz. The "deposito" can be seen out front.
'They return without knowing their country'
As the national director of Somos Mexicanos, created by Mexico's immigration department three years ago to help repatriate Mexicans deported from the United States, Dalia Gabriela Garcia Acoltzi said she has seen thousands of people like Matadamas.
"They return speaking better English than Spanish," she said. "They return to Mexico without knowing their own country. They may know they were born here but that is about all they know."

Her organization helps them get proper identification, any required medical attention, and advises them about the various government programs that can assist them as they reassimilate into Mexico.

She said their knowledge of English is actually a great strength. "We are going to need better English teachers," Acoltzi said. "Who better than a Mexican citizen who has learned it as their native language?"

While a few become teachers, she said most get their first jobs at one of the many English call centers in Mexico, or work in the tourist industries that cater to Americans.
Acoltzi said she has seen a decrease in the number of people coming to her agency compared to this time last year. But President Donald Trump's recent executive orders broadening immigration officers' enforcement authority, coupled with his rhetoric about taking a tougher line on unauthorized immigration, have sparked fears among immigrant communities that deportations will rise -- and that more people who have largely known the United States as home will find themselves in Matadamas' situation.
A chance to stay legally, lost after arrest

Matadamas entered the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program in 2014, a measure that granted protections and work privileges to about 750,000 undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as children.
But last August, police stopped and arrested him for drunk driving.
"It was a stupid thing to do, and I made a mistake," Matadamas said, saying he takes responsibility for his actions.

Before that incident, he said he had never broken the law, other than getting a few traffic tickets.
Matadamas spent a month in the county jail before he was able to bond out. But before he was able to leave, ICE officials detained him.
He spent six months in an ICE detention center in Eloy, Arizona. While he was there, he married his longtime girlfriend, Iman, who is a US citizen and still living in Phoenix. But the criminal charges will keep his new wife from being able to petition for Matadamas' citizenship.

After his appeal to the deportation judge was denied, he was bused over the border into the Mexican town of Nogales.
It began to sink in then that Mexico was a foreign country for him in every sense of the word. "I'm actually leaving what I thought home was at one point in life, and going to a complete new country that I had never seen or been to," he said. "It was kinda frightening."

Matadamas has two younger brothers, both US citizens, who still live in Phoenix with his mother and stepfather. The middle brother, who is 18 years old, was able to bring him his clothes and personal items before he was taken over the border.
He only had $120 in his pocket when ICE dropped him off in Nogales. He used some of it to rent a hotel room that first night, before family members were able to get there and bring him back to Mexico City.

Matadamas said he is very appreciative of the small bedroom his aunt and uncle gave him, and wants to furnish the room more when he can. For now the room just contains a bed and a side chair doubling as a nightstand. Along one wall are cardboard boxes filled with supplies that his aunt uses for her business.
"I'm very grateful to them," he said. "They didn't have to take me into their home. They really treated me like one of their own. So I really just want to say thank you."

I feel bad for him; we all make mistakes. But, we cannot afford to make them NOW. Do not do anything stupid.

Especially if you live in Arizona.. SMH

Yeah, we are under zero tolerance right now. I'm older now so I have less bad influences in my life but younger dreamers should never forget who they are and their circumstances when hanging out with American friends. If they do something stupid, the worst thing is they'll go to jail for the night or lose their license for a year. We can't even get a speeding ticket now.

This man. I always keep this in mind. I have friends who do stupid stuff every now and then. And it sucks but I always keep away from it. They will be out in few hours and at most will get some community service. It could be total disaster for me.

This is super sad.

Every mistake an undocumented person does is basically amplified beyond comprehension, and i can only imagine how many other stories like these there are out there but we just never hear about them.

Sure, a DUI is serious, but just imagine one day you're out having a drink and mistakenly decide to drive home; and then after a nightmare that lasts several months between jail and detention, you're suddenly back in a country you don't even know, trying to start all over again.

That to me seems like a brutal punishment. Beyond brutal, in fact. And it goes to show that undocumented people, with DACA or not, are basically under the microscope for the foreseeable future.

This is very sad especially since most DUIs are not what we think. It could have been nothing more then him sitting in his car in a parking lot Everyone makes mistakes .

But one month in jail? Something's not adding up . It was probably a dui of Drugs or with agrivated factors .

If it was a DUI of drugs he is inadmissible under the control substance act and will never be allowed in the US.

The reason his wife could not patition him was because he was EWI and after he committed the crime he was not eligible for a hardship waiver the only relief available to him.

I urge everyone under daca to clear there EWI because if you do you can be saved as long as your crime does not invoked moral turpitude or make you inadmissible and have some sort of relief ( citizen wife ) A simple alcohol dui is not a deportable offense if you qualified for some sort of relief and are not EWI.

Yeah there is more to this story than what we are being lead to believe


http://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/i...m_npd_nn_tw_ma

Same thing, guy got a DUI, arrested, detained by ICE and released... ?

Lucky bastard . . . for now. In any event, stay out of trouble; No stupid mistakes.

When ICE said DACA wasnt safe either, they meant it and at this point they are looking for any excuse to detain us. DUI seem to be most common, but I dont understand why that guy was released and this guy was deported. Hmmmm