Fate of US-born kid of illegal immigrants unclear

LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga.: His mother left when he was very young. His illegal immigrant father was deported.

Now, a 13-year-old boy waits for a Georgia court to decide his fate. Among the court's options are keeping the boy in the only country he's ever known, living as a ward of the state, or sending him to his father in Guatemala.

It's a tangled case that defies easy solutions. The boy is a U.S. citizen who has never set foot in Guatemala and says he wants to stay in his native country. His father, a bus driver without regular work, says he would gladly take his child though he agrees the boy would be better off in the U.S.

But the boy has a history of being rebellious and stubborn and has behavioral problems, which make him hard to place with a foster family.

Beatriz Illescas Putzeys, Guatemala's consul general in Atlanta, said that while she usually argues for family reunification, in this case she is prepared to argue that the boy should stay here because he is a U.S. citizen and would have access to better education and counseling.

``It is highly unusual, totally unusual,'' Illescas Putzeys said. ``What I have been dealing with most of the time is trying to get children sent back to Guatemala to their families.''

The boy was born in Los Angeles in December 1995 to illegal immigrants a father from Guatemala and a mother from El Salvador. His mother later abandoned the family and her whereabouts are unknown, according to Rebeca Salmon, a lawyer hired by the boy's court-appointed guardian. The boy's father, Edgar Ovidio Juares, 40, was arrested in June 2007 and deported to Guatemala last year, he told a lawyer in Guatemala.

In a recent phone interview with The Associated Press in a mix of Spanish and English, Juares was conflicted about his son's fate. He said he wanted to have his son in Guatemala with him but acknowledged the boy's quality of life would be better in the U.S.
``I don't want to lose contact with my son,'' he said. ``I want him here, but here it is hard to help him with the problems he has because we don't have much money.

“He said to me he doesn't want to come here,'' Juares said of his son.

Salmon asked the AP not to identify the boy to protect his privacy. The case is being handled in Gwinnett County Juvenile Court, and juvenile cases are sealed to protect the child.

Salmon said she was hired by the boy's court-appointed guardian who believes the state intends to ask the court to sent the boy to his father in Guatemala, which she does not believe is in the boy's best interest. The AP, seeking to hear the discussion about what is in the child's best interest, has filed a motion seeking to open the court proceedings to the media.