Homeless man's fate in hands of immigration

[Hoss68]

Kevin Duchschere, Star Tribune
January 21, 2005

The penniless young man who only days ago had been hiding in the shadows of Apple Valley High School suddenly found himself Thursday in the media spotlight and under the scrutiny of U.S. immigration officials who blocked his release from jail.

Even as producers from CNN, the BBC, NBC's "Today" show and ABC's "Good Morning America" jockeyed for interviews, Francisco Serrano spent one last night in the Dakota County Jail. He was scheduled to be transferred today for questioning to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office in Bloomington.

Serrano, 21, struck a plea agreement Thursday in Dakota County District Court that reduced his trespassing charges to a probationary warning to stay away from Apple Valley district schools.

Serrano was aided by a pair of lawyers dispatched by Minneapolis businessman Basim Sabri, who said he "just felt bad for this guy."

The lawyers described Serrano as "a nice kid" in a good mood who nonetheless understood that he had some explaining to do to students and staff at the high school, which he attended two years ago before apparently moving to Connecticut with family members.

"I know what I did was serious, but I had no other choice," Minneapolis immigration attorney Herbert Igbanugo quoted him as saying.

Serrano has said that he recently returned to Minnesota after his father stole his money and fled to Canada. He said he had only $200 when he arrived in the Twin Cities and no place to go.

Why the high school?

"It was warm," said Minneapolis criminal attorney Robert Speeter, who represented Serrano in court Thursday. "And he didn't have to be afraid."

But Serrano was confronted with a different challenge Thursday when ICE officials asked Dakota County authorities to hold him once its criminal justice process was complete so the agency could determine whether he belongs in the United States.

"We believe he is in the country illegally," said Tim Counts, spokesman for the regional ICE office in Bloomington. He declined to say what the violation was.

"We have done a brief telephonic interview with him and essentially developed probable cause that he has violated immigration laws," Counts said.

After a brief visit with the 21-year-old Mexican, Igbanugo said he gathered that Serrano had legally entered the United States in Texas with a border passing card but may have stayed longer than allowed.

"I don't know if he's really legal in the U.S. My guess is that there are some issues there," Igbanugo said.

In the meantime, his client was winning local and national attention with the news that he had spent nearly two weeks mingling with students at his former high school by day and sleeping there at night.

The Star Tribune's story about Serrano on Thursday caught the eye of Sabri, who sent his accountant, Greg Leonard, to Hastings to bail him out of jail and offer him a job and an apartment.

"He probably has no family and no relatives in the state," Sabri said. "I told Greg to pick him up, spend a few hundred bucks to buy clothes for him, and I have places where he could stay, and I'll talk to him."

But when Leonard arrived with a check for the bail, he was told that the ICE had intervened.

Serrano's court appearance, originally set for today, was moved up to Thursday afternoon at the county's Apple Valley service center. He was quiet and composed as he stood before District Judge Karen Asphaug.

He accepted the court's offer of a Spanish-speaking interpreter but gave his answers in English. He admitted that he didn't have permission to be in the high school and that he was not a student there.

In a plea agreement, Apple Valley City Attorney Michael Dougherty dropped one misdemeanor trespassing charge and Serrano pleaded guilty to a second trespassing charge reduced to a petty misdemeanor. He was given probation for six months and ordered to stay 1,000 feet away from any building in the Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan school district. Asphaug waived the fine.

Speeter said the plea agreement means Serrano does not have a criminal record. The petty misdemeanor charge has the same status "as a parking ticket," he said.

But Serrano was taken back to the Dakota County Jail, where he had been in custody on $500 bail since Apple Valley police arrested him last Friday.

School officials say they believe Serrano had lived at the school for about two weeks before a custodian found him asleep in the school auditorium Jan. 7. He showered in the gym, hid food and clothes in a locker and apparently even attended some classes.

Serrano left when the custodian told him to go home, but later that day he was arrested after being spotted in the library and at a basketball game. After spending that weekend in the Apple Valley jail, he reappeared at the school last Friday and was again arrested.

Although reports circulated that ICE officials had learned of Serrano through media reports, Counts declined to say how they came to the case. The ICE routinely checks area prisons and jails for possible immigration violators, he said.

"We are still developing the investigation," Counts said. "If it turns out to be the case that he is in violation of immigration laws, he would be eligible for a hearing before a judge who will make a final determination about whether he is to be deported."

Sabri said his offer of help wasn't intended to confront the federal government over immigration issues. He has his own experience going up against federal authority: He is awaiting sentencing after being found guilty last month of three counts of bribing former Minneapolis City Council Member Brian Herron.

Said Sabri: "I was really touched by the story in the Tribune today. I said, 'Look, the American people will go across nations, across oceans, to help people, but we forget about people here. This is where we could really help your brother.' "

Sabri said he previously has offered jobs to some of the down-and-out people he meets on Lake Street, where he has developed several properties. He also has taken out billboards highlighting the impact of Middle East conflict on children living there. He grew up in the Middle East, but went to college at the University of Minnesota.

After the court appearance, Speeter said Serrano was grateful and relieved to have that part of it over. "I think he was concerned that he had scared a lot of people" at the high school, Speeter said.

"And he was surprised by all the media attention," he said.

http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/5196757.html

[Hoss68]

Bob Von Sternberg and Allie Shah, Star Tribune
January 22, 2005

Onetime Apple Valley High School squatter Javier Francisco Serrano has traded his nights in the school boiler room and a county jail cell for his first taste of comfort in a long time at the Shorewood home of his benefactor, businessman and developer Basim Sabri.
"He could have robbed the school," Sabri said Friday before he bailed Serrano out of federal immigration custody. "He could have stolen things, but he didn't. So I'm going to trust him. He's going to be so happy he got arrested."

Serrano was indeed the picture of happiness Friday afternoon as he related the five-week odyssey that catapulted him from his home in Connecticut to an empty suburban high school and then to a jail cell -- all of which thrust him into the national media spotlight.

"I feel great right now," Serrano told reporters Friday afternoon. "I'm shocked, you know, impressed that people who don't know me want to help me."

Javier Francisco Serrano
Tom Sweeney
Star Tribune

He said he camped out at Apple Valley High School for three weeks because he wanted a warm place to stay and because he had had a great experience there during his sophomore year.

"It was pretty cool because it had everything -- showers, a kitchen, the gym," Serrano said at a news conference at his lawyer's office in Edina after he was released by immigration officials.

He apologized to Apple Valley High parents, students and the principal for his actions.

"I didn't try to hurt anybody," he said. "All I wanted was a warm place to stay the night."

Serrano's tale prompted an outpouring of compassion among people moved by his desperate plight, and he became something of a cause célèbre at the school, where he had been a 19-year-old sophomore during the 2002-03 school year.

A student at the school passed out 30 T-shirts proclaiming "Free Francisco" Friday morning. Principal Steve Degenaar said he permitted a junior he would identify only as Ted to give away the shirts in the lobby.

In an e-mail sent Friday, Degenaar said he plans early next week to detail security changes the school district will undertake to prevent any such thing from happening again.

"We realize that our current security plan did not work and changes will be made," he wrote. "On a personal note, I truly hope things work out for Javier, but it may be several days or even weeks before the citizenship issue gets resolved. We can only hope for the best, and let the legal system run its course."

Serrano is expected to appear before an immigration judge for a hearing sometime in the next two months. Tim Counts, spokesman for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Office, said Friday that they believe Serrano, a native of Mexico, may be in the country illegally. "We believe there's a violation of immigration law," he added.

'Hey, I'm good'

He had been released from the custody of immigration officials in Bloomington early Friday afternoon after representatives for Sabri posted a $5,000 bond. As his attorneys hustled him to a waiting car, a scrum of more than a dozen journalists swarmed around him. "Hey, I'm good -- I'm finally out of custody," he said, startled at the frenzied attention.

Serrano, a native of Mexico, moved with his family to Connecticut after his sophomore year.

"Back in Connecticut, I had a little experience with my father and I decided to move on," he said. He had earlier said his father had stolen money from him and had fled to Canada.

"I don't know where my father is," he said. "I barely know him."

He has not yet talked to his mother, who he said is living in Mexico. "I'm going to have to say hi, or something," he said.

Of his decision to camp out at his old high school, Serrano said, "I didn't plan anything. I just decided to come here because it's beautiful here."

With $200 in his pocket, he said left Connecticut by bus, "and some people gave me a lift." He arrived here in December. "I had friends here, but they couldn't help me," he said. "My third day here, I came to the school."

Serrano, who is 21 but could pass for 16, said he told high school officials that he was a new student, and they believed him. He also saw some students who remembered him.

"In my sophomore year, they were freshmen. Now they're seniors," he said.

Serrano said they asked him what he was doing there. Research, he told them.

Describing his days, he said, "In the morning I was just like a student: Go to the gym, go to study hall. I helped out in the theater for a show.

"They had cable. I just watched TV."

During some days, he said, he also looked for a job.

On most days, Degenaar said Friday, Serrano left the high school before 6 a.m., returning there after 7 p.m.

Asked if he was going to stay in the country, he said. "I'm gonna stay here. I hope I get my papers. ... I think this is a very good country to make a life."

He added: "Before all this, I planned to go to college and do something. Now, I don't know."

On Thursday he had pleaded guilty in municipal court in Apple Valley to a petty misdemeanor count of trespassing and was ordered to stay away from school buildings in the Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan School District.

But he remained in custody in the Dakota County jail overnight and was taken in for questioning by immigration officials Friday morning. The ICE will forward its paperwork to the immigration court within the next week, Counts said. After that, it usually takes one to two months for the court to schedule a hearing.

Counts said Serrano and his attorney, Herbert Igbanugo, requested the hearing.

Igbanugo said Friday that he will "fight and fight and fight" to keep Serrano in the United States. "Immigration can reinstate his status, so I don't think removal [from the country is likely] at this point."

If he is deported, though, "I'll just say thank you," Serrano said.

Sabri, who called Serrano "a good kid," plans to offer him a job and will let him stay in an apartment he maintains on the fourth floor of his East Lake Street commercial property in Minneapolis. Plans to take him there Friday night fell through in the wake of Friday's snowstorm, so Serrano's attorneys delivered him to Sabri's suburban home.

The apartment is spacious, with a canopy bed, hardwood floors, a Persian rug and a big-screen television. It has a balcony that will present him with a panoramic view of downtown Minneapolis.

"I want to thank this gentleman, Mr. Sabri," Serrano said Friday, grinning widely.

[cato2]

Serrano is expected to appear before an immigration judge for a hearing sometime in the next two months. Tim Counts, spokesman for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Office, said Friday that they believe Serrano, a native of Mexico, may be in the country illegally. "We believe there's a violation of immigration law," he added.

If Serrano is found to be an illegal he will be returned to country of origin and have to apply like the rest of the potential immigrants. Having broken a law might make that application even harder. Once removed from the area of the arrest he will be dealing with an Embassy in Mexico, which will not be as sympathetic as the local population.

[Woodmonkey]

Here illegally, is here illegally. Look at the people who are on waiting lists and jumping through the hoops to enter legally. Deport him.

[SherryGrace]

Originally Posted by Woodmonkey

Here illegally, is here illegally. Look at the people who are on waiting lists and jumping through the hoops to enter legally. Deport him.

What she said.

[BrianK]

I wonder how China, Israel, or Russia would handle someone that has no identification and can't prove citizenship? The article says it will take a couple of months for Immigration to figure out this mans status. That isn't funny !!! It's probably the best example of where we are realtive to being serious about homeland defense. If the new agency ever gets past the typical Gov. blundering way of operating then amybe this kind of nonsense will not be media fodder.

Compassion is one thing but as WoodMonkey said Illegal is Illegal. If compassion is going to be extended then extend it to all those that have done all the right things to come to America by following the procedures.

[cato2]

Originally Posted by BrianK

I wonder how China, Israel, or Russia would handle someone that has no identification and can't prove citizenship? The article says it will take a couple of months for Immigration to figure out this mans status. That isn't funny !!! It's probably the best example of where we are realtive to being serious about homeland defense. If the new agency ever gets past the typical Gov. blundering way of operating then amybe this kind of nonsense will not be media fodder.

Brian not being an immigrant myself I am not exactly sure of the procedure. And not sure how much it has changed from when this person came into the country till now.

I have to wonder if they even do a fingerprint of the new immigrants? If that were the case it would not take that long for them to verify at least that portion. And I know they take pictures. It does seem strange that it would take that long.