Seeking a better life
Deported: Stealing identity carries a high price
The Deseret Morning News begins a three-part series today on immigration, legal and illegal. The series explores immigration's impact on the lives of people in both the United States and Mexico, as well as the resulting interdependence of the two nations' economies.
ZACATECAS, Mexico Maricela Naranjo's two youngest children are dressed in crisp white clothing, playing in the pews just before their baptisms.
It should be a joyful occasion. But as she watches them peeking over benches in the small Catholic church, Naranjo's eyes well up with tears. Today, her family is together. She knows it's only a temporary reprieve.
"I need to wait I don't know for how long," says Naranjo, who after spending much of her adult life in Wendover, was deported from Nevada after pleading guilty to identity theft. "I don't want to stay here."
Her husband, Jaime Naranjo, and the couple's three children are all native-born U.S. citizens. But she crossed the border from Mexico to the United States illegally and needed falsified documents to work.
She was one of the unlucky undocumented workers who got caught. After her conviction, she turned herself in to immigration authorities for deportation as part of an agreement to avoid jail time.
Her story isn't uncommon. Thousands of mixed-status families have some members who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents and others who have no legal status.
As Congress stalls in trying to resolve the nation's immigration woes, the Department of Homeland Security estimates that the undocumented immigrant population in the United States grew by an average 408,000 each year from 2000 to 2004. The flow continues, as people seeking a better life are lured by the promise of better jobs and a brighter future for their children.
Unwitting victims
Maricela Naranjo is no different. Raised in rural Zacatecas, she grew up sharing one bedroom with her parents and siblings. She crossed the border when she was 19, hoping to help herself and her family improve their lives. She later met Jaime.
It was after her son Jaime Jr. was born that she purchased the name, Social Security number and birthday of Yvonne Carrasco from a document vendor because she needed to work to support her son.
She knew it was against the law, but she had no idea that years later, it would lead to complications for another mother nearly 800 miles away in Tulare County, Calif.
That woman, the real Yvonne Carrasco, has lived her entire life in rural Tulare County where she lives in a one-room shed-like building in the back yard of her boyfriend's mother's home
Recent comments
My final comment got cut off........Nothing is free in this life no...
Kaddie | Sept. 19, 2007 at 2:58 p.m.
I'm tired of reading stories like this that are meant to play on our...
Bernie | Sept. 18, 2007 at 6:19 p.m.
I know for a fact that the church policy during the 1970s in Southern...
Lee | Sept. 17, 2007 at 10:58 a.m.
- Canal breaks, causes landslide in Logan 3:58 p.m.
- Man's body found 3:47 p.m.
- 'Love advocates' plan 'kiss-in' 3:46 p.m.
- Many-splendored container garden 3:29 p.m.
- California's $26B deficit 3:25 p.m.
- Eat your squash and blossoms 3:21 p.m.
- Searchers shovel seeking giant worm 3:18 p.m.
- Crash kills Arizona woman 3:13 p.m.
- Lost crab pots 2:56 p.m.
- Lightning delays shuttle launch 2:54 p.m.
- Jazz brass debate Millsap match
- LDS seminary principal arrested
- 2 men cited on LDS plaza
- Jazz finances not quite so bleak
- Reactions on Boozer speculation
- Utahns among Texans' investors
- Cash for Clunkers to get rolling soon
- HBO defends U. logo use in 'Love'
- Jazz rookies quiet Thunder youngsters
- 10 years after the flood
- LDS seminary principal arrested
289 - Jazz brass debate Millsap match
183 - 2 men cited on LDS plaza
142 - Bronco collecting a galaxy of recruits
141 - Jazz talking Boozer trade?
140 - Blazers may offer Millsap a contract
124 - Stadium of Fire flag burning was fake
99 - Fairness of BCS debated
83 - Letters: Single-payer system best
76 - Services bids farewell to Jackson
70
As more and more dads are put out of work in this economy, I've been...
The photographs are mysterious, brooding, dark. They show dimples and...
wow!! he lied to so many!!!!!!
I forgot what I was going to say. Let's go ride bikes!
Nice comments Spoc, but you give them too much credit. They were just out to...
this is just sick
To be in fear is to be uneducated about the situation. You have a computer......
""We live in constant fear of the adverse impacts of climate change. For a...
All season long last year, we had to endure "experts" on here and everywhere...
The Jazz Management screwed up again by trying to low-ball the player and...
I knew a woman name Nancy who used to work at the same place I did in Nevada....
This Simmons character needs to go take a flying leap. I think the Jazz...


