A 25-year-old Ogden man who had legal residency was deported last week after spending nearly six weeks in the Weber County Jail after his arrest on traffic charges.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported Miguel Soto to Mexico on Thursday based on the agency's wide-open "moral turpitude" guidelines, apparently stemming from previous misdemeanors.
Family members, who say they could not afford an attorney and that Soto had brain damage from an accident years ago, are in shock.
"If we had a lawyer, I don't think my son would be in Mexico right now," said Manuel Soto, Miguel's father and a longtime Ogden resident.
The young man was arrested April 3 on a warrant for driving without insurance or a license, and that case was resolved a few days later after he agreed to pay fines. Once in jail, though, he came to the attention of ICE, and, after being held for nearly six weeks, he was deported last Thursday.
A search of court records indicates Miguel Soto's most serious crimes were a year-old conviction for criminal mischief, and two shoplifting charges from five and six years ago. All three cases were closed when he paid fines.
However, those misdemeanor convictions were apparently enough to get his permanent legal residency status revoked.
"Legal permanent residents are still guests in this country," said Lori Haley, spokeswoman for ICE. "If they are convicted of aggravated felonies or crimes of moral turpitude, they can be deported."
The situation saddened Charles Kuck, president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.
"This is an example of yet another travesty and tragedy that is our immigration system," said Kuck, a Brigham Young University graduate.
The immigration court is a civil court, and is not required to provide legal counsel for those who can't afford it. The court also does not take into account the mental deficiencies of a defendant, Kuck said.
While ICE's guidelines define crimes of moral turpitude as those that "shock the public conscience," such as murder, voluntary manslaughter, kidnapping, robbery or aggravated assaults, Kuck says it can be interpreted to incorporate anything but trespassing.
Soto's father, Manuel Soto has labored as a farmworker since 1974 and received a green card in 1986. He brought his son and wife to the United States to live in the early 90s. When Miguel Soto was still in elementary school, the family was in a car accident, and the boy suffered a traumatic brain injury, his father said.
"The doctors told me he'd never be the same," Manuel Soto said through a translator.
Manuel Soto is now on disability and doesn't work, and couldn't afford a lawyer for his son. He said that during his immigration court hearing, his son answered every question with a yes, even when the answer should have been no.
"He didn't know what was happening. He didn't understand," Manuel Soto said.
Miguel Soto was deported by voluntary departure and ended up in Cuidad-Juarez, a border town just across from El Paso. He has no family there and is attempting to make it several hundred miles to Guanajuato, a place he hasn't lived in since he was 10 years old.
Tony Yapias, a Latino community activist, questions Miguel Soto's ability to properly judge right from wrong.
"These people are a poor, uneducated, indigent family," he said. "His dad was barely understanding why his son was deported. There was no way for this poor guy to have a chance at it."
Eli Cawley, chairman of the anti-illegal immigration Utah Minuteman Project, called the situation "deplorable."
"This highlights the overall injustice of the system," he said.
"You have someone who has played by the rules, is here legally, and it seems the only reason he was deported was because he didn't have legal representation. Those crimes don't seem enough to be considered moral turpitude," he said. "The benefit of the doubt should have been extended to this individual."
