Direct On Issue Of Pp.pdf

Antonio Galvan How long have you been living in the United States? ​Almost 25 years Are you married? ​Yes How long have you been married? ​29 years next month Do you have any children? ​Yes, 6 kids Are they all United States Citizens? ​Our oldest has DACA and the rest were born here. What are there ages? a. Elida is 11 (1/6/2008) b. Yazmin is 12 (8/28/2006) c. Bryan is 16 (1/14/2003) d. Marcos is 18 (8/25/2000) e. Victor is 23 (4/3/1995) f. Jonathan is 27(7/19/1991) 7. Have you ever been arrested by any agency other than Border Patrol? 8. Did you depart the United States at any time between January 1, 2008 and January 1, 2018? Yes 9. How many times? ​Once 10. When was it that you departed the United States?​ February 2012 11. Where did you go? ​Mexico 12. Why did you go to Mexico? ​I was arrested by immigration while I was trying to pass the falfurrias checkpoint to find work and given a voluntary departure. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Let’s talk about what happened that day. 13. Where you traveling by car or foot? ​Foot 14. How did you expect to pass the checkpoint by foot? ​I was going to be picked up in Falfurrias once I passed the checkpoint. 15. What was your final destination? ​Colorado 16. Do you remember what time of day it was? ​Around 1:30pm 17. Where you traveling alone or with other people? ​I was with 14 people 18. How did border patrol find you? ​A helicopter passed by and saw us. 19. Do you remember how many agents apprehened you? ​There were 6, maybe 8 20. What if anything did they ask you when they first encountered you?​ They just told us not to run and asked if we had drugs? 21. And what did you say?​ I said no we were just goint go work. 22. Where did the agents take you when you were arrested? ​To the Border Patrol station in Falfurrias 23. Where you questioned at the Border Patrol station in Falfurrias? ​Yes, they asked where we were going and who had brought us, I told them we were going to Colorado to work and that we were alone. 24. Where were you held in the station? ​In a hielera 25. How many people other than yourself were in the hielera? ​ About 20 26. Were you given anything to eat or drink? ​A sandwich and there was a water fountain 27. How long were you detained there? ​Until about 10:30pm 28. Where were you taken then? ​I believe it was the Harlingen border patrol station 29. What time did you arrive at the border patrol station?​ Around 1am 30. Where were you held in that station? ​In the hielera

31. How many people were in the cell with you? ​About 30-40 people 32. Where you given anything to eat upon arriving? ​No not until the next morning we were given a bologna sandwich 33. Where you asked any questions at that staion? ​The following day they asked questions; 34. What questions were asked?​ Who I was and where I was from and where I was going and where I came in from. 35. What did you say?​ I told them my name and I was going to Colorado to work but that I lived here in Donna. 36. What did the agent say when you said you lived in Donna? ​The agent told me why haven’t I fixed my status though my kids since I had been here a long time. I told him that I had gone to several lawyers and was told that I had to wait until my son turns 21 to do that. I told him I was trying to work so that I could support my family. The agent told me that I could fight and get a work permit. But then another officer came, a female officer and told him to stop talking to me that all of cry like that. 37. And then what happened?​ I asked to use the phone to call my wife. 38. Did they let you call your wife?​ Yes 39. What did you tell her?​ I told her that I could probably get a work permit but while I was talking the other officer interrupted me and told me that nobody had told me that I could get a work permit. I felt pressured to hang up the phone. 40. And then what happend? ​The officer that interrupted my phone call me asked to sign some papers. I told him the other officer said I could fix my papers and stay here and he said no, he said how could I possibly fix my status and told me to just sign the papers. 41. And then what happend? ​I asked if the papers were a voluntary return and he said no, they were for my deportation so I said no, I was not going to sign. 42. What did you think the difference was between a voluntary return and a deportation? ​I had heard that if you were deported by border patrol and came back in you could go to prison. 43. And then what happend? ​I was in there for an hour or two and they called me out again but with a different officer. 44. What happened next?​ They took me back to the hielera for two hours and then they called me back and told me they would give me the voluntary departure. 45. So you ask for a voluntary departure to Mexico? ​Yes, because I believed at the time that I could only have a deporation by border patrol or a voluntary departure because the officer told me I cold not fix my status. 46. Where you given the opportunity to choose between seeing a judge and accepting a voluntary departure?​NO 47. Where you told you had the right to a hearing before the Immigration Court to determine whether you may be able to remain in the U.S.? ​No 48. Where you told that you could possibly be granted a bond and be released from custody? ​No 49. Where you told that you had a right to contact a lawyer?​No 50. Where you told that a list of lawyers existed that could represent you at little or no cost? ​NO 51. Where you told that you would be returned to Mexico through a program called ATEP? ​No 52. Do you know what ATEP is? ​I didn’t know then but my attorney told me it was a program that was designed to arrest people in one location and return them to Mexico in a different location far away to make it hard for immigrants to return back to the U.S. 53. Where you told that you would be transported 1600 miles away to be removed in California? ​No 54. How many days were you in detention? ​About a week 55. Did you sign any documents before being returned to Mexico? ​Yes 56. When did you sign them? ​In the Harlingen Border Patrol Station

57. Was it with the Agent who told you didn’t have any opportunites here in the U.S.? Yes 58. Do you remember how many documents you signed? ​Between 4 and 5 documents 59. Did you read the documents you signed? ​No 60. Why not? ​The officer pressured me to sign as fast as I could. 61. Is that your signature on the page? ​Yes 62. Do you remember signing this document? ​Yes, well not really because he just had all the papers together and told me to sign them. 63. Can you show me how the documents were presented to you when you signed them? 64. How long did it take you to sign all the documents? ​A few minutes, the actually signing took maybe a minute if not less, but I also had my picture and fingerprints taken. 65. Did you know that you were signing a voluntary departure in lieu of being placed in removal proceedings? ​NO 66. Would you have signed the voluntary departure document if you had been given an opportunity to read the documents? 67. Would you have signed the voluntary departure document if you knew you could be placed in removal proceedings instead? ​No, I would have checked the box go have a hearing with the Judge. I was going to Colorado to work at the time to provide for my family. I never would have knowingly agreed to be deported through California because I knew I had to come back to my family. My kids were all little at the time and they needed me. If I would have know then, what I know now, I would haven’t signed the voluntary departure. I would have chosen to fight my case like I am doing now. I would have been able to get a work permit and work here not have to go to Colorado 68. How long were you outside the United States? ​About a week 69. How did you come into immigration custody on January of last year? ​I was on my way to work and the cop pulled over the driver and since we both didn’t have papers they called border patorl. 70. How did you avoid being voluntarily returned?​ I didn’t sign anything and I said I wanted to see a judge. Because a friend of mine had the same thing happen to him and told me he didn’t sign and was able to stay here with a work permit. 71. Aside from the brief time you were outside of the U.S. due to that voluntary departure, have you been outside the U.S. from January 2008 - January 2018? ​No