Manuel Antonio Cano Pacheco should have graduated high school in Des Moines last month. The oldest of four siblings should have walked across a stage in a cap and gown to become a proud symbol to his sister and brothers of the rewards of hard work and education.
Instead, Manuel died a brutal death alone in a foreign land, a symbol of gang supremacy in a country plagued by violent drug cartels. It happened three weeks after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement returned him to Mexico, a country he had left at age 3 when his parents brought him here without a visa.
The fact that America was the only home he has known made Manuel eligible to apply for and be granted DACA status under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program initiated by former President Barack Obama. It exempted from deportation certain young people, referred to as DREAMERS, who were brought to the U.S. without papers as children.
That status didn't protect Manuel when he came to immigration authorities' attention after being stopped for speeding last fall. An ICE spokesperson said in a statement that a federal immigration judge terminated his DACA status because of two misdemeanor convictions.
The ICE statement also states that Manuel wasn't technically deported, but was returned to Mexico under escort by ICE deportation officers under a voluntary departure process that does not carry the penalties of a formal deportation.
In Zacatecas, Manuel had gone out to get food with an acquaintance of his cousin's, who apparently was known to the killers, Verduzco said. "He was in the wrong place at the wrong time." Both were killed. Manuel's throat was slit.
The northwestern Mexican state of Zacatecas, where Manuel's family came from, has reportedly become a deadly place, especially for youth. Last August, the bodies of 14 people were discovered buried in a mass grave there. The growing number of drug-war deaths make Mexico one of the most dangerous countries in the world, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies. Between January and May of 2017, the Mexican Attorney General's Office reported 12,238 homicides.
What's more, according to The Dallas Morning News, deportees are especially targeted by gangs in certain border areas. They are held by their captors unless their relatives in the U.S. pay thousands of dollars for their release. Between January and June 2017, the U.S. deported more than 31,000 Mexicans through two of the most dangerous crossing points, according to Mexico's immigration service.
Verduzco's relatives from Mexico have said it is dangerous to go out at night in Zacatecas.
Do federal authorities take any of those dangers into consideration when deporting people who were raised here? Neudauer, the ICE spokesman, said deportees to Mexico are turned over to Mexican authorities. "Once turned over they are the responsibility of their own government," he said.
As always abolish ICE
https://www.desmoinesregister.com/s...l-dreamer-daca-mexico-drug-cartels/680234002/
