Dream Turns Nightmare: Milwaukee Police Officer to Be Deported

[Dr. A ♥ O 203]

Dream Turns Nightmare: Milwaukee Police Officer to Be Deported

By CATRIN EINHORN

Published: December 22, 2007

MILWAUKEE — Growing up here, Oscar Ayala-Cornejo recalls, he played chess and devoured comics, hung out at the mall and joined the Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps. After high school, he realized a childhood dream, joining the Milwaukee Police Department.

But when Mr. Ayala-Cornejo filled out recruitment papers, he used the name of a dead relative who had been a United States citizen. He had to, Mr. Ayala-Cornejo says, because ever since his parents brought him here from Mexico when he was 9, he has lived in the country illegally.

The life that Mr. Ayala-Cornejo carefully built here, including more than five years with the police force, is to end at noon on Saturday, when, heeding a deportation order, he will board a plane bound for the country he left as a child.

In May, acting on an anonymous tip, immigration agents arrested him on charges of falsely representing himself as a citizen. He pleaded guilty, and is now permanently barred from the United States.

“I’m going to be saying goodbye to my family, my friends, my city — everything that I know,” Mr. Ayala-Cornejo, 25, said in an interview at the home he shares with his widowed mother and his brother, filled with family photos.

The authorities say that in violating the law, Mr. Ayala-Cornejo made himself vulnerable to blackmail and assaults on his credibility that could have jeopardized police investigations. “You can’t be a law enforcement officer when you yourself are breaking the law,” said Gail Montenegro, a spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Mr. Ayala-Cornejo’s case is familiar to many illegal immigrants. Brought here by their parents illegally as children, they grow up thinking of themselves as Americans, often speaking English without a trace of an accent. But their immigration status frequently catches up with them when they prepare to attend college or take a job.

Those who avoid detection, if only temporarily as Mr. Ayala-Cornejo did, can lead lives more appealing than work at the carwash or in restaurant kitchens. Although usually associated with low-income jobs, illegal immigrants work in every sector, said Oscar A. Chacón, executive director of the National Alliance of Latin American and Caribbean Communities.

“Think about it: 12 million people,” Mr. Chacón said of the estimated number of illegal immigrants. “Does it really mean they are all working in stockyards, as landscapers, in hotels? No, they are doing all the jobs you can think of.”

Mr. Ayala-Cornejo recalls the basement apartment where he and his family once lived, next door to a house where drug sales were common. The neighborhood, on Milwaukee’s South Side, was so dangerous that he and his brother and sister were not allowed to play outside.

He did not know he was in the United States illegally, he said, until as a teenager he told his father that he wanted to enroll in a police apprenticeship program.

“I could tell there was something wrong: he just had that look in his face,” Mr. Ayala-Cornejo said. “Like something inside him was a little crushed.”

The next day, he said, his father told him the truth. He could not pursue law enforcement. He could even be deported. “From one moment to the next,” Mr. Ayala-Cornejo said, “all my dreams and hopes are kind of out the window.”

Mr. Ayala-Cornejo could have ultimately gained legal status because his brother was born in the United States, but it would have taken a decade or more, his lawyer says, and he would have had to leave his family in the meantime and return to Mexico.

His father, Mr. Ayala-Cornejo said, came up with a solution: A cousin in Illinois had a son, Jose A. Morales, a United States citizen who had died of leukemia in Mexico. He and Mr. Ayala-Cornejo would have been about the same age, and the family offered to turn over Jose’s birth certificate and Social Security number so Mr. Ayala-Cornejo could realize his dream.

“I didn’t hesitate,” he said. “I was like, ‘O.K., if that’s the best option, then I’ll go for it, because I don’t want to be separated from my family.’ ”

So at age 16, Mr. Ayala-Cornejo switched high schools, registering under his new name. He cut his hair and, abandoning his eyeglasses, started wearing contact lenses. In public, he referred to his mother and father as his aunt and uncle, and he called his siblings cousins. “In a way, I became Jose,” he said, “because I knew there was no going back.”

After high school, he joined the police apprenticeship program in 2001. In May 2005, he was sworn in as Police Officer Jose A. Morales, and was later assigned to patrol the streets where he had been forbidden to play as a child. In one of his proudest moments, he stopped a suicidal man from cutting his own throat.

But in February of this year, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent received a tip that Oscar Ayala-Cornejo had assumed the name of Jose Morales. In May, he was arrested.

Mr. Ayala-Cornejo’s brother, Alexander, who was born in this country and had also joined the Milwaukee police, was dismissed from the department for lying to a federal agent about his brother’s whereabouts, but was reinstated on appeal.

Criminal justice officials say Mr. Ayala-Cornejo’s actions could have put their work at risk, for instance by compromising prosecutions in which he gave testimony. “Asked to testify,” said Mel S. Johnson, an assistant United States attorney who prosecuted the case against him, “the first question is state your name and spell your last name. It would be a false answer immediately.”

“Ironically,” Mr. Johnson said, “if he was a citizen, he would have been considered a good citizen.”

A bill that would have given legal status to illegal immigrants who graduated from high school in this country, as Mr. Ayala-Cornejo did, failed in the Senate in October. Opponents argued that it would reward those who broke the law.

Mr. Ayala-Cornejo sees himself as a victim of circumstance. “At the time, we didn’t have any other option,” he said. “We wanted to keep the family together, and this was the only way we could do that.”

On Saturday, he will leave for his aunt’s house in Guadalajara, where, he said, he has had several job offers. He also wants to study computer engineering. His Spanish is good, he said, but he speaks with an American accent.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/22/us/22dep...ed=1&ref=us

[Saddle Bronc 124]

Mr. Ayala-Cornejo sees himself as a victim of circumstance.

They could have gone back to Mexico with Alex. Yes, that involves much paperwork, but I've seen H1-b holders depart (with US-born children) for India--that combined with my own overlong Green Card processing (started Feb. 1996, I-140 approved Sept 1997--but unable to do final stage till April 1999; finally got GC @ Montreal in Dec. 1999) basically dries up any sympathies I may have felt!

[natty bumppo 297]

So he was taught to be a thief ... and wanted to be a police officer ...

Guess the parents had the best thoughts for their children when they broke the law and came here ... which included destroying their childs future.

[Ban Hammer 13,346]

long arm of the law anyone?

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Terrible.

Yeah, let's celebrate the injustice of our immigration laws as they are applied in this case as if they rule supreme law. In fact, let's celebrate all laws, no matter how small or strange because laws are laws and we should bow down before them since whoever makes such laws are above making a law that could be applied unjustly.

[natty bumppo 297]

Terrible.

Yeah, let's celebrate the injustice of our immigration laws as they are applied in this case as if they rule supreme law. In fact, let's celebrate all laws, no matter how small or strange because laws are laws and we should bow down before them since whoever makes such laws are above making a law that could be applied unjustly.

How was this unjust ? Please start by listing the quantity of laws he broke ....

Edited December 22, 2007 by Natty Bumppo

[Alex+R 0]

Terrible.

Yeah, let's celebrate the injustice of our immigration laws as they are applied in this case as if they rule supreme law. In fact, let's celebrate all laws, no matter how small or strange because laws are laws and we should bow down before them since whoever makes such laws are above making a law that could be applied unjustly.

Give up now. That argument is beyond too many people. In fact, if anything, these people prove why we need laws: some people can't find north on their moral compass without a little help from an authority.

[Ban Hammer 13,346]

Terrible.

Yeah, let's celebrate the injustice of our immigration laws as they are applied in this case as if they rule supreme law. In fact, let's celebrate all laws, no matter how small or strange because laws are laws and we should bow down before them since whoever makes such laws are above making a law that could be applied unjustly.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Terrible.

Yeah, let's celebrate the injustice of our immigration laws as they are applied in this case as if they rule supreme law. In fact, let's celebrate all laws, no matter how small or strange because laws are laws and we should bow down before them since whoever makes such laws are above making a law that could be applied unjustly.

Give up now. That argument is beyond too many people. In fact, if anything, these people prove why we need laws: some people can't find north on their moral compass without a little help from an authority.

It's like Gupt said the other day, elements of fascism are brewing in this country. Just the idea that all our laws reign supreme and are above reproach is one of core traits of fascism...dogma.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Terrible.

Yeah, let's celebrate the injustice of our immigration laws as they are applied in this case as if they rule supreme law. In fact, let's celebrate all laws, no matter how small or strange because laws are laws and we should bow down before them since whoever makes such laws are above making a law that could be applied unjustly.

How was this unjust ? Please start by listing the quantity of laws he broke ....

If you think a 9 year old should be held legally liable for his parent's actions, then trying to argue with your fascist view of law would be pointless.

[natty bumppo 297]

Terrible.

Yeah, let's celebrate the injustice of our immigration laws as they are applied in this case as if they rule supreme law. In fact, let's celebrate all laws, no matter how small or strange because laws are laws and we should bow down before them since whoever makes such laws are above making a law that could be applied unjustly.

How was this unjust ? Please start by listing the quantity of laws he broke ....

If you think a 9 year old should be held legally liable for his parent's actions, then trying to argue with your fascist view of law would be pointless.

he is no longer 9 ... he's an adult. And ... an adult who knows he broke the law with identity theft. And he wants to be a cop ...

What's with the name calling Steven ... must you call me a "fascist" ?

Does it make you feel better ?

Edited December 22, 2007 by Natty Bumppo

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

But when Mr. Ayala-Cornejo filled out recruitment papers, he used the name of a dead relative who had been a United States citizen.

That is ID theft any way you slice it even if the victim of the theft happens to be deceased.

It's tragic since he was brought here as a kid by his parents. One can only hope that he finds it in himself to forgive them for putting him in this situation.

[natty bumppo 297]

But when Mr. Ayala-Cornejo filled out recruitment papers, he used the name of a dead relative who had been a United States citizen.

That is ID theft any way you slice it even if the victim of the theft happens to be deceased.

It's tragic since he was brought here as a kid by his parents. One can only hope that he finds it in himself to forgive them for putting him in this situation.

As an adult ... he is just as much a lawbreaker as his parents. He knew he was illegal and could have taken steps to be legal ...

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

But when Mr. Ayala-Cornejo filled out recruitment papers, he used the name of a dead relative who had been a United States citizen.

That is ID theft any way you slice it even if the victim of the theft happens to be deceased.

It's tragic since he was brought here as a kid by his parents. One can only hope that he finds it in himself to forgive them for putting him in this situation.

As an adult ... he is just as much a lawbreaker as his parents. He knew he was illegal and could have taken steps to be legal ...

I don't disagree. I was just wanting to point out that, if he or anyone wants to claim that it isn't his fault because he was brought here as a child, then he and they needs to focus their displeasure at his parents who put him in this situation. I find it amusing how the apologists like to rather point to our fascist society as the culprit. Ridiculous.

[natty bumppo 297]

But when Mr. Ayala-Cornejo filled out recruitment papers, he used the name of a dead relative who had been a United States citizen.

That is ID theft any way you slice it even if the victim of the theft happens to be deceased.

It's tragic since he was brought here as a kid by his parents. One can only hope that he finds it in himself to forgive them for putting him in this situation.

As an adult ... he is just as much a lawbreaker as his parents. He knew he was illegal and could have taken steps to be legal ...

I don't disagree. I was just wanting to point out that, if he or anyone wants to claim that it isn't his fault because he was brought here as a child, then he and they needs to focus their displeasure at his parents who put him in this situation. I find it amusing how the apologists like to rather point to our fascist society as the culprit. Ridiculous.

Well said ...