Night of terror

An arrest of an illegal immigrant in Alamance County points to a scary side effect of deportation laws

For a moment, put yourself in these shoes: You are a mother, pulled over on I-85 in the middle of the night, and you have riding with you your three children -- 14, 10 and 6 years old -- and a man who is a fellow church member, hitching a ride. The officer is going to take you to jail, and while you are handcuffed, the 14-year-old, a daughter, is instructed by the officer to ask you (you don't speak much English) if it's OK if the children are left with the man. (The officer says you nodded in the affirmative.)

But the man abandons your children, and they are left by the side of the road for eight hours -- until their father, who lives in Maryland and has gotten a cell phone call from them, comes to the rescue.

Three children, left overnight in a car on I-85. There is no way to tell this story that can lead anyone to any conclusion other than this was not right. And it was dangerous, even potentially tragic. That's why the N.C. Justice Center, which relates the story, is looking into it.

The woman is Maria Chavira Ventura (immigration officials say that is an assumed name and that actually she is Maria Mejia). She was charged with driving without a license and displaying a false license plate. The incident happened in Alamance County in the early morning of June 14. The arresting officer was an Alamance sheriff's deputy, and the department participates in a federal program, called 287(g), that allows jailers to check immigration status and begin the deportation process on those they arrest. Ventura is an illegal immigrant, is in jail in Alabama and will be deported.

The sheriff's department says that the officer didn't do anything wrong, and that the department didn't know what happened to the children after the arrest. (Why weren't they simply taken to an office where they could have waited safely?) Also, the department will not investigate further absent a formal complaint.

The man who left the children did so because like Ventura, he is an illegal immigrant and understandably feared deportation.

It's true that illegal immigration is a complicated issue. There are requirements for legal residence in this country, and those requirements are supposed to be followed.

But many American businesses employ illegal immigrants and wink at their status, which is one reason the federal government has been winking, too. Congressional bobbing and weaving on the issue has been embarrassing. Figures on just how many immigrants are in this country without proper authorization vary widely, but 12-14 million probably is a low number. Massive deportation is simply impractical.

High-level officialdom avoids action. Some politicians use illegal immigrants as election-year targets.

Meanwhile, on a summer night in Alamance County, three children spent the night, scared and hungry, in a car on the shoulder of I-85. After their mother was handcuffed, and taken away. Their very lives could have been at risk.

Putting aside the immigration issues, and the driving violations, ask yourself just this question: What if they had been your children?