Man strives for next step in citizenship struggle

ON THE HIDALGO-REYNOSA INTERNATIONAL BRIDGE — He’s a stone’s throw away from the only country he’s ever considered home, but the U.S. government says he can’t go back.

Robin Whiteley stood along the U.S.-Mexico border — literally, over the Rio Grande — on Wednesday, two months after he was deported from the United States for the fifth time.

First featured in a September 2009 story in The Monitor, Whiteley clings to the dream that he may reunite someday with his family in East Texas.

Since then, federal agents arrested him on suspicion of illegal re-entry. After that arrest — his fifth alleged illegal re-entry violation — his lawyers told him fighting the charge would prove futile in his bid to regain his U.S. immigration status.

He doesn’t know what he will do next.

‘NIGHTMARE’

Whiteley’s American parents adopted him from an El Paso midwife after he was born in Ciudad Juarez, Chih., on Jan. 4, 1974.

He received a green card when President Ronald Reagan granted amnesty to illegal immigrants in the late 1980s. Later, Whiteley established permanent residency.

Only when he was convicted of marijuana possession in 2000 did his real problems with U.S. immigration law develop.

During his time in prison, he learned he lost his permanent residency and would be deported.

Since then, Whiteley has been caught and sent back to Mexico four more times. Each time, he arrives there without any evidence he is a citizen, and he has struggles to find work and shelter — or learn Spanish.

“Nobody has to tell me I took my time for granted in the United States,” Whiteley said. “Nobody has to tell me I did a crime in the United States. This is the nightmare that follows.”

‘NO LAWYER WANTS TO DO THIS’

Whiteley tried to fight his latest illegal re-entry case, but he said his court-appointed lawyer wasn’t interested in fighting the charge. His family put together enough money to hire another lawyer, but it became clear that the outcome of his illegal re-entry case would matter.

Even if a jury found him not guilty in his criminal case, the federal judge would not consider his immigration case, leaving him to be deported again. So on Dec. 22, he pleaded guilty, was credited for time served in jail and was sent back to Reynosa.

Now, Whiteley said, any chance of legally returning to Texas seems out of the question.

U.S. consular officials in Matamoros told him his latest application for a U.S. passport was denied — he has no certified copy of his adoption from Mexico, and his Texas birth certificate shows his birthplace as Juarez.

Whiteley enlisted the help of U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Tyler, in a bid to get his passport application approved. But even that did not spur consular officials in Washington to reconsider his situation. They said he had no proof of U.S. citizenship or evidence his adopted parents pushed for his naturalization before he became an adult — a position Whiteley disputes.

Whitely said lawyers told him his only other option would be to sue the U.S. government. But the thousands of dollars in up-front costs and subsequent legal fees are beyond his means.

“I, nor my parents, have that kind of money,” Whiteley said. “No lawyer wants to do this.”

He has been renting a room in Reynosa that he pays for by doing yard work and performing other odd jobs. His family sends money when they can but lacks the finances to pay an immigration attorney for what would surely be another prolonged battle.

“There has to be a system in place that’s going to benefit everybody,” Whiteley said. “You have a system in place that’s broken. If you don’t have money for a lawyer, you have problems.”

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Jared Taylor covers courts and general assignments for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956) 683-4439.