8 June 20th-June 26th, 2024 phoenixnewtimes.com PHOENIX NEW TIMES | NEWS | FEATURE | FOOD & DRINK | ARTS & CULTURE | MUSIC | CONCERTS | CANNABIS | years ago are foggy. According to Phoenix immigration attorney Delia Salvatierra, such memory gaps are not uncommon. “People undergo a lot as immigrants,” Salvatierra said. “I think people underesti- mate the kind of trauma individuals go through.” Many of Salvatierra’s clients also have been C-barred. It’s “the single most common and tragic way in which noncrim- inal undocumented people are barred from being able to adjust their status,” the attorney said. Soon after her meeting at USCIS, Alvarez received a letter stating she must leave the country within 33 days or risk deportation proceedings. She’s in limbo once again. Hail Marys A C bar is a hard thing to overcome. Salvatierra said the statute was written to override most immigration waivers, including a MIL-PIP. That troubles Portugal. “This morning, I had a dream, and in it, my mom was handcuffed,” Portugal said. “It’s not the first time I’ve been thinking like this. It’s the fact I’m not there.” As bleak as things look for Alvarez, there are a couple of possible Hail Mary outcomes. Alvarez believes she could be eligible for a U visa or an S visa. The first protects undocumented immigrants who have been a victim of certain crimes. The latter protects law enforcement informants from deportation. After all, Alvarez is a docu- mented victim of one of Arpaio’s deputies. She also gave information on Arpaio to the DOJ, which promised to help her in return. From 2009 on, Alvarez cooperated with the DOJ during its investigation of Arpaio, meeting more than a dozen times with attorneys from the agency’s Civil Rights Division. She’s kept several voice messages from a DOJ investigator on her phone. In the most recent, left in November 2020, a DOJ lawyer promised the department would do something to help her family. Either type of visa would supersede Alvarez’s C bar, Salvatierra said, although neither is a slam dunk to obtain. S visas are so rare that Salvateirra said she’s never seen one granted. U visas are more common but must be sought by a law enforcement agency such as the DOJ. A DOJ spokesperson declined to comment for this story. Alvarez said the investigator who left messages on her phone has since retired. Alvarez’s plight may not be over, but Arpaio’s reign of terror is. After carrying out more than 80 raids on Valley employers between 2008 and 2014 — and arresting more than 800 people suspected of lacking legal status to be in the country — the Melendres lawsuit brought an end to his bigoted enforcement of immigration laws. However, ICE still maintains a pres- ence in the agency’s jails. While Arpaio may be a political nonfactor, plenty still carry his anti-immi- grant banner. State Republicans just placed on the November ballot a bill that once again gives local cops the ability to police immigration. And Jerry Sheridan, Arpaio’s former second-in-command, is running for sheriff. Arpaio’s misdeeds cast a long shadow. “It’s sad what he’s done,” Alvarez said of Arpaio. “Separating families, sending people back to Mexico.” Alvarez also thinks of the former sheriff in another context, though. For several years, Alvarez has worked as a caregiver to the elderly, even taking in one octoge- narian client during the COVID-19 pandemic. The woman still stays in Alvarez’s living room. Arpaio turns 92 next month. And if he ever needed her care, she would offer it. Even to the man who, more than any other, put her in this situation. “If he needs my help, why not?” Alvarez said with a smile. “That’s what we’re supposed to do for others.” Celia Alvarez was interviewed 12 times by the U.S. Department of Justice during its investigation of former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. (Photo by Gage Skidmore via Flickr) Fighting to Stay from p 6
