A teenage U.S. citizen avoided what amounted to temporary banishment when a state appeals court reversed a San Diego Superior Court judge's decision ordering him to continue living with his grandparents in Tijuana and not come back to the United States while on probation.
According to court documents, the boy, referred to as “James C.,” was 17 when he attempted to drive a stolen vehicle through the San Ysidro Port of Entry in May 2007. Customs officers inspecting the vehicle found illegal immigrants hidden inside, and the boy was arrested. After his arrest, he told officers that he knew the vehicle had been tampered with, but that he had been threatened into driving it.
Juvenile Court placed the boy on probation, but with an odd border twist. According to court documents, the order issued by Judge Francis M. Devaney committed the boy to the Camp Barrett juvenile detention facility for up to a year, but put off the sentence provided the boy stayed out of the United States:
“You will be returned to your grandparents,” language in the court documents reads. “They'll return you to Mexico. Tijuana. You will not enter this country while on probation to this court . . . I don't care if you are a citizen. I don't care if you have papers. You have no business, as terms of probation, coming back into the country after what you did in this case.”
The order threatened the boy with detention if he returned to the United States.
Last week, the 4th District Court of Appeal in San Diego ruled the Juvenile Court order was unconstitutional, with a probation condition that “impermissibly infringed upon the minor's constitutional rights of freedom of travel, association and assembly.”
“It was outrageous,” said attorney James Crawford, who represented the boy in his appeal. “He is a U.S. citizen . . . Telling a minor that he has to live in Mexico and can't enter the United States is nothing more than banishment.”
The boy lived in Tijuana with his grandparents, his legal guardians, but went to school in the United States, Crawford said. According to court documents, the boy had no criminal history. He has since been released to his grandparents in Tijuana, but is free to come and go.
While James C.'s case is unusual, it's not unique. A similar case occurred in Northern California in the early 1990s, when a court suspended a minor's commitment to the California Youth Authority on the condition that he live in Iran with his parents for two years. An appeals court ruled the order was unconstitutional.
Leslie Berestein: (619) 542-4579; leslie.berestein@uniontrib.com
