A Long Flight of No Return

Photos
Deportation Flights Ferry Immigrants Home
About 100 Central American men, shackled at the wrists and ankles, recently boarded a Boeing 737 bound from Dulles International Airport to Alexandria, La. Once hopeful newcomers to the United States, they began their journeys home on a deportation flight for illegal immigrants run by the Department of Homeland Security.

The men's appearance was as diverse as their backgrounds. There were fresh-faced teenagers wearing baggy jeans that drooped around their ankles because the marshals had confiscated their belts. There was an older man dressed in a deeply rumpled business suit that made him seem at once dignified and pathetic.

And stretching a long leg into the aisle from seat 9C was Oscar Barilla, 25, whose chest and back were tattooed with the gothic letters and fearsome symbols of his gang, Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13. Barilla consented to be photographed for this article, but, like the other 15 gang members aboard, he refused to be interviewed.

Galea, the pet store owner, said that after he sneaked into the United States, he found in Virginia not only the psychological help he was seeking after the atrocities of El Salvador's civil war, but also a fresh start. He was granted political asylum and started working in a cafeteria. He said he enrolled in night school and received a high school diploma, then a bachelor's degree in theology. He married a U.S. citizen and had a son.

But he also garnered a series of convictions for drunken driving. Then, one evening in 2002, he broke a window to get into his house. His wife called 911.

Galea maintained that his wife mistakenly thought an intruder was in the house. The commonwealth's attorney said that when police arrived, Galea's wife told them that Galea was drunk and that she was concerned because he was upstairs in bed with their son and might be molesting the boy.

When the officers entered the bedroom, a scuffle ensued. Galea said he had been confused and was acting in self-defense. Unconvinced, a jury convicted him of assaulting and unlawfully wounding two officers--securing Galea a four-year prison sentence and a seat on the deportation flight afterward. "I will miss everything about the United States," Galea said with a sigh. "I had my whole life here."

In the rear of the plane, in seat 17B, Tulio Estrada was lamenting not how much he was leaving behind, but how little.

The 25-year-old prep cook said he had been full of plans when he stole in from Guatemala. He was going to earn enough to pay a doctor to cure his mother's aches and his little brother's mental illness. He was going to save up enough to buy a small business or maybe some land back in Guatemala. Nine years later, he was still living in a one-bedroom rental apartment in Arlington with two other men, barely earning enough to send his mother money for basic expenses.

One evening last fall, Estrada said, he went to a wedding reception and got into a drunken fight. Someone called police. Now he was being shipped back to Guatemala in the same white polo shirt and work pants he was wearing when he was arrested. Like the rest of the passengers, he carried no other possessions save for a red mesh sack the size of a pillowcase packed with a change of underwear, a Bible and shampoo.

"Sure, I had planned on returning to Guatemala someday. But not like this -- with nothing," he said sadly.

The plane reached cruising altitude. Several marshals began passing out box lunches.

Rafael Llano, a tall Dominican with dreadlocks, took his box with a scowl. A resident of the United States since he was 8, Llano said he felt out of place on the flight.

"I went to school here. My mom, my dad, all my brothers live here," Llano, 22, said in unaccented English. "I'm as American as the president. The only difference between us is that he has a piece of paper proving it. It makes me so angry."

Llano said he was a permanent resident but lost that privilege when was convicted on drug charges and sentenced to five years in prison. Now, he said, "I'm going to a place where I'm a stranger, where I don't know nothing from nothing."

He did not plan on staying long. "I have to find my way back. I have three kids there. I have no choice."

The plane began its descent. A hush fell over the passengers. It touched down with a gentle bump. This time, there were no cheers.