An Illegal Immigrant's Legal Paradox

The way Jaime R. Villagran tells it, to avoid going to jail, he would have had to break one law to obey another.

The Guatemalan native acknowledged that he owed more than $11,000 in child support when he appeared last month in Fairfax County Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court. But to pay it, Villagran told the judge, he would have to work illegally because he was awaiting permanent residency and work authorization from the U.S. government. He refused to do that.

"Were I to go to work and get caught, then what? I would have nothing," Villagran, 33, of Prince William County, said in the Fairfax jail. "If they deported me, there are two kids with no dad, no money. Who's going to be paying for what they need in the future?"

With the immigration debate at a roar nationally, Villagran's case illustrates a moral and legal quandary. Locally, groups that oppose illegal immigration want the government to crack down on those in the country illegally and to punish employers who hire them. But many immigrants live in a complicated state of limbo. Physically but not legally in the United States, they are bound by federal and local laws, even when the two collide.

"You try to do the right thing, and it ends up being the wrong thing," Villagran said.

On March 20, he was ordered to serve 90 days in jail for civil contempt.

Villagran's fear of deportation is hardly groundless. This month, federal immigration authorities raided a Loudoun County resort, detaining 59 foreign-born workers. A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official said in a statement that companies using "cheap, illegal alien labor as a business model should be on notice that ICE is dramatically enhancing its enforcement efforts." On March 24, authorities also raided a Prince William construction site, detaining 34 suspected illegal immigrants from Latin America. Ernestine Fobbs, an ICE spokeswoman, said any immigrant caught working without authorization is subject to a hearing at which a judge decides whether deportation is warranted.

"It's a case-by-case basis," Fobbs said, adding that it's "an honorable person who says, 'I don't want to work without authorization.' "

Kay Cullen, a spokeswoman for the National Child Support Enforcement Association, based in Silver Spring, said growth in the Hispanic immigrant population is changing caseloads nationally. Enforcement agencies, she said, recognize the need to reach out to the immigrant community.

Cullen said she had not heard of anyone else presenting an argument similar to Villagran's in court. It is more common, she said, for immigrants to say they misunderstood or feared the child support system.

"This is different," Cullen said. "It's a very logical argument."

Whether the argument is ethical is another question, she added.