by KG MacGregor
“She dropped her purse trying to get away, which you know about already. That’s why she didn’t have her green card. She tried to give them her A-number but they refused to look it up.”
“Such bastards,” Anna said. “They could have cleared it up right there on the spot. Why wouldn’t they do something so simple?”
Lily saw it through a cynical lens. “Because this administration’s real goal is to detain as many immigrants as possible and find a reason to deport them.”
“It feels that way sometimes,” Tony said. “Serafina was worried about Andy because the agent who detained him accused him of having a fake driver’s license. Apparently that was the basis for their arrest.”
Her fists curled with anger at the notion that ICE was free to make stupid mistakes all day because they knew damn good and well the DHS put the burden on immigrants to prove they had a right to be in this country.
Tony continued, “At least Randall’s on the case now. Once Andy gets into the system, things will start to happen.”
“What about Serafina?” Anna asked.
“I got her scheduled for a hearing tomorrow morning. I should be able to get her released then, unless…”
“Unless what?”
“That’s the other problem. I’ll have to wait till her paperwork comes through to know for sure, but a lot of these detainees get charged with a criminal offense, like resisting arrest or disorderly conduct. Some of these ICE guys, that’s part of their MO. They try to pin a charge on people they pick up, especially if they have legal resident status. Nine times out of ten it’s just a pretext to deport. All they need is a conviction.”
Anna shook her head. “Serafina wouldn’t have done anything like that.”
Unfortunately, Lily knew it wasn’t that simple. ICE officers didn’t use body cameras to document their interactions with detainees. If they said Serafina resisted arrest, she was as good as guilty.
“Whatever it is, I’ll try to sort it out,” Tony said. “I’ll give you a call tomorrow as soon as we’re done. Maybe you’ll get lucky in the meantime and hear from Andy. All it takes is one officer who’ll listen to him and check out what he says.”
“Yeah, let’s hope.” She dropped her phone in her bag and said to Anna, “It’s pretty hard to expect compassion from people who keep children in cages.”
“It’s like the whole system is designed to inflict maximum cruelty.”
“However bad you think it is, I promise it’s even worse. I worked with Tony on some of those cases. You wouldn’t believe all the roadblocks they throw up. It’s like gambling—the house always wins.”
Down on the tennis court, as Georgie’s hour-long lesson wound down, the pro ran him ragged on the baseline. Now red-faced, sweaty and gasping for breath, he dragged himself into the observation room. “That was awesome.”
“You’re on fire, kiddo,” Anna said as she ruffled his matted hair. “Whoever draws you next better look out.”
Lily passed him his duffle bag. “Go shower and get changed. We’ll meet you in the car and grab some In-N-Out burgers for lunch.”
In the parking lot, Anna stepped in front to take the driver’s seat even though it was Lily’s SUV. “You don’t mind if I drive, do you?”
“Since when do you have to ask? I only married you because you promised I’d never have to deal with LA traffic again.”
“So that’s what sealed it. I always wondered.”
Lily glanced around to make sure no one was within earshot. “There was also that flicking thing you do with your tongue. I like that a lot.”
“Mmm, I’ll take that under advisement.” Anna started the car and began adjusting the seat and mirrors. “I need to do that flicking thing more often…keep my flicker in shape.”
It felt good to lighten up, if only for a moment. “Anna, when this ordeal is over, I vote we try the whole family vacation thing again. Just the five of us, off the grid for real. How about a long weekend in a tent right on the beach at Laguna? Or by the lake at Point Mogu?”
“Sounds tempting…except for the part where we have to sleep on the actual ground and pick bugs out of our food.”
“Come on, the kids love it. We haven’t been camping in ages.” Her cell phone rang through the car’s audio system, posting the caller info in the dashboard display. “Who do I know in Phoenix?”
“Probably someone who wants to know if you’re tired of paying too much for life insurance. Don’t hang up!”
Lily laughed. “Let’s see if you’re right.”
“Hello, is this Judge Lilian Kaklis?” a woman’s voice asked.
“Yes, it is.”
“My name is Shelynn Kelly. I’m an immigration attorney in Phoenix. A young man claiming to be your son asked me to call you.”
* * *
The afternoon sun cast long shadows across the tarmac at Gateway Airport in Mesa, Arizona, an overflow airport just outside Phoenix. Shelynn Kelly had urged one of them to get here as quickly as possible. For Anna, that meant a private jet out of Santa Monica’s executive airport.
After a heated, tearful debate, Lily had reluctantly agreed that it was best for Anna to go alone to meet the attorney. Somebody was going to get an earful for not bothering to check Andy’s story, but that couldn’t come from Lily. As an officer of the court, she couldn’t risk losing her temper in front of a federal judge. An ethics complaint would surely follow.
As they taxied from the runway, Anna called home. “Hey, we just landed. Any more news?”
“Tony checked out this attorney. He says we can definitely trust her. She gets most of her funding from human rights groups, so she’s been vetted.”
Anna recalled Lily saying their legal aid clinic had gotten a surge of funding from foundations and nongovernmental organizations to fight the administration’s aggressive stance on immigration. “Let’s just hope this woman’s good at what she does.”
“She was good enough to track us down. Call me as soon as you know something.”
The copilot of the small jet emerged from the cockpit as they rolled to a stop. “We’ll be on the ground here until about seven fifteen if that’s relevant to your plans this evening.”
“There’s nothing I’d like better than to fly back to LA with you guys tonight. Especially if I can fly back with my son.”
Generally speaking, she thought of private jets as a wasteful extravagance. Not today. Any price was worth it if it meant bringing Andy home.
She ducked through the doorway and stepped carefully down the steep, narrow stairs. A dotted line marked the path to the gate. Carrying only her handbag and a zippered folio with Andy’s vital papers, she bypassed baggage claim and texted Kelly that she was ready for pickup.
“Mazda CX-5, brown.”
Anna spotted the compact SUV right away and waved. The woman behind the wheel had short brown hair and glasses framing a heart-shaped face, but Anna instantly drew comparisons with Lily based on the condition of her vehicle. File folders were scattered on every seat, and brightly colored sticky notes adorned the console and dashboard.
“Sorry,” Kelly said as she moved a stack of files from the passenger seat. “You can’t tell it from here, but I actually have a real office somewhere with a desk and everything.”
“No worries. Lily’s car used to look like this too. She worked for years as a legal aid attorney.”
“Then you know what it’s like.” Kelly drove past the airport exit and turned onto a service road. “Did you bring the documents? I need to be absolutely certain we’re talking about the same Andres I saw in court this morning.”
Anna patted her folio. “We call him Andy. He’s half Latino, which is why his biological mother named him Andres. In fact, social services told us his father was killed in a gang fight. How’s that for irony?”
“Whatever you do, don’t tell them that. ICE already considers him guilty by association. You too, probably. And your dog.”
“What’s the plan?”
<
br /> “We need to try to get the judge to look at this evidence and rescind his order sending Andy to a detention center. I don’t want you to get your hopes up though. This is a Hail Mary. I’m not even sure I can get through to him this late in the day. Most of our immigration judges are teleconferenced from New Mexico.”
A sturdy chain-link fence divided the service road from the tarmac. At the end was a gate that allowed vehicle access, and beyond, two midsized passenger jets emblazoned with the word Swiftair. Each had a staircase at the forward door.
“Swiftair, better known around here as ICE Air. Gateway’s their hub, which is why so many detainees are brought to Phoenix for their hearing. We get them every day by the busload from all over the Southwest. LA, San Diego, Vegas. This way they can bus the Mexicans straight from the courthouse down to Nogales and dump them across the border. The others get put on a plane back to their home country. Or if they’re really lucky, they go to one of our shithole detention centers.”
“That’s disgusting. Lily says some of these ICE agents actually relish the misery they cause.”
“I think it’s fair to say nobody dreams of becoming an ICE agent so they can help people.” Kelly parked and began to peruse the documents, taking photos of each with her phone.
“I made two sets of copies,” Anna said.
“Good thinking. Oh yeah, this is definitely the kid who was in court this morning. Looks like you brought everything I need to prove he’s not their Andres Casillas. I wish all my clients came so prepared.”
“Thank my wife. She’s the attorney.”
“I have a confession,” Kelly said sheepishly. “The main reason I took up Andy’s case was because it was obvious he was telling the truth and the ICE agents were lying pricks. The other reason is I felt a kinship with him when he mentioned his moms, plural. That makes us family.”
Anna laughed and sealed it with a fist bump. “Andy’s a good kid, the complete opposite of who ICE thinks he is. He goes to a private school in Beverly Hills and he gets teased for his size and for being half Latino. He deals with it, but I know it hurts his feelings. It’s killing me to think what it must be like for him in there.”
“If we can get him out right away, he should be okay. It’s the ones who are held for weeks on end that I worry about. Or the little ones. It’s a real SOB who takes pleasure in locking up toddlers. A lot of these kids have never been in trouble a day in their life. Now all of a sudden they’re treated the same as hardened criminals.”
Anna hoped Andy could keep his head down and do as he was told. Staying safe was the priority. He had to know they were working like mad to get him out.
“Whoa, look at this.” Kelly nodded toward the gate, which opened for a white van with US government plates, then closed once it was inside.
The van pulled in front of one of the planes and deposited five adults, all dressed in orange jumpsuits, with one wearing chains that bound his feet and hands. Two guards got out and flanked them as they climbed the staircase and boarded.
“That plane must be the one going to Honduras,” Kelly said. “That’s where today’s deportees were headed. Either there or on the bus to Mexico.”
“What about the other plane?”
“Hard to say exactly, but I’d bet money Andy’s on that one. They don’t usually file a flight plan till the doors close, so we won’t know for sure where it’s going till it takes off. That’s part of their game, spreading detainees all through the system and making them hard to track. I’m telling you, they get off on being sick bastards.”
The van circled and stopped in front of the second plane. This time four children got out, including a girl no bigger than Georgie carrying a toddler on her hip.
“Oh, my God.” The sight made Anna physically ill.
“Yeah, that’s the kiddie plane. Can you imagine what it sounds like in there, all those terrified children?” Kelly nodded toward the gate. “Okay, let’s go see if we can fix this mess.”
As Anna climbed out of the car, it occurred to her that Andy might be able to see her through the window. The thought pleased her so much that she couldn’t resist a small wave. “What do we do?”
“First, I need to make this call.” Kelly adjusted her earbuds and scrolled through her phone for a number. “Yes, this is Shelynn Kelly. I’m an attorney in Phoenix. I represented eleven clients in Judge Pruitt’s court today. I’ve tracked down some information he wanted on a case he was concerned about, and I’ve just emailed it to your office.” She briefly summarized the issue of Andy’s mistaken identity. To Anna, she said, “Okay, I’m on hold. Just follow my lead.”
They approached the gate, where a uniformed ICE officer brandished a rifle and told them the area was closed to civilians.
“We’re here to pick up one of your passengers, Andres Casillas. He’s a minor, so I’ve brought his mother and legal guardian to take custody. She’s a US citizen and so is he. He was picked up by mistake. His name is actually Andres Kaklis and these are his relevant documents.” She passed them through the gate, having placed the passport on top, opened to Andy’s photo. “Yes, I’ll continue to hold.” To the officer, she explained, “I’m on the phone right now with Judge Pruitt’s office. He presided over Andres’s hearing this morning, and he was concerned this might be a case of mistaken identity. Turns out he was right.”
The officer was clearly skeptical, but he examined the papers. As he did, he haphazardly dangled his rifle over one arm so that it pointed toward Anna’s chest.
Shuffling to Kelly’s opposite side, Anna motioned for him to secure his rifle. “Excuse me, would you mind not…”
“Do you want me to read this or not?” he gruffly asked.
“Yes, of course.” Idiot. As if it were necessary to hold her at gunpoint while he did.
The attorney pressed on with her call, making sure the officer was aware she was speaking with someone in the judge’s office. “Yes, I understand…No, I don’t mind continuing to hold for Judge Pruitt. This is extremely urgent.” She covered the phone and said to the guard, “She’s asking the bailiff to pass him a message. I can’t believe he’s still in court. We started at six o’clock this morning. He’ll be so glad to see this dealt with. One less headache for him. Would you be able to call Andres down here while we wait? The judge may want to speak to him before his release…probably to apologize.”
“Which plane is he on?”
“He’s being detained, not deported. Does that narrow it down?”
He grudgingly activated his radio. “This is Fagan. There’s a lawyer down here at the gate who says one of the detainees isn’t who he says he is. His real name is Andres…Cackles. That’s K-A-K-L-I-S. She’s on the phone with the judge now.”
Anna felt like snatching his phone and shouting to the person on the plane to bring Andy to the gate. “Kaklis wouldn’t be on your list. The agents who picked him up mistakenly believed he was someone named Andres Casillas. It wasn’t their fault. Someone gave them bad information.” She added the last bit to soothe their overblown egos.
“Try Andres Casillas.”
“Thank you, I’ll continue to hold,” Kelly said. To the guard, she added, “I should have the judge on the line in a couple of minutes.”
“I need to take these papers to my sergeant. He’s on the plane.”
Kelly reached through the gate and grabbed the folio. “No, no. You take the copies. I’ll hold on to the originals.”
“I love how you’ve got everyone believing you’re here doing what the judge ordered,” Anna said when he’d gone. “That’s brilliant.”
“Me? What about you. That was a stroke of genius telling him it wasn’t their fault. Now they have an excuse to fall back on. And we’re going to need it”—she waggled her phone—” since Pruitt’s secretary hung up about two seconds after I asked to speak to him. But at least she promised me he’d look at the documents.”
The news was like a gut punch. “And all this time, even I believed you
were on hold for him. That means Andy’s basically screwed.”
“Not necessarily. ICE arrested him, ICE can release him, even without a court order. I can’t imagine they’d want the PR shitstorm that would follow if they knowingly detained a minor when they had proof it was the wrong person.”
Anna wanted to believe that but she’d seen too much evidence of ICE acting with impunity and not giving a damn what anyone thought. If they couldn’t be shamed about putting toddlers in cages without anyone to answer their screams, it was hard to imagine them having compassion about anything.
They looked up as Fagan emerged and started down the stairs—without Andy, but with considerably more spring in his step than when he’d gone up.
Anna didn’t know what to make of it. “He looks happy. Let’s hope he’s bringing us good news.”
Fagan never even looked their way. Instead, he methodically released the brakes on the stairs and rolled them away as another guard reached out and closed the plane’s door.
Kelly stamped her foot. “Those bastards! They don’t give a shit whether Andy’s a citizen or not. He’s Latino. As far as they’re concerned, he’s just another beaner who doesn’t deserve to live in their country.”
* * *
Andy’s stomach roiled as they hit another pocket of turbulence. The flight was a lot rougher than what he was used to, probably because he was seated at the back of the plane. He normally flew first class with his moms, but even for their flights in coach they paid extra to get seats close to the front. It was a lot smoother up there.
He gently rubbed the blister on his ankle, the result of a too-tight leg cuff that had caused the seam of his jeans to chafe his skin. Were these ass clowns actually stupid enough to think he’d make a run for it? No, they were just dicks who thought they were badass for treating kids like shit.
At least they’d taken the chains off when he boarded the plane. That was roughly ten hours ago. He’d spent the entire day crammed in the window seat of the last row, with nothing to read or watch, and only Ruben to talk to. Their only reprieve had been three bathroom breaks, the last one about two hours ago, just before they took off. Without his phone he had no idea of the time.
