Opinion: Pedro Guzman reunited with family

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Pedro Guzman, a U.S. citizen, has finally been found and reunited with his family — no thanks to the U.S. government.

His family, present at the ACLU press conference, and looking drawn, revealed awful details of Guzman’s 89-day ordeal. The developmentally disabled L.A. native, who was not present at the press conference, told family members he had walked from Tijuana to Calexico — more than 100 miles — where he was found on Monday. He ate out of trash cans along the way.

Family members said they only had five minutes with Pedro outside the Antelope Valley courthouse in Lancaster, and it was difficult to understand much of what he said. His brother Michael explained, ‘His speech impediment is like real bad, he stutters when he speaks, he’s afraid of people...at the moment that we picked him up...he was shivering.’ While he is bilingual, his mother Maria Carbajal said in Spanish, the traumatized Pedro did not speak to them in English.

Michael expressed anger at seeing the state of his brother, who his family said was almost unrecognizable. ‘It really, I mean, it ticked me off,’ he said.

Michael should be praised for his restraint. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department had records that Pedro was born in California but made no effort to verify them before turning him over to federal immigration authorities, who in turn deported him. But the hostile treatment from government authorities didn’t end there.

When Pedro tried to explain his situation to officials at a border crossing in order to get back into the United States, they turned him away, (telling him to ‘stop playing games,’ according to Mark Rosenbaum, ACLU legal director for Southern California.) It would be surprising if border authorities, who were supposed to have posters of Pedro put up at every single office, did not recognize him.

The family was supposed to be told immediately if he was found, but relatives say they were not notified for a day and a half. According to Rosenbaum, his release from federal custody was further delayed by the enforcement of a U.S. attorney’s immigration hold, even though — for the last time — he’s a United States citizen.

Maria Carbajal’s voice cracked as she described finding her son, and blamed the government for not coming to her son’s aid, stating in Spanish, ‘They are the ones at fault, and not us.’

In June the editorial board decried the government’s refusal to take responsibility for this disaster. At first glance, it doesn’t appear that anybody heeded that call.

Pedro was to be best man at his younger brother Michael’s July 7 wedding.