Fines? I didn't hear a thing about this child being convicted of a crime or violation. The only judge the childfaced was an immigration judge.

According to the Colombian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the girl was enrolled in the country's "Welcome Home" program after she arrived there. She was given shelter, psychological assistance and a job at a call center, a statement from the agency said.

All this and she doesn't speak Spanish...shouldn't this have been a "small" clue?

My thoughts exactly Logic4U. She didn't speak Spanish - major clue.

@Logic4u: Why would you automatically assume that she needs to speak Spanish to be Colombian? That's a big misconception. I have many Colombian and South American friends whose kids were born abroad, and speak not one word of Spanish as they were brought here at a very early age - and before your brain goes into a rant about their parents status, they are all professionals who immigrated to this country legally.

This girl is no different than the kids of Russian parents who immigrated in the 80's to the US and speak not one word of Russian.

A person's original nationality is not always a guarantee they are speakers of their home country's language - especially here in the US.

SpecialED...

They are considering fines for her lies to ICE. I would honestly believe that this child has something terribly wrong in her life to run away in the first place. Then she chose to steal, then she chose to hold onto a lie that resulted in deportation. Then she spent time in Colombia without claiming her own name. Her actions of lying to a Federal Officer most certainly warrant further scrutiny and yes fines....her expense to the taxpayer in the deportation process is real. The fact that she was able to continue her ruse shows she is probably a bit more mature than her family is giving her credit for and well she should be held accountable for her actions.

I just don't see her as a victim. Now her Grandmother yes. She victimized her family by choosing to run away to the farthest point she could get. If this child had the where with all to end up in Colombia she should have had the maturity to seek help from someone in her family with what ever trouble she was having. It would seem her grandmother would have been an excellent person to talk to. It seems clear that she will go to great lengths to love this child and care for her well being. I see the Grandmother as a victim.

The United States and Colombia seemed to have worked within their bounds. It appears they treated her with dignity and respect on the two ends of the process. She chose this path by maintaining a lie. She chose a name that was destined to be deported...so where is the person who has taken this child's identity, not just a name to be picked out of a hat. Dallas and Houston ICE should be on that looking for the real Tika Lanay Cortez.

I can understand the Grandmothers frustration about her granddaughter looking and acting like a kid. Apparently, she wished to act like an adult as she was pregnant. Apparently, she wished to act like an adult because she ran away. Apparently, she wished to act like an adult because she had a alias that would get her deported. What we do not often understand in the United States is that we impose arbitrary ages to adulthood. We choose to say a 15 year old is a child where many other cultures see this as an age of maturity. But then she claimed to be 21 and she claimed to be an entirely different person.

Has anyone asked Jakadrien if she wished to come home?

I agree that she sould have to pay some consequence for her actions. I am a G'mother also and understand how the family feels, however she lied to the authorities. She had several times to reveal who she was to ICE, the police, the Columbian authorities, the psychologist who counseled her, or anyone who would listen. She chose her fate. She is lucky that she did not get caught up in the human trafficking. Why is it that people don't want to held responsible for their actions. There is little difference in appearance between a 15 yr old and 20yr old. The person she perpretrated was born 1990. That would make her 21. WAKE UP PEOPLE!! The girl had a job and was living as a Columbian citizen. She wasn't complaining. UNDER AGE TEEN OR NOT. IT'S TIME TO HOLD THIS GENERATION RESPONSIIBLE FOR THEIR ACTIONS. Instead of always crying, "those poor young people they are being victimized by the circumstances." Someone should pay for her actions, but it should not be at the expense of the tax payers to get her home. Her family wants her let them pay. Why not use some of her call center wages. Obviousely this makes my blood boil. Not that she is such a liar, or that the family want to blame authorities, but that they should be grateful that she is coming home and mainly because of the system that our country has in place. What's wrong with you people that you can not appreciate your own country. Why do suppose so many people want to come here? There are people who risk their lives everyday to come to this country. When I say "you people" I mean the haters who are always looking for an easy way out and blaming others for their problems. No I am not a racist. I am an African American G'mother who grew up in Harlem whose parents taught us to be respectful and responsible for our actions. I too was a teen mother@ the age of 17. It was extreemly difficult, but I had to take responsibility for what happened next. Surely, I was not going to run away especially to another country where I couldn't speak the language. Now that was just stupid. Get real! lol I like this story; it made me laugh after all. I stop boiling. Blessings to you all.

She could have been born in Colombia and moved to the US when she was just a baby and never learn the language. I know a lot of Hispanics and people from other races that have the nationality from another country but do not actually know the language.

IT'S TIME TO HOLD THIS GENERATION RESPONSIIBLE FOR THEIR ACTIONS

Exactly: the police, the ICE officers, and the immigration judge need to be held accountable for their actions!

How stupid were they? How many of you really think no one ever lies to the police, to immigration authorities, or judges? It happens hundreds of times a day! Part of their job is discerning the truth and weeding through all the lies. If they fail, it is incompentence on their part. That's the problem with hiring thousands of immigration officials all at once: too many of the newbies don't know what they are doing, and they cannot be properly trained, since they outnumber the seasoned professionals. That's a problem that goes back decades.

Just curious, how does one know whether a person speaks a language or not?

commonsense....

If she were a white supremecist, she would likely sue the government for wrongful actions, walk away with millions of taxpayer dollars, and the whiners on Newsvine would no doubt cheer.

Seriously, if she were a "white supremacist" she would never claim to be Latin in origin. Your statement is the stuff of random fantasy.

The girl lied....her choosing to lie or stick with that lie has nothing to do with the color of her skin or her truly being an African American...sadly, she seems to have rather been Colombian.

Your race baiting is just trolling.

Why is MSNBC identifying a minor girl who has gone through this experience by both name and photo?

Be more patient. The lawyers are still circling. None have landed yet to help fatten there own wallet by representing her in an open and shut case. Maybe she would be happier in Columbia? has anybody asked her? I would be happier if she was in Columbia and not on the welfare roles for the next 20 years or so.

Her idiotic behavior and ability to lie have nothing to do with what color she is. Use some common sense. Not every body who disagrees whith your opinion is racists or unjust. Thank God we live in America where we can have different opinions freely without fear of retributon from authority. Do we have to fear it from you??

commonsense....seems you need another cup of coffee...you are rambling...you chose the term"white supremacist" many see "white" as of European descent so you are indeed touting a racist line.

The reality is...if the child had been fair skinned she could have been equally deported for maintaining a lie. She would not have been scrutinizes any further because well many Colombians are fair skinned.

You might consider what you are talking about before tossing out absurdity.

A runaway 15-year-old Texas girl who was deported to South America after claiming to be an illegal immigrant could soon return home.

LOL!!! For real? I thought this was an Onion story. Too funny!

What a heartwarming story....

I'm looking forward to the big welcoming parade when this girl comes home to Dallas - complete with confetti and streamers and speeches by Misters Jackson and Sharpton

...followed by a whirlwind round of appearances on talk shows such as the "Today Show" and "Dr. Phil"

and finally, ending with a visit with the President in the Rose Garden where he proclaims: "we shall never deport anybody - ever again"

...and MSNBC will live happily ever after

wow. Why do black people turn everything into racism? Anyone who would do what this girl did is a total idiot regardless of race, and would deserve fines, imprisonment, etc.

This story is definitely a strange one. The girl may have psychological problems. I believe that both America and Columbia acted with justice in this situation. She lied to American officials, they humanely deported who she said she was, Columbian officals treated her with respect AND gave her psychological care (hmmm - maybe she is better off there!).

I agree with the post that suggested she had good reason to run away. Anyone who is willing to go to such lengths to escape home has been experiencing some horrible secret behind closed doors at home....

This story is just weird.

My statement from above

Her idiotic behavior and ability to lie have nothing to do with what color she is.

Common sense circular logic

True statement. Does it have anything to do with the fact that she was wrongfully exiled, though?

1) It has everything to do with her being reasonably deported as she was using the real identity of a 21 year old foreign national.

2) When they ran her fingerprints they received no hits...Not surprising she was in truth a minor and possibly had no reason for her fingerprints to be recorded under her real name. The real woman under that name could as well not have been fingerprinted....no reason to suspect.

3) What would trigger scrutiny? Who would expect that an American teen would ever wish to voluntarily seek deportation. Thank goodness it was Colombia and not one of the many cesspools of SA.

Your statement....

It is easy for us to be blind to prejudice when we it has never been directed against us.

You realize that you have not proved any prejudice involved in this situation beyond your own imagination. There are Afro-Colombians and Zambo in the country of Colombia. She could have learned enough about these cultures to have answered question properly or possibly just skated through the process based on her own lie. It is not the job of ICE to disprove the story of those voluntarily deporting.

You know common sense I am owie enough as it is today without trying to follow your incessant tail chasing.... Do you actually re-read what you have written to assess the quality of thought?

Have you people lost your minds? You are blaming a 17 year old girl for being deported and NOT the lack of work of the ICE "Investigators". So a kid is at fault and not the adults who deported her? Where is accountability in our government? It does not exist anymore.

On a brighter note, sounds like Columbia has their crap together, place to live, a job. What's our government done for its citizens? Oh, yea. They repealed the Constitution, Hooray!

txmom, you can not get a logical conversation from a troll and feeding them just makes them happier.

MoSinEUR...true enough...

Trust....Haven't lost my mind...she is a teenager who lied to get her way...there are consequences for those actions....she is still a minor and has legal guardians...who have been through a tremendous ordeal...they have every right to seek her return. She seems to be nothing more than a petulant child who managed to create a great deal of distress for her family and well an international incident. I don't think grounding would really encompass the scope of her self-promoted problems. She wished to act like an adult, found a way to become an adult so maybe the consequences should mirror those of an adult.

I agree with your assessment of Colombia. I think the country as a whole has improved form their low point of the 1980's and 1990's. The state of a Country and their people cannot improve overnight but they seem to be making great strides. Now if they can just keep Hugo from supporting the criminals along his border with Colombia then maybe progress would increase.

how did she "randomly" come up with THAT name? It doesnt sound very common. And why is NSA requesting travel papers for a deportation? NSA doesnt do immigration. Somebody's confused-- besides me. :)

The USA should have left her there, One less spoiled brat.....

txmom32, you keep saying she deserves adult consequenses because she wishes to act, like an adult. Only a child has to act like an adult, a real adult doesn't have to act. In our country we don't punish children as adults, unless they commit murder or some haneous crime. Children do stupid things, hence they are children. If she was really an adult she wouldn't need to run away, children seem to get themselves into trouble but can't get themselves out of it. If you punish her as an adult, then let her get a drivers license, let her purchase cigaretts and alchohol and let her vote. We know children make bad decisions thats why they don't have certain priviledges adults get.

This is such an odd story on so many levels. First, that this girl would willingly and deliberately facilitate her own deportation to Colombia rather than reveal her true identity is baffling. Second, that she was able to pull it off is a colossal embarrassment for ICE; not to mention more than a little frightening. Third, that Colombian officials granted her citizenship, gave her a job, housing and psychological counseling is amazing. There has to be a lot more to this story than what's been reported.

give her a Lifetime supply of dum, dum's..ICE, bend over & show your Character, so that the World Can sneer at.......

Karl...Personally, I am quite impressed by this 15 year old and her ability to negotiate the path she took. She managed to hijack and identity, work for a living, sustain a pregnant that we can all hope is healthy and live independently. I find this on one level a success story. This impression of her in no way vindicates her actions...she cost our ICE agency and our Justice system a great deal of money...this is a debt she owes. Colombia may also wish to seek reparations for the cost she incurred to their system. Fair enough.

In our country there are minors that are held to an adult standard due to the nature of their crime. Now it is possible that she should not be required to pay those debts or fines at this time because she is not legally an adult. ....I do think that it would be reasonable for them to defer the fines for the day she does become a legal adult with all of the responsibilities that come with that. After all she proved that she could support herself and be a productive member of a society. If nothing else they should be able to attach the fees she will receive for selling her story. Based on what has been presented in the articles written about her...it seems that at least per her social networking that she really had no problem with the situation she found herself in...It seems that her mother and grandmother face a much harder road trying to find her and repatriate her than anyone...seems it will be to the mother and grandmother to find a way to bring her back into the family to feel safe and supported. I do not envy her mother and grandmother in fact I wish them the best in such a difficult situation. I certainly hold them in high regard for not giving up the search. They must be incredible women which certainly gives rise to hope for their child in coming home.

It is a very bad idea to encourage a pregnant woman of any age to drink.

This gives me an idea of how to visit relatives in south america. For Free!!

In order to lower the unemployment rate, the Immigration dept is pushing out as many illegals as possible and if you're bird watching and in the way of this round up process, Congratulations! You just won a free vacation!

Smh you are all a mess...look at the bigger pricture sometimes people with certain authorities say things to cover up their mess ups. So if I say my name is John Doe they are going to deport me back to Germany I dont get it...bottom line ICE and other officials screwed up...children lie all the time especially to save theirselves from trouble...so if she had given a false name they should have looked more in detail to confirm that she was indeed the individual she proclaimed to be...but looking at the bigger picture someone had to pin that name on her...just dont know who to blame.

p.s. for the nonchalant thinker that stated blacks are quick to claim racism...the proof is there but you wouldnt know about it because you dont have to go through it.

WHOA.....Am I the only one who read Pregnant. Grades were dropping , behavior changes prior to running away from home. Hello, if I has shown up pregnant at 15 I woulda run and kept running. Maybe , just maybe, she was ashamed of disappointing her loving parents. WOW, wouldn't that be a story. A teen who messed up and decided to step up and do the adult thing of getting a job and supporting her child no matter what it took.... Now that would be a story!!!!

This 15 year old may not be as annocent as Grandma likes to believe. She was using a false identity, as a runaway (living who know where). The real "Tika Lana Cortez" is not a name you pull out of a hat. Did this 15 yr old rob, steal or cause harm to person whose name she was using.

MO....according another article pregnant seems to have been a result of the relationship she had in Colombia. The story did mention some stress events that could account for her change in behavior...her Grandfather died...often times when children loose a loved one they don't deal with the loss as adults do. The story also mentioned that her parents divorced and she was living with her mother and step-dad. There could absolutely be more to her situation and in addition to the consequences she needs to face we can hope that she has not only strong family support but strong personal support to help her repatriate and face what has happened in her life.

She got the name and the idea from someone, probably on the internet. The same person who got her pregnant maybe? I really don't think she came up with the idea. If she loved her mother and stepfather then she wouldn't want them to be worried about her. Same with the grandmother, she would have contacted one of them, or a note to let them know she was leaving and not to worry. That is if this young woman is mature enough to plan out this whole new life for herself and really cares about the ones she is leaving behind. Whoever it is that planned this mess out is the one who needs to pay.

I really don't see the arguments for blaming the officials. Let us take a really close look at the way you do your job.

Asking if she wants to come home is another invalid argument, she is underage. An interview and an investigation into any form of child abuse perhaps but it was probably the death and divorce.

I fail to see the race issue. Your completely absorbed with hate and racism. Probably subjected to the hate by some piece of trash and you cannot get past it. Racism is used as a form of control over your mind. People are going to hate people regardless of skin color, so what does it matter if someone hates you. They are a piece of trash or you are worthy of being hated.

Has anyone asked Jakadrien if she wished to come home?

A 15 year old isn't normally given that choice. She has not claimed abuse, apparently.

Miner...I am certainly not consumed with hate or racism I was addressing another poster who was trying to change the topic to a race baiting situation. I don't think race has anything to do with her situation. Per the articles she was living a pretty typical life and was bombarded with stresses she was not prepared to handle. She chose to run away instead of turning to those in her family...perhaps she did try family first and it did not result in a satisfactory outcome..We won't know until the movie comes out.

I would imagine that as a runaway this child met the woman who's identity she took. She probably met her on line or in Houston. It is possible that she sold her own to this woman so maybe someone should be searching her SS number for activity to see if someone else is using her identity. Perhaps it would be prudent to supporting runaway teens through the monitoring of their SS#. Not to send them home if their homes are not safe but to make sure that they are not being defrauded in a manner that will affect their entire future. There are some pretty despicable people in this world who will prey on those who really need an advocate.

what_the_81

This gives me an idea of how to visit relatives in south america. For Free!!

You got a great idea, my friend....I'd kinda like to visit myself, come to think of it. Never been there.

Next time I run across an illegal alien I think I'll ask if I can "borrow" their identity for a little while and see if ICE will grant me a free vacation like they did for this little thief

Better brush up first:

"uno, dos, tres.....Donde esta Los Banos?'

roggapaloobop...don't forget "Uno mas cerveza por favor!"

thanks, txmom32

"Uno mas cerveza por favor!" usually comes just before "Donde esata los banos?"

and that concludes today's Spanish lesson.....

class dismissed!

Because of the pressure to deport people here illegally, (more people have been deported under the current administration than any before) citizens are getting caught up in these hunts. This girl, a 15 year old, is considered unable to make her own decisions because she is a minor but ICE had that quota to make. She is not here illegally, she is a citizen (or will be when she is of age).

I don't use the word Illegal for illegal aliens because anyone who even runs a red light is an illegal in my opinion.

Paulb--she was hardly some innocent caught in the web of out-of-control immigration policy. She played a very active role in what happened to her...right down to the providing ICE with name of a Colombian citizen instead of her actual name. She could have spoken up at any time and ask ICE to call her family.

Between the fake name, running away amd getting pregnant, I suspect she is far from some innocent kid, and is in fact pretty crafty. I smell a future movie or book deal.

she choose to lie to police, lie to immigration and was convincing enough to get past the colombian officials. So apparently she made a choice and if the parents sue the government, the government should charge the girl with identity theft, fraud and whatever else they can throw at her. The grandmother saying that the girl looked like a child.. obviously she was quite capable of being a woman as she is pregnant... 22 yr olds arent mature, so the 6 yr difference in age wouldnt be that much.

Paulb_47 - get over yourself! Anyone that violates our immigration laws and enters our country illegally is an illegal alien. In the case of this idiot little girl, she gave a fake name and she persisted throughout the deportation hearings - and might I mention that she continued using a fake name while in Columbia. ICE isn't trying to make a quota, they are enforcing our laws and this girl caused her own problems. Stop trying to make excuses with your bleeding heart and accept the fact that people need to be held accountable for their own actions. When people break the laws they are responsible. When people behave stupidly, they are responsible. It's not my fault and it's not my responsibility to determine if people are just idiots. And if you don't like the fact that America has laws that need to be enforced then move to Columbia or some other third world country that will make you more comfortable!

Yep, the problem is that open border -- not the bureaucrats who only care about how many papers they shuffle each day. Guess it was just too much bother for one of them to actually do their job.

Oh, and jcv4773, I suppose it would cost too much to have someone ask that girl some questions IN SPANISH, too. What, you didn't see the part where it says she don't speak Spanish at all, a language that someone from COLOMBIA would speak "like a native"?

@jcv4773: Where did you get that in Colombia the laws are not enforced? I have lived in Colombia and been there several times since my return to the US and I would challenge you to try to break a law there.

For PaulB: Brilliant...I suggest since you're the perfect worked that you place yourself in charge of an agency that has insufficient workers and is not supported by the Fraud-in-Chief. Most are interested in actually ENFORCING OUR LAWS, not trying to find some spoiled brat who has nothing better to do with her time than to lie like crazy and then suddenly become an innocent victim.

Wake up!

We only have ICE's word that she continued to use the false name. Given that this blew up in their faces at this point they will say anything.

When I was detained by ICE it was because they were missing the adoption paper that also legally changed my name. They called me by my Korean name, which I had never heard, since I was never told I was adopted. When I refused to answer to the Korean name and insisted that they use my American name, I was placed in solitary confinement for a week until I gave up. Afterward, if I was slow to respond when the deportation camp guards used it I was 'disciplined' for failure to follow orders.

Here are my questons:

1)Another article I read said that ICE has the fingerprints of the 22 year old Colombian criminal on file. They also took Jakadrien's fingerprints when she was detained. Why did they never bother to match them? That one simple step right there would have ended the whole problem.

2) How do you mistake a 14 year old for a 22 year old? There are physical dfferences; wider hips, fused bones, etc.

3) She was arrested in April 2 2011. This is now January 2012. Since she can't fly back here after a certain pont in the gestational process, she must have become pregnant while in Colombia. Whether she traded sex for the means to live while she was down there or was raped, it's still statutory here in the US.

Julie said:

She could have spoken up at any time and ask ICE to call her family.

No she couldn't. ICE is not required to validate your claims to citizenship--you are gulty until YOU prove you are innocent. When you're detained you don't get a phone call, arraignment hearing, trial, judge, lawyer, child protective services. You can't cll collect; when I was detained I told them I waned to call my girlfrind and they told me they wanted $10 for that call. No money, no call.

Tseirpa said:

22 yr olds aren't mature, so the 6 yr difference in age wouldnt be that much.

A 22 year old human female is osteologically very different from a 14 year old. One of the easiest ways to tell is by the bones of the hand; until an individual is between 18 and 20, the bones of the hand are not fully fused. When you shake an individual's hand or try to manipiulate the fingers, hand bones are much more malleable in a younger individual as opposed to a older individual. I'm a fingerprint technician, I take people's fingerprints; there is a difference in ages and an experienced tech would have known that the moment they rolled Jakadrien's fingerprints.

jcv said:

she continued using a fake name while in Columbia

Using that name was the only way she could continue to work and eat and live. And at this point she was probably resigned to spending the rest of her life down there--once you're deported with a criminal record you do not have right of re-entry and at no point in this process did she have a lawyer.

jcv said:

ICE isn't trying to make a quota

I don't know if they have a quota, but they are asking Congress for $1.7 billion taxpayer dollars a year to detain and deport illegal immigrants. In order to sustain that budget request they have to keep up the numbers deported, and there are more and more stories out there of legal american citizens wrongfully detained/deported, and I believe it's because of this need to keep up the numbers. For each immigrant detained ICE gets $141 per person per night per year, so the more they detain and deport, the more money they get.

jcv said:

Anyone that violates our immigration laws and enters our country illegally is an illegal alien.

No, anyone that ICE points to and says 'you're illegal' is an illegal alien. Lawbreaking not necessary to be classified 'illegal'. I was an 'illegal alien'--adopted in the US as an infant by an Army vet and his wife, detained by ICE when they found they'd lost my adoption paper. Since I had never known I was adopted and my parents destroyed all the copies of my records they had before they died so I would never find out, I sat in a deportation camp for three years writing to every courthouse in every state we'd ever lived in trying to find that missing paper. That's a lot of letters--Dad was in the Army.

And I'm not the only one; this is happening to many US citizens:

Rennison Castillo, a Washington state man who was born in Belize but took his oath of citizenship while serving in the U.S. Army in 1998, spent seven months in an ICE prison in 2006. Castillo, 33, of Lakewood, came to the United States at age 6 and later became a permanent lawful resident. He was sworn in as a citizen during his seven-year stint in the Army, which ended with his honorable discharge in 2003.

Lack of proper training of immigration inspectors resulted in their mistaken conclusion that Sharon McKnight’s passport was fraudulent. McKnight spent eight days in Jamaica before returning to New York. While there, her luggage, containing all her money, was stolen. Airport workers contributed money so she could reach family members. Once there, her mother flew to Jamaica from New York to take her case to the US consulate in Kingston. With the help of Rep. Michael Forbes (D-NY), consulate officials determined that the passport and birth certificate, which immigration officials had declared fraudulent, were in fact real, and established McKnight’s US citizenship.

When Angela Boneva, a 34 year old went to renew her passport in 2003, the State Department told her she was no longer a citizen. Boneva's father was born in Indiana, and the US consulate in Bulgaria gave her U.S. citizenship while she was growing up in Bulgaria in 1981.The State Department said that an employee at the consulate broke a rule that required her father to have lived in the U.S. for 10 years before she was born. Her father had only lived in the U.S. for six years before his parents moved to Bulgaria.

The son of a decorated Vietnam veteran, Hector Veloz is a U.S. citizen, but in 2007 immigration officials mistook him for an illegal immigrant and locked him in an Arizona prison for 13 months. Veloz had to prove his citizenship from behind bars. An aunt helped him track down his father's birth certificate and his own, his parents' marriage certificate, his father's school, military and Social Security records. After nine months, a judge determined that he was a citizen, but immigration authorities appealed the decision. He was detained for five more months before he found legal help and a judge ordered his case dropped.

Mr. George Ibarra, 46, was born in Mexico but was raised since infancy in Arizona. In his late 20s he enlisted in the Marines and served three years on active duty, including time in Iraq, before being honorably discharged. On February 23, 2011 Department of Justice adjudicator Richard Phelps ruled in Eloy, Arizona that George Ibarra had by a preponderance of the evidence proven that he is indeed a citizen of the United States. Rather than apologize to Mr. Ibarra for previously wrongfully detaining him, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is holding Mr. Ibarra in solitary confinement at the Eloy Detention Center, in clear violation of the U.S. Constitution and a memorandum requiring Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to release anyone with "probative evidence" o

ICE isn't trying to make a quota, they are enforcing our laws

What LAW says that American citizens can be exiled to Columbia if they use a fake name?

Those idiots were not enforcing ANY law, they were acting incompetently.

Amanda: Your story is humbling and I am sorry for your ordeal. I believe the problem with the immigration argument is a lack of understanding along with a little racism by much of the public here. Nothing is black and white, however it seems that those individuals who see the world this way are the only ones screaming for change. Laws should be put in place only for the safety of the majority, not to satisfy the whims of those who value their own life and property over that of their neighbors...

Laws should be put in place only for the safety of

Everyone. Not just the majority.

Amanda:

How do you mistake a 14 year old for a 22 year old? There are physical dfferences; wider hips, fused bones, etc

At 15, I was my current height (5'7"), and I had fully developed. I didn't change much from 15 to 21. I was 16 at my sister's wedding, and the bartender didn't even think to ask for my ID until my uncle made a joke when I was ordering a soda that "hey, you know she's 16, right?" The bartender said he wouldn't have thought I was under the drinking age.

Not all girls develop at the same rate, so a 15 year old could be mistaken for someone older. Also, my sister is 35 and still gets carded when she buys alcohol. She could easily be mistaken for someone much younger. You can't know someone's age just by looking at them. Especially such a small difference between 15 and 21. If a girl develops early, she could have an adult body at 15.

I'm not saying that about this girl, because I have no idea how she looks other than the picture that was posted with the article, but it's not out of the realm of possibility.

MagnoliaSimms:

No matter how old you look on the outside, what makeup or clothes or hair you have, your bones don't lie. even if you have medical/osteological conditions. I'm a fingerprint technician, I'm trained to take fingerprints, and trust me when I say there is a distinct difference between rolling a 15 year old getting their first summer job and a 22 year old getting fingerprints done for a childcare job. The hands and wrists move differently and the older you get the more those bones ossify (fuse)--the oldest people I have had to fingerprint had wrists that hardly turned at all.

Now, I will say that no, it is not outside the realm of possibility that they could not tell the difference. However one simple fact remains; ICE had the Colombian's fingerprints. They had Jakadrien's. If they had run a fingerprint match none of this would have ever happened. Period.

And I know this firsthand. I've fingerprinted immigrants for visas; there are certain fingerprint characteristics that only show up in certain ethnic groups and there are characteristics of a native Latino/South American immigrant's print that will NOT show up in an African American's fingerprint.

Amanda, I personally think that you are a huge liar. There are too many inaccuracies in your stories. You are NOT a fingerprint technician or you would know that the studies correllating race to fingerprint characteristics have been discounted because the sample groups were to small and no statistical basline was established. In other words, it was pop science and has no true basis. As for bones fusing over time; there is no appreciable difference between the bones of a 15 year old and the bones of a 21 year old that are noticeable by anyone other than a doctor. Stop picking at nits; you want ICE to be wrong regardless of facts. You may or may not have had your experience with immigration; I am skeptical as you are willing to bend facts or flat out lie to make your point. If you did have that experience, my apologies. You are the exception and not the rule, though.

Magnolia - honestly, some young guy bartender may be fooled by a 16 year old girl, all dressed up, but a mature woman bartender wouldn't buy it, and probably an older man with teenagers at home would not either.
Sure, girls develop faster, I never grew past the 8th grade, but was taller than ALL the boys in grade 5. The face and mannerisms of a 15-year-old vs. a 20-something are evident. And that picture in the story does not show her to appear in her 20s.

Immigration again has dropped the ball. As the kids say, "Derp".

Mike - here in SoCal, we have had a number of big screw-ups. No excuse in today's computer driven world, but it happens.

Amanda--I respect YOUR ability to determine if the hands of a 15 year old and the hands of a 21 year old are USUALLY different. However, as a double jointed person, I know that I was in my 40's before MY hands began to 'tighten up', and that variations exist for all 'rules' like the ones you are assuming. ( I was also CARDED at the age of 32, while I was 6 months pregnant with my third child, and only ordering a Pepsi.)Here's the kicker, tho--the ICE agents had NO reason to doubt her--she lied consistently and convincingly throughout the whole procedure, and from what I have read, did not even come under ICE's jurisdiction until she 'volunteered' to do so by using a false (for her) ID. And what everyone seems to over look is that she did so to ESCAPE punishment for being arrested, NOT for being an illegal, but for THEFT. ICE had NO obligation or duty to try to prove she was not illegal when that is EXACTLY what she CLAIMED to be.

PS--I find it highly ironic that on the one hand, liberals in this country INSIST that police cannot demand that a person have some form of PICTURE ID if stopped with cause, and that Election workers have no right to demand that a person who wants to vote have a picture ID that proves they are who they say they are and actually are ELIGIBLE in the precinct to vote there, but now they are insisting that the cops/ICE/ Columbian authorities should have some how PROVED that this girl was not who she claimed to be.

What kid knows what they really want and what kid knows what is best for themselves. Give a 15 yr old a choice, a candy bar and chips or fish and vegetables??? Most 15 yr olds live at home with their parents because they are not even close to maturing. As adults we do what is best for children, even against what they want because, what they think they want isn't always what is best for them. Regardless what she looked like or how she dresses, she has the mind and maturity of a 15 yr old.

Amanda:

No matter how old you look on the outside, what makeup or clothes or hair you have, your bones don't lie.

So should ICE have done X-rays and done bone scans to determine her actual age? Yes, of course there are differences, but I was just talking about outward appearance.

I'm a fingerprint technician, I'm trained to take fingerprints, and trust me when I say there is a distinct difference between rolling a 15 year old getting their first summer job and a 22 year old getting fingerprints done for a childcare job. The hands and wrists move differently and the older you get the more those bones ossify (fuse)--the oldest people I have had to fingerprint had wrists that hardly turned at all.

So what about those that are loosely jointed? It runs in my mom's side of the family. I can easily hyper-extend my knees and elbows, my ankles roll inwards, and even at 31, I can still bend my wrist down to touch my arm. My older sister has dislocated her knees several times because of how loose her knees are. And she's passed that on to her 16 year old daughter who just dislocated her knee two weeks ago. You can have people that fall outside the norms of any situation, so I doubt for sure you can determine someone's exact age by rolling their wrists.

Cassandra:

Magnolia - honestly, some young guy bartender may be fooled by a 16 year old girl, all dressed up, but a mature woman bartender wouldn't buy it, and probably an older man with teenagers at home would not either.

He wasn't young, he was in his 50's, but he was a man. So what? I was just stating that you can't always judge a person's age just by looking at them.

Sure, girls develop faster, I never grew past the 8th grade, but was taller than ALL the boys in grade 5. The face and mannerisms of a 15-year-old vs. a 20-something are evident. And that picture in the story does not show her to appear in her 20s.

And I've seen girls in their 20's that appear to be about 15. My sister, who is now 35 and still gets carded for alcohol, went to her step-son's high school 5 years ago to pick him up, and a woman teacher stopped her and asked her why she was out of class, and if she had a pass. These are extremes, as they wouldn't happen to most people, but they do happen. You can't blame someone for not picking up on her mannerisms to determine her age. I've seen 20-something year olds acting like teenagers, and I've seen teenagers that act mature for their age.

Immigration again has dropped the ball. As the kids say, "Derp".

I think mistakes were made by ICE, but I think most of the blame lies with the girl who lied, and then continued lying throughout the entire process to avoid going home. Should they have fingerprinted her? Yes, and it probably would have stopped the entire process. But you can't blame the ICE for not picking up on mannerisms that you say would determine her age.

Amanda-2017567.

I challenge you (or any other fingerprint "expert" for that matter) to come look at my sons hands and then tell me how old he is. He was born with Arthrogryposis Multiplex Congenita Aplasia Minor. The bones in his body in the areas affected started to fuse right after birth. That's 22 years too early by your numbers.

If you saw the xrays of the growth plate areas, you would be extremely confused as well. I can guarantee you that wont be anywhere near right on his age based on just looking at his hands.

Or any other bone in his body for that matter. His condition is also a lot more prominent than you would would first think as well.

First case of it was documented in the 50s, now there are some many children born some degree of it that it is scary. (1 in 3000 births have some degree of it now. And it is getting worse.)

For those that do no know, Arthrogryposis basically means that there is not a nervous connection to a muscle in the body. Tendons and ligaments can also be anchored in the wrong place. Muscles without a nervous connection do not function or grow at all, which puts tremendous stress on the bones as they grow, and the muscles that do not grow require intense therapy to get them to lengthen as the bones grow. The joints deform as well, do to lack of use, compression, and can be further complicated by tendon and ligament end points. There are many other P&A differences as well, most of which are not well documented because it varies so much between individual patients.

There are so many things that can change the rate of skeletal development that it is scary.

Go look at an Amish girls hands at that age that has done manual labor for years, they will have developed far faster as well. Not just the bones either, their whole body.

Many medications can alter the development rate as well. Something tells me that you didn't have to learn about any of this to "print" someone.

Chances are, your expertise in taking fingerprints has nothing to do with Physiology and Anatomy. Assuming taking fingerprints has an "expertise". If you do respond to my comment, please tell everyone here how your experience of doing nothing more than making a block print of a finger or looking at them afterwards can compare to the years of experience I have with my son.

I have studied P&A for years to help come up with things to help my son and other children with the similar skeletal and muscular conditions. Some of the things I discovered are now routinely used in the treatment directly related to these issues, and I have written many APA journals on aspects of it as well. So please explain to everyone here how taking fingerprints gives you any insight into skeletal and muscular development in children. Last time I checked, you don't need a PHD or a masters degree in P&A to take or work with fingerprints.

...........................................................

The girl got exactly what she asked for. I doubt that she just came up with that name on a whim. She probably did research to find that name and had the whole thing planned out.

ICE did what they were supposed to. So did the Colombian government. She chose to use a alias, and suffered the consequences of her own actions. That's the bottom line.

As far as listing all of the other people that were detained by ICE, that's a moot point. It really has nothing to do with this girl at all, and she was not treated the same way as any of the other cases mentioned in the comments. Which leads me to believe that dealing with ICE is not always a bad thing, and that the worst case "cases" listed are just that, worst case examples.

22 yr olds arent mature, so the 6 yr difference in age wouldnt be that much.

You're kidding, right? A 22 year old is an ADULT in every legal sense of the world. Some people that age are married, raising kids, and/or starting their careers as it's pretty typical to graduate from college at 22. My son did a LOT of growing up between the ages of 15 and 22, and so do most people.

. My sister, who is now 35 and still gets carded for alcohol, went to her step-son's high school 5 years ago to pick him up, and a woman teacher stopped her and asked her why she was out of class, and if she had a pass. These are extremes, as they wouldn't happen to most people, but they do happen.

I got carded at 50.

MikeC said:

You are NOT a fingerprint technician or you would know that the studies correllating race to fingerprint characteristics have been discounted because the sample groups were to small and no statistical basline was established.

I never claimed to have seen any studies. My apologies if I wasn't clear, let me correct that: Based on my OWN experience with fingerprinting, I have noticed certain characteristics only crop up in certain persons with specific ethnic backgrounds and in the limited portion of the population I have printed, I have noticed consistencies in the characteristics as related to ethnicity. The problem with doing a fingerprint study like this is finding enough people willing to sign a consent form letting you use their fingerprints; it's a privacy issue, so there will probably never be definitve proof. My reflection was based on personal observation only.

MoMaid said:

However, as a double jointed person, I know that I was in my 40's before MY hands began to 'tighten up', and that variations exist for all 'rules' like the ones you are assuming.

Good point and I accept your correction. My reflections were based on an ongoing set of personal observations.

MoMaid said:

but now they are insisting that the cops/ICE/ Columbian authorities should have some how PROVED that this girl was not who she claimed to be.

When cops arrest someone for a crime the burden of proof is on them to prove 'beyond reasonable doubt' that the person IS guilty of the crime. Innocent until proven guilty, that's the basis of our justice system. Except ICE; with ICE, it's guilty until YOU prove you're innocent. Former ICE executive James Pendergraph told a conference of cops in 2008 that "if you don't have enough evidence to charge someone but you think they may be illegal, we [ICE} can make them disappear."

doubtfull said:

I have studied P&A for years to help come up with things to help my son and other children with the similar skeletal and muscular conditions. Some of the things I discovered are now routinely used in the treatment directly related to these issues, and I have written many APA journals on aspects of it as well. So please explain to everyone here how taking fingerprints gives you any insight into skeletal and muscular development in children. Last time I checked, you don't need a PHD or a masters degree in P&A to take or work with fingerprints.

I never claimed to be an expert. You had a good point, and I realize I should have quantified my post: Based on my observation, the younger an applicant is the easier it is to manipulate the thumb for a thumb roll because the bones of that part of the applicant's hand have not yet fused. Not so much the joint but closer to the wrist--the bones shift easier. There are exceptions to every rule, but generally speaking from my experience this is what I have come across. I have not yet had the luck of coming across persons with a wide variety of challenges; the most challenging I have had to date was a gentleman with Parkinson's.

Doubtfull said:

As far as listing all of the other people that were detained by ICE, that's a moot point. It really has nothing to do with this girl at all, and she was not treated the same way as any of the other cases mentioned in the comments.

My purpose in mentioning the other cases didn't have anything to do with the issue of the article; it was a response to someone who stated that 'Anyone that violates our immigration laws and enters our country illegally is an illegal alien.' I was attempting to point out that not everyone ICE declares 'illegal' actually IS illegal, and in some cases it can be ICE's arbitrary designation that determines if you are legal rather than any true violation of immigration laws.

That's what I was thinking. She has to be the all time champion of running away.

If that kid would only apply those smarts to "do good", she'd be an honor student by now. Sadly, looks like her problems are just beginning - the baby will be a 24-7 reality check.

No, they were using her in Colombia taking advantage of the fact she speaks English, and that's why she was working in a call center. English speaking people are very welcome in call centers here. And on the other hand, Colombian officials were in part stupid and purposedly admitted that girl to enter the countty as a Colombian citizen with the purpose of being used. I don't thing a 15 year old girl was able to trick so many people, since she took the identity of an older woman who had a police warrant. How could she have a police warrant in colombia and then return from the United States as a younger girl and speaking English only? Don't you think that would be too stupid to be truth?

Furia Roja, that makes sense. A person is not considered a teenager until age 13. This girl was only 14 when she ran away (fairly new to the terrible teen age range). Before, she lived in a nice home with her mother and stepfather and had good grades. Based on the articles, not only was she taking her parents’ divorce hard and her mother had married someone else, but she was also in grief over her grandfather's death. Add to that regular teenage angst/growing pains/ lack of wisdom, she was not necessarily in a good place.

So how could this young African American girl who had not been in trouble before end up with the name of a 21 year old adult female Colombian who has a warrant out for her arrest and then get deported to Colombia? African Americans come in every complexion from deep dark chocolate to peaches and cream with various shapes, sizes and features, but most African Americans can still identify another African American.

It would seem that Colombian officials would also be able to tell the difference between an adult native Colombian woman from a 14 y/o African American child who couldn't speak Spanish and probably had never been to Colombia. Also, if the 21 y/o had done something bad enough to have an international (at least Colombia and the U.S.) warrant out for her arrest why would Colombia accept her back into a “welcome home” program setting her up with the call center job instead of prosecuting her for whatever incurred the issuing of the warrant?

This is why Furia Roja’s comment makes sense. I have no idea why ICE would not have compared prints and made other checks like to the Missing and Exploited Children’s website before they allowed this. Also, why would Jakadrien lie? Now I’m going into speculation here. She, like so many teens, probably felt her life wasn’t going the way she wanted it to. She became friends with a cute Colombian boy (who could have been an adult predator in reality) who fed her information and convinced her to run away and use Tika Lanay Cortez identity so she could be with him. The Colombian officials may not have known all of this but allowed the deportation because as Furia stated, the girl spoke English. ICE just dropped the ball. Jakadrien was sent to Colombia and ended up pregnant by the Facebook friend. The girl had gotten in way over her head.

First off i think the whole story is a bunch of bull crap.......I.C.E messed up big time.....First off the girl gave a false name they ran it. And threw the girl in lock up, deported her and now trying to make it look like they were decieved by a 15 year old girl.....bullcrap...

You messed up, you deported the wrong person, you didn't think anyone was looking for this black girl....and now that someone is, you want to place the blame on the child.....

Give me a damn break.

She was born here, ret@ard. Why do you think the U.S. government is letting her back into the country.

how stupid can the social disorder of xenophobes make you when the story clearly states that she is a CITIZEN So are you saying she is an ILLEGAL citizen ..and YOUR TAX MONEY IS GOING ELSEWHERE to pay the share for the top 1% richest people in the country ... you need an education mary

When this story first came out we had none of these details. Some of us posted that we did not feel sorry for this girl and have strong opiions about illegal aliens in this country. Now I recall people who had the same or similar opinion were being slammed called nasty horrible names and were basically told what despicable humans we were. Turns out though we were right. She lied her way through this situation with no regard for the feelings of her family who claim to have no clue what was going on. She lied to every authority involved. She wilingly allowed herself to be sent to a foreign country and it sound like she was making out like a bandit there. Counseling, food, shelter and work. I had posed the question did she look older? The picture shown with this story looks like a child. However, out on the run and convincingly portraying herself as some one over 21, she must have been dressing and using cosmetics that made her look older. She may be 15 but she needs to be held accountable for her actions. She cost 2 countries a substancial amount of money and wasted a lot of peoples time. Are we done feeling sorry for her now?? Are those of you who were having a pity party for her a couple of days ago now ready to eat crow??

I do not feel sorry for her and she shouldn't have lied. Why in the hell would you use a false name? Yes, ICEshould have checked the fingerprints, but they didn't. My question is this, why didn't she get angry or say ok I lied before she got deported? Also, A 15 yo can look like a 21 yo. I have lots of nieces that look older than their real age with the help of makeup or they just look older. I hope this idiot gets in trouble for her stupidity.

skrewdworld said:

She lied her way through this situation with no regard for the feelings of her family who claim to have no clue what was going on. She lied to every authority involved. She wilingly allowed herself to be sent to a foreign country

After my own brush with ICE, I don't trust anything they say and I'm going to withold any judgement until I hear her side of the story. and even then, we're probably not gong to know all the details; an FOIA request will likely be denied or will be heavily redacted.

skrewdworld said:

She cost 2 countries a substancial amount of money and wasted a lot of peoples time

The fault still remains with ICE. If your 14 year old sneaks in at 12:30 pm and says they were in the library studying, are you going to take their word for it? No. You'd check. Kids lie their a*s off even when they're caught red-handed. They generally aren't responsible and they can't make logical decisions. No matter what she said or who she said she was, ICE has the fingerprints of the 22 year old illegal Colombian. They also had Jakadrien's fingerprints. They never ran her fingerprints to make sure she actually was the criminal Colombian they were looking for.

The article above says that ICE says she continued to use the Colombian name after she was detained. I'm taking that with a grain of salt; when I was detained by ICE it was because they were missing the adoption paper that also legally changed my name. They called me by my Korean name, which I had never heard, since I was never told I was adopted. When I refused to answer to the Korean name and insisted that they use my American name, I was placed in solitary confinement until I gave up.

Am I condoning what she did? No. Lying is not acceptable. But I also think she didn't really understand just how serious trouble she was in until she was too deep to get out on her own. It also looks like she really didn't do too badly in Colombia--they gave her Colombian citizenship, and I am guessing either the baby was conceived by rape in the deportation camp or she got pregnant in Colombia. Since you're not allowed on a plane when you're past a certain point in the gestation process, I can only assume that she's not that far along, which makes it very likely the baby has a Colombian father.

Since she is still a minor, she will have to return to the US until she's of age, but then she can emigrate to Colombia to be with the child's father (always assuming the child wasn't fathered by rape. In the US it would be statutory rape but I think the age of consent in Colombia is lower and she might be legal there.

Looked at the other way--has anyone ASKED her if she really wants to come back? Her parents were going through a very very messy divorce when she ran away, and the grandfather she was closest to had just died. They were so wrapped up in their own affairs that it was her grandmother who ran around filing missing child reports with agencies and bureaus, and it was her grandmother who finally found her and called the embassy to alert them. This article is the first mention I have seen of the parents/mother. If this was my child missing it would have been me calling all those bureaus and reporting my child missing, not my child's grandmother.

As a fingerprint technician, to everyone who might be reading this, I strongly recommend that everyone go to your local fingerprinting office and have a fingerprint card done of yourself, your family members, and especially children. Keep them in a safe place. If your child goes missing you will have a copy of the child's fingerprints to submit along with the missing persons report into the FBI database. Granted, this takes into account that when someone DOES find your child they will take the fingerprints and will check (ICE clearly did not in this case) but it could help identify many missing/lost/runaways.

pretty sure mary52 did not read the article...she used a fake name that turned out to be the name of an illegal..

Where in this did it say a single thing about welfare? Wow...cant believe the assumptions and the racially biased comments that are out here! While she may have appeared and claimed to be older...she is a KID and kids do stupid stuff. I think she should be held accountable...of course...but you holier than thou folks really need to take a step back and check yourselves.

Actually, if you look at this legally, she may no longer be a citizen. It can be argued that by her consent (when she lied), she denounced her citizenship and became a citizen of Columbia.

When can a minor give legal consent regarding citizenship? My relative had to wait till age 18.

Mary52, Reading class is at 9am - 1030am....pls be on time

Amanda, I have read 17 other articles about this; nowhere does it say that they had the actual colombian woman's fingerprints. In fact, all of these articles state that biometrics were "inconclusive". What I did find was this: Meanwhile, a comment posted about the story on Gawker.com by someone who claims
to have inside information sheds some light on how Turner may have wound up in
South America. Gawker poster “EmilyStutters” writes, “Here’s what I know, or at
least what I’d be allowed to say.”

EmilyStutters claims that Turner ran
away from home with her much-older drug-dealer boyfriend, who may have had ties
to a drug cartel, and that she had angered the boyfriend’s criminal associates
after the two split up in Houston. The fake name she gave police was that of a
“drug mule/dealer” associated with the boyfriend, the poster
maintains.

“After she was picked up, she lied every single step of the
way,” writes EmilyStutters. “Had she said at any point that she was a U.S.
citizen, she could have brought this whole thing to a halt.”

Read more on
Newsmax.com: US
Teen Mistakenly Deported to Colombia

Amanda they never said what the warrant for the 21 year old which she would of been in 2011 was for.

This person does not have to have fingerprints to have a warrant out on her.

This girl 15 was arrested for theft after running away. That makes sense and having no finger prints on file for either. When asked her name she lied. Continued the lie.

The warrant for the 21 year old could not of been that serious. Columbia would of placed her in jail once she got there or the American government would have this side of the boarders.

Columbia also has no way of proving citizenship other than this girls word. They really could only check the Birth Certificate and come up with the fact that yes she was born in Columbia.

She lied. Continued the lie. Was in trouble with running away and caught stealing.

Age Hum a wig and some make up who would know. Not saying that a wig was used or make up but she didn't act like a child and she had to at that point know what she was doing.

Note she didn't put up a stink when deported or confronted with counsellors. I think this girl new what she was about.

While it does look as though she did indeed plan this with the intent of starting over in a new country, I'm going to stick with my earlier assertion; I'm holding off on judgement until we hear her side of the story; having been in ICE custody and knowing how transparent they are, I'm skeptical of whatever 'they say' happened.

EDIT: After going back, I can't find the article that said they had the Colombian's fingerprints. I did find a quote that said she was arrested on an INTERPOL warrant, but INTERPOL doesn't issue warrants--they issue notices submitted from the country of origin, and the country of origin (in this case, Colombia) may or may not have included biometrics information. So apparently ICE did do their job this time, and one 15 year old was able to beat the system.

Her baby should be put up for adoption. Momma works as a hair dresser let mamma adopt the baby.

really ?????? they work?

Do recall how dumb you were at 15?

Yes I do, but it wasn't even remotely close to the level of stupidity this girl is at.

Put her baby up for adoption??? Where in the eff did that come from? Obviously this kid is not stupid...though she has done stupid things. She has maintained housing, is employed and has cared for herself for the past year. Why should she give the child up?

And just exactly where do you think they would get her fingerprints to verify? It takes 2 sets. A 15 year-old in the US probably has never had their fingerprints taken under their own name.

@dsb, I think you missed some of the article. The columbian she was claiming to be was a known criminal with finger prints on file in the US. That makes two sets.

Where did it say the Columbian was a known criminal? All I said that it said about her was that she was a Columbian woman born in 1990.

HEYYYY ABBOTTTTTT! The colombian was wanted on a warrant by the Columbian government. NOWHERE does it say that the woman had been arrested before, so you are just assuming that they had her fingerprints because that would support your belief that ICE is always wrong. Just because you want something to be true doesn't make it so....

How much money do we have to waste on this stupidity before we are allowed to enact sensible immigration rules?

We've already wasted hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars trying to prop up an idiotic and dysfunctional system of bigoted and ill-conceived quotas and ineffectual anti-free market constraints, with no benefits to show for the waste, and still the morons in Congress refuse to act.

Carlo:

The Patriot Act prohibits ICE or its agents/officials from lawsuits from wrongful detention/deportation while in the act of carrying out their duties because it's in the interest of national security.

Elian Gonzalez family was to blame for the "Clinton Gestapo" coming in to get him. Courts ruled that he was to be deported to Cuba and they wouldn't give him to the authorities. From what I have read about him on the internet he's happy to be back in Cuba but who know's if he was forced to say that.

No outrage because it happened on Bammy's watch.

Jason, Elian's father was in Cuba and he had the right to get custody of his son. It was his family saying that he wanted to be in the US. That boy is happy to be raised by his father.

Right on the money Frances!

SHE LIED

And by law, everyone must believe every lie, even if a child or a teenager tells it.

Police officer: "Did you just rob that bank"?

Bank robber: "Why, no officer, I always carry around $5,000 in bank bags and have exploding dye packs all over my clothes."

Police officer: "Okay, I was just checking because the alarm went off right before you came running out of the bank. Have a nice day."

Bank robber: "I will now!"

Immigration has the fingerprints of the 22 year old Colombian illegal--I saw several other articles that said Cortez had been caught, deported (during which process she would have had her prints taken) but they suspected she had sneaked back in.

They also have Jakadrien's prints. The police would have taken them when they arrested her for theft.

Why didn't ICE run a fingerprint match?

Amanda--again--ICE didn't run her prints BECAUSE there was no reason to! She "ADMITTED" to being the person from Columbia.

ICE would only have needed to compare the prints if she DENIED being that person.

Amanda, I haven't seen a single article saying that they had the columbian woman's fingerprints. MOmaid, please don't try to use logic with Amanda, she is a "fingerprint technician" and knows more about this than we civilians*sarcasm*. Anytime something happens these days; a whole bunch of people come out of the woodwork and start pointing fingers at the cops and yelling for "justice" and "lawsuits" and claiming "incompetence" even though they don't know the first thing about the job, they just hate anyone who works in a official capacity.

I can't get links to stick, but here:

He says the immigration agency took Jakadrien's fingerprints but failed to match them to the name she gave. The name matched a woman wanted by Interpol, Jackson says, so they "shipped her on through."

This from a London newspaper:

Chief Charles A McClelland Jr, of the Houston Police Department, released this statement:

'On April 2, 2011, a female suspect was arrested by HPD officers for Class B misdemeanor theft. The female told the arresting officers she was a native of Colombia and that her name was Tika Lanay Cortez, born on March 24, 1990.

'Officers transported her to the HPD Southeast Jail where she was processed. Personnel fingerprinted her and followed procedure by processing her through the Secure Communities database to determine if she was wanted by immigration and custom enforcement [ICE] personnel.It provided no prior arrest history, no wanted status or alternate identification for the prisoner. As is customary, the prisoner was the transported to the Harris County Jail and booked on a theft charge.'

EDIT: After going back, I can't find the article that said they had the Colombian's fingerprints. I did find a quote that said she was arrested on an INTERPOL warrant, but INTERPOL doesn't issue warrants--they issue notices submitted from the country of origin, and the country of origin (in this case, Colombia, may or may not have included biometrics information.)

Funny how so many here can spew insensitive remarks about this teenager. Did you do thiswhen Bristol Palin got pregnant as a teenager and had a child? Just because this teenager is not your idea of what "all American" is, you vilify this girl but make Bristol Palin the poster child for teen pregnancy prevention.

Mtg303...really bringing Bristol Palin into this argument...

Bristol did not run away.

Bristol did not steal and get arrested.

Bristol did not impersonate a foreign national.

Bristol did not intentional or unintentionally get deported because she lied.

Bristol did not "Pretend" to be anything beyond who she was.

I suppose you feel personally vindicated to vilify Bristol Palin. You must see yourself as very special.

No, frances-283318, you are not the only one to notice that this girl lied throughout the entire process - including the 'criminal proceedings in Houston and the ensuing deportation process in which an immigration judge ultimately ordered her back to Colombia'.

Several things about this situation really stand out to me.

1.) This girl didn't have any ID on her when she was arrested for 'theft'... a crime that did not present her with any real danger, but that did land her in custody.

2.) Once in custody, she gave the name 'Tika Lanay Cortez'... a name that is no 'Mary Sue Jones' or 'Maria Juanita Cortez'. The middle name, especially, is fairly unique. It's also the name of someone who was born in 1990; a year in which this girl could pass as having been born.

3.) She stuck with that name throughout the entire deportation process and even passed the interview with a representative from the Colombian consulate.

4.) This girl was then given Colombian citizenship and was enrolled in the country's "Welcome Home" program... from which she received shelter, psychological assistance and a job at a call center.

5.) It appears that this girl was enjoying her 'new life' and didn't have any intention of coming back to the U.S. any time soon... Grandma is the one who found her and notified the authorities.

I don't know this girl, but I do know myself at 15 years of age. I would not have DARED to give a fake name to an adult/authority figure. However, had I done so, I assure you that the first mention of a criminal record being associated with the fake name would have had me confessing... mention of deportation would have had me crying for my parents (and probably a lawyer LOL).

I hope that someone is looking into the possibility that this girl might have planned this whole thing - she certainly seems to have been benefitting from it.

Not only looking into the possibility that this girl might of planned the whole thing, but also looking into why she might have planned it. Normal 15 year old girls do not go to such drastic measures to separate from their families.

The officials didn't make any mistake. The mistake was made by the little freakin troll herself by lying. T.S. leave her there. Why should we pay for all the little kiddos and their mommies that the welfare queens keep squirting out. Nothing in the story about mommy or daddy is there. Just Grandnma.

The only mistakes officials made were in verifying and confirming who she was. The rest is her fault.

The rest wouldn't have happened if the officials did their job properly. That's kind of the whole point.

article..."Houston police said the girl was arrested on April 2, 2011, for misdemeanor theft in that city and claimed to be Tika Lanay Cortez, a Colombian woman born in 1990." - All Immigration had to do was compare fingerprints, we would not be reading this article, the girl would have been stopped.

Is there not room for all of the parties involved to hold their own portion of the blame?

This whole thing started when this girl lied.

Immigration officials (ON BOTH SIDES) can't possibly believe that everyone who they encounter is telling the truth about who they are and where they are from.

She lied to authorities in two countries + U.S. Immigration failed to catch the lie and deported her + Columbia failed to catch the lie and gave her citizenship = ALL parties share the blame!

I didn't notice any mention of family other than grandma. What'd I miss?

I don't care if she is black, as I am, she LIED. She is not a child, she is a freaking idiot. She should get whatever is coming to her. This is the type of person that makes black woman look foolish. She probably missed home and that is why she sent the message via facebook to get the ball rolling to come back home.

We all value black children, but someone has to teach them how to keep their legs closed.

Bob, the grandmother said she lived in a "nice home" with her mother and step father. She said when her grades began to slip her parents took away privileges such as shutting down her facebook account.

Vallhallaarwen, do you really consider a 15 year old an adult? The part of the brain responsible for good judgment is the last to mature; it is still maturing into the early 20s.

M.B.

I know it's old hat to tell you to get back on your meds but your ranting and raving is beyond "normal"...you must be either off meds or on something psychedelic.

Have you watched the freaking news today!!!!!!! More steps are being taken to alllow the freaking free loading illegals to stay in this country, Happy now????? Got your check book out????????????? Why don't you pony up and pay housing, food, medical care and education for a few illegals???? Until you do please just shut up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

skrewdworld: One word.....Prozac

Guys 'n gals; please forgive MQ; obviously this person is one of the latest generation who has been trained that when someone disagrees with them those people are automatically "morons" "idiots" "bigots" or the perfecta of liberalism "RACISTS". MQ knows not what (s)he is saying and has never been taught to think for himself. MQ, if I had $100 to blow on a bottle of wine; I would instead spend it on a course in critical thinking for you and happily at that. P.S. I personally don't give a rat's a** why anyone hates Americans; they don't know us, obviously, and you can't reason with jealousy.

No the system sucks. We have millions of illegals that the system will do nothing to get rid of. Call the Orkin man for crying out loud and get rid of the freakin roaches once and for all.