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Schools

From jail, man explains his deceit: education

A 27-year-old Guatemalan who passed himself off as a student says he came to the U.S. to learn, not rob.

By STEVE THOMPSON
Published October 6, 2005

NEW PORT RICHEY - Sitting at a steel table, public defender at his side, the young Guatemalan with a roundish face and wide eyes pointed out an irony in his situation.

Most of his classmates, he said, didn't want to be in school. He wanted to be there, and now he is in jail for it.

Sort of.

Josue Oswaldo Ramirez-Mejia, 27, is accused of providing an altered birth certificate and changed transcripts in August to get into a Pasco County high school. The documents said he was 18.

He doesn't deny the deception. But he says he did it for a good reason: education.

His favorite class? Intensive Reading.

"Other people not like Intensive Reading," he said in English. "But me, I like, because I can learn English."

At 5 foot 3 and with only faint stubble, Ramirez-Mejia easily passes for 18. He said he made Spanish-speaking friends at J.W. Mitchell High School in Trinity. He ate with them at lunch period, chatting about classes - in his case: American history, language arts, economics and government and personal fitness.

None of them asked his age, he said. They didn't have any reason to.

His true identity unraveled last month after a student found his wallet in the physical education area of the school and turned it over to a teacher.

Ramirez-Mejia laid tiles with his brother after school and on weekends. He planned to go on to community college, then maybe to a university, he said. He didn't realize GED courses were available to him as an adult, he said, though he had taken adult English classes in the evenings before.

"I wanted to study all day," he said in English. "Because when you study all day, you learn more."

Did he like school? ""Bastante," he said. Plenty.

He doesn't seem bitter about his situation. More resigned, and a little confused.

During the interview, he asked public defender Willie Pura if he worked for the government. Pura, who knows just a little Spanish, tried to explain.

Yes, he works for the government, but not the same part that now might want to deport him.

""Trabajo para ti solamente," Pura said in Spanish. (I work for you only.) Then, in English, "We're going to try to keep you here in the United States, land of opportunity."

Ramirez-Mejia declined a written interview request soon after his arrest on Sept. 27. But Pura agreed to let him talk Wednesday afternoon at the jail in New Port Richey, where he is held on $5,000 bail, charged with uttering a forged instrument. An Immigration and Customs Enforcement official has said deportation proceedings are under way. Today, Ramirez-Mejia has an interview with the Miami Herald, Pura said.

Ramirez-Mejia said he came to the United States to live with his brother and his sister, who is here legally and is married to a citizen. They lived in the West Palm Beach area for a time, he said, before he came to live with his brother in Pasco a few months ago. His mother and father remained in Guatemala, he said, and he has not stayed in touch with them.

He seemed to give inconsistent details about some of his history, and he hesitated when asked his age, finally giving 27. At one point, he said he came to the United States as a 15-year-old. Later, he said he had been in the United States about seven years.

Pura suggested the confusion could have been due to the language barrier. (The Times reporter is a conversational Spanish-speaker, but not fluent.)

Ramirez-Mejia said to get here, he took buses to the U.S.-Mexican border, then crossed on foot with help from a smuggler his family paid $5,000. Pura cut off that line of questioning before it went further.

"I came here to better myself," Ramirez-Mejia said in Spanish. "I didn't come to rob. I didn't come to do drugs."

His life is here, he says. There's nothing for him in Guatemala.

Of the United States, he says in English: "This is my country."

Steve Thompson can be reached toll-free at 1-800-333-7505, ext. 6245. His e-mail address is sthompson@sptimes.com

[Last modified October 6, 2005, 13:23:15]