Mother searches Tijuana for mentally disabled man ... illegally deported [View All]

[LeighAnn]

Source: Brainerd (MN) Dispatch

Clutching a photo of her son, Maria Carvajal walks Tijuana's sweltering streets searching for the mentally disabled man she says was deported more than a month ago despite being a U.S. citizen and then disappeared in this chaotic border city.

Carvajal says she has searched hospitals, shelters and jails here looking for her 29-year-old son, Pedro Guzman of Lancaster, California, who was jailed for a misdemeanor trespassing violation, then sent to Mexico on May 11.

Guzman's relatives sued the Department of Homeland Security and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department last week in federal court, claiming Guzman was a U.S. citizen and had been wrongfully deported and demanding that U.S. authorities help find him.

"I'm searching for him because he's my son. But it should be (U.S. authorities) searching for him," Carvajal, a 49-year-old fast-food restaurant worker from Lancaster, said Sunday in Tijuana. "They made the mistake. Not me."



Read more: http://ap.brainerddispatch.com/pstories/world/latin_america/20070617/178242186.shtml