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Reuters
Jakadrien Turner, 15, in an undated handout photo provided by the International Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The Texas girl was flying home to the United States on Friday to be reunited with her family, nine months after she was deported to South America in a bizarre mix-up.
Update at 11:05 p.m. ET: Jakadrien Lorece Turner, the 15-year-old Texas girl mistakenly sent to South America in May after claiming to be an illegal immigrant, was reunited with her family Friday night after flying home from Colombia, The Associated Press reported.
She was flanked by her mother, grandmother and law enforcement when she emerged from the international gate Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.
"She's happy to be home," the family's attorney, Ray Jackson, said, adding that the family would not issue any statements Friday night.
He said the family was "ecstatic" to have Jakadrien back in Texas and they plan to "do what we can to make sure she gets back to a normal life."
Update at 8 p.m. ET: Turner is back in the U.S. and will be in Dallas on Friday evening, her mother told The Associated Press.
Johnisa Turner said Jakadrien was on a flight from Atlanta. She said she has "a gazillion questions" for Jakadrien. "Our day has been hectic, hers is too," Turner said, "just as long as she makes it home, just as long as she gets here."
From the original post: Jakadrien Turner, arrested as a runaway and then mistakenly deported, is on her way home to the United States after the girl’s grandmother used Facebook to locate her in Colombia, thegrio.com reported Friday.
“They didn't do their work,” the grandmother Lorene Turner said of the federal government in an interview with a Dallas television station. “How do you deport a teenager and send her to Colombia without a passport, without anything?"
But the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said the deportation took place because the girl lied about her identity and was not clear about her citizenship status, thegrio.com reported.
Turner was reported missing in November 2010 by her relatives in Dallas. When she was arrested for a minor theft in April 2011 in Houston, she reportedly used the alias Tika Lanay Cortez and claimed to be a 21-year-old from Colombia. She maintained the alias throughout her court appearances, conviction and jail time, Houston officials confirmed.
According to Houston police, Turner had apparently been using the name after running away from home after her parents divorced and her grandfather died.
ICE deported Turner — an African American who speaks no Spanish — as part of a program to remove foreign nationals from U.S. prisons.
After Dallas police helped Turner pinpoint her granddaughter's location in Colombia, local authorities detained her and kept her in detention for more than a month before boarding a plane home on Friday.
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Leave a Comment:
Seriously. A 15-year-old non-Spanish speaking girl is taken for a 21-year-old Columbian woman and NOBODY thinks there might be a problem? "She lied to us" is the dumbest excuse ever. Had ICE done their jobs all down the line (or even anywhere!), this would not have happened.
Also, if she had not shoplifted, then lied to the police and ICE for hours about who she was, this also would not have happened.
It seems clear that Ice DID do it's job....they deported "Tika Lanay Cortez" a "21-year-old from Colombia" after being in the U.S. and getting arrested for theft. I have no problem with deporting criminal undocumented aliens, which is who and what she herself was claiming to be.
What are we supposed to do, let all the aliens who commit crimes to stay in the country? On what grounds? They've no right to be here in the first place, which i'm frankly, willing to disregard.
I sympathize with those who come here illegally. But when they come here and they commit crimes, they need to go. Period. They have no rights whatsoever once they commit crimes in the US, except the right for a free plane or bus ride to their country of origin.
I see. So you think that nobody should use their brain, just follow the letter of the law. I think I understand at least some of the problems with the U.S. now...
Yeah there are a bunch of idiots in the country. She claimed to be a wanted illegal alien. She claimed to be from Columbia and from the sound of it conned the government into giving her a free trip to Columbia. She ought to be arrested for that the moment she gets back.
1) When she was deported from the U.S. to Columbia she raised the I.Q. of both countries!
2) Hopefully all this will have been an "educational experience" for her, but I doubt it.
3) Kudos to the ICE for doing a good job. As to those who don't understand how this could happen, you will NEVER understand!
I would think this would be a near impossible feat to take place. To think a 15-year old girl who doesn't even have a Spanish accent could be mistaken for a 21-year old and shipped to Columbia. Was she asked where she was born? About her parents? Schools she attended? Somehow, I think these ICE officials didn't even bother talking to her much. I can't believe a 15 year old black girl from Houston can impress anyone as a 21-year-old illegal immigrant from Columbia!
Just blow out your __— already. What is it about "child" you do not understand? An American CHILD was shipped off to Columbia and that is ok with everyone? I didn't know a little girl lying to a big agency like ICE was grounds to revoke citizenship. Wow, thanks for clearing that up. I guess if it were your little white girl you would sing a different tune. Yeah, the authorities are to blame. They are responsible for this mess. They aren't bright enough to figure out a 14 year old girl isn't a 22 year old Columbian woman? Gosh, I guess they should be forgiven then, cause if that's all it takes we are so safe from NOBODY!
yes, always I do blame the morons at ICE, because I am CERTAIN any adult with a brain could have figured out this story was a load of crap, except these morons who apparently can't deal with 15 year olds OR the mentally handicapped without totally screwing the pooch.
ICE is much like the FAA, and homeland security, and the TSA, all agencies that SHOULD be terminated as hopelessly incompetent.
Just one thing to consider, a person can fake an accent pretty easily, especially if they around the accent enough. This girl is from TEXAS.. do you think she was never around spanish speaking people enough to be able to emulate the accent and know a handful of spanish words and phrases? I've worked for just over a year with a friend who is latino, and in that time-frame have picked numerous spanish words and phrases and can emulate his accent rather convincingly. Are any of you telling me that this girl, who was born and raised in Texas has had less exposure to latino language and culture than that? I think that would be rather delusional to think that. If she put on a convincing enough performance, I doubt that the law enforcement personnel would expend the resources to cross-check her prints over a misdemeanor shop-lifting charge. Especially if they didn't have the prints for the real illegal immigrant she claimed to be.
Simply put, I feel no pity for this kid... she got a free ticket to another country, where she was in the eyes of the law a bonafide adult, and obviously was getting her groove on, considering she is pregnant. She made no attempt to correct the situation, so I have my doubts she was feeling lost and alone in a strange land. I don't think her age makes much of a difference here.. she was mature enough to pull off this scam and thus she should face some very mature consequences for committing identity fraud.
The only victims in this case are her family... and they are not victims of corrupt/racist/negligent/etc law-enforcement departments.. they are victims of a manipulative, unscrupulous, conniving brat of a child, but since they can't sue her, I'm sure they'll be suing the government and getting a nice fat settlement. And so, not only will she get away with committing fraud, she and her family will profit from it.
There are many young adult illegals who have been here since early childhood who are actually better at English than Spanish. If she preferred communicating in English, that would not have surprised police or ICE. And there are blacks in South America.
She had the name and enough info about a real person to be able to fake it. This was not the fault of ICE.
She should be charged with Perjury and thrown in juvie when she returns, and her parent billed for all costs incurred by the government for this stupid girls stunt.
As for all the apologists on here (oh, she's just a sweet little victim, oh ICE are racist and incompetent) - you know nothing about what 15 year old girls are capable of. Put on the makeup and right clothing, and this 'girl' could EASILY pass for 21. Easily. My guess is she hooked up with some colbumbian guy in Dallas, then she followed him to Houston, running away from home with him (where it's reported she worked at a 'DJ club' and was arrested for THEFT), then she got a Columbian woman's name from her guy (who makes up the name Tika Lanay Cortez?? ) She lied to officials all along the way, including DURING her deportation proceedings. Officials from columbia interviewed her, and they granted her citizenship, gave her housing, and work. Now her opportunistic family is suing for violation of their lying conartist woman's - THEY should be sued. And 'Tika' should spend a few years in jail.
Ran away from home multiple times, worked at a DJ club for a year, doing drugs and lied about being a columbian national and had a convincing story. Yup she is innocent 15 yr old girl who was native and have no clue. Yup blame the ICE. Sue the government so this innocent girl and her family can live comfortable for the rest of their lives. Then watch as she runs away again.
She did not not just lie once about who she was. She continued to insist that she was an illegal Columbian all through the court proceedings. She could have stopped the process at any time. Her grandmother marveled that they deported her without a passport proving she was from Columbia! Guess what, Granny - illegal aliens do not come with passports or ids.
She wanted to get FAR AWAY from her family very badly. Abused perhaps?
All these posts and it takes had-enough-470242 to nail the heart of the issue.
What was going on at her home that was so bad that she ran away? She not only ran away she kept running as far as she could go.
Enter one Ray Jackson, Esq. and grand mother opens her mouth, "can't wait to get her ass home and beat the @!$%# out of her...."
In the process Ray is going to sue the world and we will live happily ever after with all those millions; less Rays cut.
I would bet my million against their future million that this child was being abused at her "loving" home; emotionally, and probably sexually.
It's said in the article actually. The one you are commenting on. If you are representative of the sort of people found at ICE I can see how a 15-year old child can come across as a criminal mastermind.
You know, if I accidentally kill someone, I don't get a free pass "Oh, I am so sorry." If you screw up at work this badly, you don't get to just get away explaining how smart your victim actually was.
It doesn't matter what she COULD have done. What you are talking about are delusions and fantasies.
The FACT of the matter is that ICE illegally and willfully sent a 15-year old American child to a foreign country.
Who would even think that a girl living in Texas would not speak Spanish when probably half her classmates in Dallas spoke Spanish? Certainly the ICE would be suspicious if she never knew a word of Spanish.
I agree with those that say the ICE did the right thing because no sane American would make a claim of being here illegally. She could have studied Columbia in a school geography class and knew more about the country than people give her credit. No ICE did the right thing by deporting an "admitted illegal alien" caught shoplifting. Now she should be arrested and tried for filing a false report by lying to government officials. Only problem is the fact she is 15 and those charges would not do much good.
ICE did it's job flawlessly. The girl did not accidentally choose a fake name that happened to be the real name of an illegal alien from Colombia -- she learned the name Tika Lanay Cortez somewhere -- possibly she met the real Tika Cortez while bumming around as a runaway in Houston.
This girl wanted a free trip to Colombia. It probably sounded like an exciting big adventure to her. All she had to do is lie, repeatedly, to police, to prosecutors, under oath in court, and insist that her name was Tika Lanay Cortez and that she was an illegal immigrant from Colombia.
Passport? How many illegal aliens have passports? What about fingerprints? How many 15-year-olds have their finger prints in AFIS or their DNA in CODIS? Hint: only those who have been arrested and charged as adults.
Stop blaming ICE for doing their job. This is about a 15 year old girl who repeatedly, over a long enough period of time, pretended to be someone she's not, so she could get a free trip to Colombia.
Comment # 1 deleted, derail that led to many personal attacks.
"....she reportedly used the alias Tika Lanay Cortez and claimed to be a 21-year-old from Colombia. She maintained the alias throughout her court appearances, conviction and jail time, Houston officials confirmed."
If true, and it seems it is, this is totally on her, her fault, no one else's. She's lucky she's still not detained in Columbia. Hopefully she's learned a valuable lesson about honesty and integrity.
I see, so now 14 year old girls are completely responsible so we should just let them do whatever they want? I guess all us parents can book our extended vacations to the South Pacific cause according to you we aren't needed and 14 year olds can make their own decisions. This is everyone's fault BUT hers. Immigration officials of both countries are as dumb as a bag of hammers, that's pretty clear. Yeah, she learned a lesson, she's much brighter than the twits at ICE. Her prints didn't match, she looks like a child, anybody with half a brain should have known she was just a kid trying to pull a fast one. If parents and teachers can unravel the lies of teenagers on a daily basis then surely the "smart" people in immigration should be able to. She didn't speak Spanish. How can a native of Columbia not speak their first language and they would still believe her? The cruelty being shown toward this girl is making me sick to my stomach. You truly are a heartless bunch of ______.
Scairp--a breath of fresh air to hear someone with some common sense. Anyone who's ever had a teenager realizes how difficult they can be. Just how responsible can a child who has only been on this planet 15 years be in comparison with trained professionals with years of experience working with a range of immigrants. Not only did she not she speak spanish, she didn't even have a spanish accent!
Now I know how to get a free trip to Columbia--no questions asked.
Thank you. Finally a reasonable person. What is WRONG with these people? I really don't get it.
they're full of it because the initial article didn't say she claimed to be a 21 year old. at this point they're trying to cover their a$$es.
Good idea there blue, maybe I should claim to be an illegal from Germany, and I can actually speak German, and get ICE to give me a free trip to Europe. Or better yet, considering what a bunch of morons they are, I could claim to be Japanese, I know a few words, and the idiots would probably send me there on a free flight.
Yep, free flights courtesy of the morons at ICE.
Scairp:
Disney World rules, according to their park ticket billing: Adult at age 10
(Just for chuckles :-) )
I see, so now 14 year old girls are completely responsible so we should just let them do whatever they wan guess all us parents can book our extended vacations to the South Pacific cause according to you we aren't needed and 14 year olds can make their own decisionst?
Its stupid how people underestimate children. I was taking care of myself for the most part at 15 and I got along fine. This isn't a dumb girl. She successfully fooled the government and lived on her own in Columbia for a year. She's responsible for that. Parents are needed. But not as much as they often times think they are. If you suddenly died and your 14 year old child had to survive on their own, I guarantee they could do it. Most children 14 and over could. And you not letting them make any of their own decisions hinders them from being able to do that more than if you would.
Why don't you try it and see what happens. Filing a false report with a government official will land you in jail with a hefty fine. Wouldn't be so free then would it?
A 13 year old boy was charged and convicted as an adult for murdering an adult man during a mugging in Reno. He had three adults with him at the time of the murder and they were all convicted of murder. He is younger than this girl and is being held accountable for his actions. In the eyes of the law, teens can be seen as adults if their actions are that of adults.
I have no idea why this girl would want to go to Columbia. You would think once they started the deportation process she would come clean. I don't know how ICE or the police would be able to find out who a person was without ID, fingerprints, and when they are lying about who they are. Most illegals don't have paperwork or ID, hence they are illegal.
Jonathan,
It's not an underestimation of children...it's neurobiology. At that age the pre-frontal cortex isn't fully developed. This is why teens act the way they do.
http://www.hhs.gov/opa/familylife/tech_assistance/etraining/adolescent_brain/Development/prefrontal_cortex/index.html
Scairp, I've got teenagers. I was a foster parent for teens. And, as a school teacher I have taught thousands of teens. I have never known a kid that out of control. Do you really think that is typical teenage behavior?
When a convict says they are here illegally, we shouldn't we believe them? Free vacation to Columbia!
ICE did it's job flawlessly. The girl did not accidentally choose a fake name that happened to be the real name of an illegal alien from Colombia -- she learned the name Tika Lanay Cortez somewhere -- possibly she met the real Tika Cortez while bumming around as a runaway in Houston.
This girl wanted a free trip to Colombia. It probably sounded like an exciting big adventure to her. All she had to do is lie, repeatedly, to police, to prosecutors, under oath in court, and insist that her name was Tika Lanay Cortez and that she was an illegal immigrant from Colombia.
Passport? How many illegal aliens have passports? What about fingerprints? How many 15-year-olds have their finger prints in AFIS or their DNA in CODIS? Hint: only those who have been arrested and charged as adults.
Stop blaming ICE for doing their job. This is about a 15 year old girl who repeatedly, over a long enough period of time, pretended to be someone she's not, so she could get a free trip to Colombia.
Leaders of al-Qaeda in Pakistan, Yemen, and Nigeria are now happy to know that they can deceive U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) by just lying to them!
Yes she is totally responsible, along with the lousy family that created her. She broke the law by stealing then she lied about her identity. Then not only could she have told the authorities her real identity at any time before she was sent away, she never even tried to contact her family, before or after. Then she commits crimes in Columbia and gets arrested and still doesn't give up her real name . She wanted to go to Columbia, probably saw it as a great adventure. Now she's knocked up and American taxpayers will have to support her and her bastard kid. That is the real injustice.
Whatever happened to her is purely her fault since that little conniving piece of art does nothing but lie to avoid responsibility for what she does or has done. As to her parents, yes, enough said, and after I have seen her folks on TV - no comment. Perhaps they just should have left her in Colombia - the future will show quickly who she really is.
There is absolutely no blame to be assigned to our law enforcement!!!
I read elsewhere that stated she did this purposely because she wanted to get out of jail for theft and more importantly go to Columbia to get away from family members. She also reportedly didn't want to return to the US thus the hold up in Columbia. One story suggests that she was coached by her Colombian boyfriend and wanted to go there to be with him (no report on how they met), thus the lies.
It is kind of amusing that she was able to keep up with her Facebook profile and post for friends that she was living in Columbia. Her life there sounds better than it was here.
I think there's an epidemic of stupidity going on here. If you think ICE did it's job "flawlessly", you either don't know the definition of flawless, or you are ignoring the obvious failure of ICE personnel.
Enough with this "she got what she deserved" bull@!$%#. She wasn't a 24 year old woman. She's a 14 year old child who needed more supervision. ICE did not follow up on properly identifying this girl.
ICE took the word of a 14 year old that she was 21 and from Colombia. There are 7-11 store clerks who wouldn't buy that story!!
When one of your kids gets deported to Pakistan because of a mixup with a fake ID, I'm sure there will be much gnashing of teeth...and cries of "how could this possibly happen"?
Demand that they do their job properly, the kid can get a spanking later.
What I want to know is why she isn't being taken into custody immediately upon arrival in the US. This girl is guilty of numerous crimes including identity theft, perjury, lying to federal authorities (yes, while it is not illegal to lie to local police it is a crime to lie to the feds), and several other crimes. I am sick of people trying to blame this on ICE. What happened was entirely this girls fault. Those who try and say well she was only a teenager obviously do not spend much time around today's teens. They are far more sophisticated than teens were twenty or thirty years ago. This girl managed to survive pretty well on her own and obviously was living the life of an adult in Columbia. You can not go by physical appearance to determine age. I have seen 15 year olds that look and dress like they are 25 and I have seen 30 year olds that you would swear are 18 at most. This girl wanted to go to Columbia and planned this whole charade very carefully.
This girl did not pick the name she used out of thin air. She obviously either met the real Tika Lanay Cortez or found her name somehow. It was no accident that she claimed to be from Columbia and just happened to use the name of a real Colombian national who had a pending deportation order against her. This girl planned this whole thing. One word from her admitting who she really was would have put a stop to this whole thing. She purposely maintained the alias all through the court proceedings and through the flight to Columbia in the company of a federal agent. It is obvious that this girl was desperate to get away from her family and the authorities should be taking a very serious look at that before they go releasing her back into the custody of the people she went to such great lengths to get away from.
This girl is now returning to the US and is reportedly pregnant. I wonder if the pregnancy has anything to do with this sudden discovery of where she was and her desire to return to the US?!?! She had managed to fool authorities for quite some time and I do not think that her being found was an accident or some happy miracle, I think it was engineered by her so that she could come back to the US. After all, Columbia does not have the welfare system the US does that will support her and her baby. This is not some innocent teenager, this is a very conniving girl who knows how to work the system. I hope that she is charged with all the crimes she has committed and is forced to answer for them in court. I also hope that she and her family are held financially responsible for all of the costs the government has incurred as a result of her willful deceptions.
You are sick of people trying to blame this on ICE? Why, they didn't confirm her identity.
Like I said, ICE gotten taken by a 14 year old girl. 7-11 clerks all over the country are laughing at them. She probably had to have someone buy her cigarettes.
They didn't do their job. They deported a U.S. Citizen, and this isn't the only time it's happened.
(Not to quibble, and this is a minor point, but ColUmbia is an Ivy League University in New York. ColOmbia is a country in South America).
MarineDoc - For the most part illegals do not have picture IDs to verify their identity. If the person has never been arrested before, then law enforcement is not going to have fingerprints or DNA on file to verify identity with. Try and face reality, If an someone with no criminal record lies to police about their identity and gives the name of an illegal who also has no criminal record and therefor no fingerprints or DNA on file it is very difficult for law enforcement to know that the person is not who they say they are. Illegals are not going to have driver's licenses or other means of identifying them in US law enforcement or government databases. This girl is entirely responsible for what happened and it was a carefully calculated deception. She did not claim to be this person and say she is from Columbia and have it turn out that there was a real person from Columbia by that name by accident. This girl knew exactly what she was doing.
MarineDoc, that's pretty funny. If one of my kids gets deported to Pakistan, it is highly unlikely it will be over something as simple as "a mixup over a fake I.D." If one of my kids is stupid enough to claim repeatedly, to police and in court, all the way through deportation proceedings, that he or she is someone else -- and that the particular someone else is in fact truly an illegal alien from Pakistan, verifiable in a database of illegals -- then my kid deserves what he gets. If I ever saw him or her again, I'm sure I would love to hear the explanation as to why he or she wanted to go to Pakistan so badly that he or she would continue this elaborate ruse all the way through the legal proceedings and all the way to the plane flight to Pakistan.
From some of the other comments, some of the other Viners seem to know that she had a boyfriend in Colombia and was updating her Facebook about how great her life was there. If that were my kid -- whether in Colombia or Pakistan -- I would say good luck and have a nice life, because after all the heartache and trouble at home and trouble with the law, I clearly failed you as a parent, and I thank God that your brothers and sisters didn't turn out like you, and I wish you all the best in your new criminal life in Colombia or Pakistan or wherever you are.
Always,
If any of that stuff and even the slightest bit of relevance to this subject, it might be entertaining to discuss. Unfortunately it does not.
Give it a rest. It always turns to "you are not a (Marine/physician/etc)" when the offending twit realizes that he/she really doesn't have anything to say. Instead of going to that old chestnut, perhaps you could try to preserve a tiny bit of dignity and stop typing.
You are embarrassing yourself. I'm giving you an out. I suggest you take it.
Azad,
A couple of things. As a father of a 14 year old boy, I recognize that teenagers say and do stupid things. The part of their brain responsible for good judgement, impulse control, etc. isn't fully developed, and won't be until they are about 25. It's our job as parents to guide them.
If you throw your hands up and say "he got what he deserved" then not only did you not do your job before he got in trouble, but you aren't doing your job after. You helped make them, you don't get to abandon them before they are adults. They are YOUR responsibility.
A 14 year old girl was shipped to a foreign country and was raped (yes, raped because 14/15 year olds cannot consent to sexual intercourse). It doesn't matter if she "had an internet boyfriend"...it makes him a sexual predator, and the U.S. Government facilitated the rape, by not doing it's job.
If you want to talk about how stupid this girl acted, and how her actions put her in this position...sure, there's no doubt that all of that is true. However, as I've stated she's a child....there's a reason they cannot vote, consent, or make important life decisions.
If the situation were reversed and some terrorist type entered the country because he SAID he was a U.S. Citizen, and ICE didn't vet that information thoroughly, I'm pretty sure you'd be one of the firs people screaming for someones head...and rightfully so.
JS,
So you think having a picture ID actually confirms a person is who they say they are? Before deporting someone ICE needs to VERIFY that the person is who they say they are...and not say a 14 year old runaway. I understand about the fingerprints and DNA. They still obviously did not verify that this person was a Colombian National, now did they?
She is not responsible...she's a minor, and that's the point. She cannot legally leave the country on her own.
Nobody is disputing that this girl isn't an idiot...but like I've said she's also a child. Would it make a difference if she were 10?
Always,
What's wrong with you? You don't seem to be much different than the other loud mouthed racist types that frequent the Vine, so I'm not going to spend much time on this post. Where your story falls apart, is that there was NO evidence that she was a Colombian citizen. Not fingerprints, photos, birth certificates or other biometric data. None. Zip. Zero. Nada.
ICE deported a U.S. Citizen who was a minor because they did not verify her true identity...or are you disputing this fact? They were duped by a 14-year old telling a fib. There were no evidence that the person she claimed to be was even wanted by immigration.
Always--it's really sad that you so quickly went to the "you aren't really a Marine/physician" route. I would have expected more from someone who claims that he/she is a physician. Perhaps you aren't who you claim to be. But why would I care about what some loud mouthed racist says?
There is one part of the case that I haven't seen more information on. It was stated that Turner was fingerprinted when she was arrested. If Cortez had a warrant out on her, did she have fingerprints on file and did ICE compare the fingerprints? It would seem like a reasonable step in confirming identity. I'm also wondering where Turner got her alias from. It seems like an awfully specific name for her to have come up with randomly. Did Turner and Cortez know each other?
MDrn,
I read that this Cortez person (is she an actual person?) had nothing that came up.
How do you deport a teenager and send her to Colombia without a passport, without anything. That about says it all from a dumb set of parents / grandparents. Illegal aliens that are caught here in the US are routinely sent back once the receiving country is notified and that a courtesy. More to the point, when did the little darling learn how to lie with such finesse. So much so she fooled authorities in two countries. First she runs away, gets arrested for theft, tells the cops she's a Colombian and they send her back. She comes back pregnant which the family has completely glossed over and grandma blames the government. Here's a news flash granny, your grand-daughter belongs behind bars until she's 18. That child she's carrying should be removed to foster care because your family is challenged when parenting is involved.
You know nothing about what happened to this girl beyond what you've read in a skimpy news story. Even kids from good homes run away, lie, and get into trouble. And I doubt a 15 year old girl alone in Columbia can protect herself from predators.
I don't think she had to do much lying. Anyone asking her basic questions about her background, where she grew up, names of her parents, names of her schools would have figured out the girl was faking it. How about asking "why don't you have a spanish accent?"
This little girl has cost the governments of the US, Texas and Columbia 10's of thousands of dollars - I am certain that her family will receive the bill - ha! I continue to be amazed at Americans who consistently blame others (including government agencies) for faults of their own. Send the little brat back to Columbia with her whole family!!!
A teenage runaway? A15 year old black girl who doesn't even speak Spanish can lie her way into being flown to Colombia by the US government, with no corroborating paperwork or evidence of any kind ? Perhaps this is how I can get a free trip to Paris. I could pass for French...it's not like I have to speak it or anything...
Its all about meeting deportation quotas! They don't care who they put on that plane as long as they meet their quotas to show Congress they are doing a fancy great job! They are the dumbest and rudest people I've come across. If they can't tell the difference between a 15yr old non-spanish speaker and a 21yr old woman how are we supposed to feel confident that they can spot a hardened professional terrorist...its a joke!!! Billions of dollars spend on DHS and we are no safer than we were before.
Hey Frankie- don't over look she could have ended it at any time and Columbia set her up with a job and place to stay to get her back on her feet in her " Country" along with citizenship. How about some national ID here? I didn't think you'd go for that. Actually having fingerprints on file for just such an occasion.
Don't you realize that there are a lot of latinos and latinas that look black but aren't. I made the mistake of saying black to a puerto rican and he nearly ripped my head off. And a lot of latinos and latinas don't speak spanish either if they are born here.
Not to mention that her failure to have papers to prove she was undocumented is rather . . . well . . . I very much doubt people who are here illegally often carry around papers to prove that they are illegally here. She gave the name of a known illegal and fit the general description, and had no reason to be lying. Whether she can speak Spanish isn't the responsibility of ICE. There was nothing to doubt here testimony save her age (and age is rather difficult to distinguish by looks if a person blatantly lies about it. I know twenty-year olds who don't look a day over fifteen). If anyone should have caught that she didn't know Spanish, it should have been the Colombian consulate who interviewed her and cleared her to enter the his country. Or are you suggesting that ICE should make every person identified as an illegal immigrant and has admitted that they are pass an exam on the language of their country and refuse to deport them if they don't post a satisfactory grade on it?
Could ICE have caught this? Probably. Should ICE take steps to prevent this in the future? Yes. Did they kidnap her? No. Did they break the law in deporting her? Doubtful. Could she have ended it at any time, at a moment's notice? Yes. If anyone should be held at the most fault for this incident, it's the deceitful, manipulative, and moronic girl. I have more sympathy for the ICE agents who now have to deal with having this case on their records than for someone that stupid (or intelligently manipulative and cold-hearted, depending on your opinion on her motivations and thought processes in doing this)
Ok, so Colombian officials are morons too, what's your point?
Its funny how adults think children are so stupid, there are 4 yr olds on their own in the streets of Calcutta... remember Sister Theresa? If the girl wanted to be found she would have called [they had her working in a call center in Columbia], she had a facebook of all things, in which she had pictures of herself sitting on guy's laps smoking the reefer...oh and she is now pregnant lol--lets do the math here...hmmm if she had FB then maybe she COULD have sent her parents an email if she had wanted??? Apparently, she didn't want to. In addition, The alias she used was specific enough, especially with the age she claimed to be, obviously she had done her research and was having a blasty-blast in Columbia. What NEEDS to happen is she needs to be charged like anyone else giving a fake name to the police...if you don't don't know what happens when you do that, I recommend you try it ;) So tired of all these people on here trying to be sooo 'politically correct' all it does is make you look idiotic. Just because the 'law' says you are an adult at 18 doesn't make it so, for some of us that starts at an earlier age.
Her being black would actually make her being from Colombia very plausible. The United States is far from the only country that imported slaves from Africa -- Colombia did also. As a result, a fairly large percent of their population has some African ancestry.
Here's some wikipedia data about the ethnicity of Colombia's population: 14% is mulatto (of mixed black African and European ancestry), while 4% is of black African ancestry and 3% are zambos (of mixed black African and Amerindian ancestry).
All you need to do is find the name of a french criminal illegaly in the US. Best of luck to you since allmost all of the illegals that have warrents out for them come from brown/black nations.
Deceived you?! Are you serious! She couldn't speak a word of Spanish! You had a quota, cut the B.S.!
How idiotic can you be? You'd think at some point the thought would come to her: 'Gee, looks like I'm gonna be deported! Maaaaybe I should come clean and just tell them who I really am and stop the BSing?'
The ICE did their job, the only one who deserves any blame is this girl for being flat out dumb. She could have avoided all of this trouble if she had told the truth at any point, but instead she held to a ridiculous lie and was subsequently booted from the country, nobodies fault but her own. This is about as dumb as one teen getting arrested and jailed for ignoring their library fees for months until the police finally showed up on their door, total lack of common sense...
Perhaps she had reactive attachment disorder. Those kids do t he exact opposite of what they are asked to do so they can get attention and because they feel "icky" when they are too praised. I know, it boggles the mind.
Exactly alwaysanother. Geez, some of the people posting her act like a 15-year old is 6 years old. I have a 15 year old, and she can easily pass for 21 in appearance, as can many many teen girls. This girl more than likely hooked up with a guy from Columbia, who supplied her with the Tika name (who makes up that name??) - she ran away with him to Houston (girls run away with their 'boyfriends'), she was working at a 'DJ club' in Houston, was arrested for theft, and then lied to multiple officials about her identity. She is a street smart girl who, with just a little internet research, could know enough about Columbia to obviously fool the Columbian officials into believing she was a citizen. Just speculation on my part, but I'm guessing there's a Columbian boyfriend somewhere in this story -- otherwise, why pick the identity of a columbian illegal, and why Columbia? She should be charged with perjury, and jailed. Her parent should be billed for the costs incurred by her stupid con artist's stunt.
What do you mean 15 yo passing as adults? If you google (11yo gang rape black panthers) you will see the leader of the black panthers saying the 11yo girl consented and lied about her age. So 11yo girls can pass as adults to black panthers.
How much do you her family is gonna sue us for?
If I were on the jury deciding this case, they would not get a dime. In fact, I would be for making the family and/or the girl pay for the cost of sending her to Colombia and getting her back.
She may be a black American, but she sure as hell isn't a African American. She could be an African, if she was born in, and a citizen of Africa., but I am willing to bet that she was born in the U.S.
Well what a prize she is. She was arrested for shoplifting, then lied to everyone for months and then was deported and all the sudden she wants to home ???????? I would have said tough luck. Pay your own way home or the fantastic parents who did such a fine job raising her could pay for her plane fare home.
The other thing that Grandma and others are missing is that the Colombians ALSO issued her a citizenship document to enable her to be "returned" to Colombia. So they didn't have any idea either.
This kid kept up her charade through the entire deportation process. All she had to do at any point (and especially after she realized she was actually being put on a plane out of the country) is to give her real name and her home address. Once in Colombia she could have called home etc. She was posting on Facebook and found some sort of work so she apparently wasn't in too much of a hurry to come home. The family can complain about everyone "not doing their job" but they need to have their kid accept responsibility for lying to the local police, Immigration, the judge, the Colombian government, etc. Not to mention that the kid seemed pretty intent on getting away from the family. Perhaps there is a reason she really wanted to get away from them that isn't being mentioned by the family?
Have to admit she has guts and a quite sense of adventure for a 15 year old. Sounds like she didn't want to be found and managed some survival skills for a while.
In another time she may have run off to join the circus or hopped a freighter.
But this can't be so! The teabaggers insist that nobody gets exported but actual illegal immigrants!
the teabaggers are... well the CoH won't let me say what they are, but I think you get my point.
I've answered it plenty of times, AA, but you don't follow up and read. I even answered it yesterday. You just refuse to acknowledge it, because you want an excuse to change the subject. Again.
Toast- Why don't you look up the FBI's most wanted list and call the cops saying you are one of those guys, and you want to turn yourself in? You will get to have an adventure just like this girl. If you lie to cops in a confession good luck taking it back
You didn't check, because I literally posted the link in my comment.
And while we're talking about not answering questions, I'll ask you one more time:
Give me one quote that was anti-american, pro-North Korean, or pro-Iranian. Give me one direct quote where I idealized a dictator. Go on, what are you waiting for?
Come on, AA. We're all waiting.
Uh, AA? None of those was either anti-American or pro-dictatorship. In fact, every single post you've quoted was pro-America, and expressed a jaded mockery dictatorships. You just didn't like what I had to say. Try again, kiddo.
And no, I didn't have any posts erased. You can't do that. You just didn't click on the "2010" column. This isn't rocket surgery, AA...
I should note to anyone still following this thread that AA recently sent me a personal email containing as follows:
To which I replied as follows:
Hey Toasty,
Looks like this always character has been busy...he said he was a physician, then immediately launched into the old "you aren't a Marine/physician" thing with me. Wow, he went to the North Korea/Iran sympathizer thing with you.
Ah, so he sends you similar harassment? The man's begging for the FBI to slap a fine on him.
Let me be clear, AA. You are opening yourself up for a serious lawsuit. Harassment is a crime, as is defamation. One of these days you are going to cross the line with someone online less tolerant of your harassment than MD or I, and you'll find yourself in court.
I'm beginning to think he may just be a very cranky old man, as he tends to write quite a bit about the 40's and 50's era. It's a shame the Vine attracts such characters. It's rare to have a really good debate here with opposing viewpoints that doesn't veer off into nonsense.
Well, threatening to call the FBI on someone is a very serious accusation, and he's going to have a lawsuit on his hands very soon if he isn't more careful.
I remember this old professor emeritus cardiac surgeon who used to come in for grand rounds once a week. It just so happened we'd always get there around the same time at 0:dark thirty. This guy had been a fantastic surgeon, but he was a real right-wing crazy. Each week he'd bring stacks of John Birch Society pamphlets and leave them at the entrance from the parking garage, so I started to wait for him to go in first, when I could and dump all of it in the garbage. One day he got into a political discussion with one of the other surgeons and proclaimed that ALL of his pamphlets were so popular that they were gone by the time he went back to his car a few hours later. The second surgeon caught me trying to suppress a smile, and figured out what was really going on. Maybe always and I are acquainted...:)
She didn't ask to come back, her family was looking for a lost child, she's fifteen and a minor. The sad thing is her family found her, not the authorities. Didn't anyone check her fingerprints when she was first arrested? Yes, they should sue. Not to worry, due to Rove it will be capped!
they better include Columbia in on that suit as they also bought into the story.
Oh yes they should sue. That is the only way they will get to the bottom of this. Wow, she lied to them. Is that their defense? That'll get them far. Pretty frightening if you ask me, that a little girl of 14 could come up with a name of a person who happens to be a Colombian adult here illegally and they run with that, up to and including shipping her out of the country, which I believe is usually a felony. And now she's pregnant, and that's another crime, namely statutory rape. Good luck ICE, going with that "she lied" defense. Sure, nobody ever lies to immigration. I can't wait to hear what a judge has to say about it.
Actually, I'd bet that very, VERY few people lie to immigration to claim to be here illegally when they are not. Deporting her was done by the book, with all proper documentation and was even signed off by the Colombian consulate, so finding criminal charges against the agents who worked her case is ridiculous and would never stand up in court, and to try to hold them for the statuatory rape is even more ridiculous (for several reasons, not least of which is that fact that the act itself occurred in Colombia, which means it is WAY out of the jurisdiction of any American courts and squarely in the court of Colombian jurisdiction). The only was that this case would ever get before a judge in criminal court is if the D.A. decides that ICE acted with such a level of negligence that it is criminal. That usually, but not always, would require them to make a glaring, major procedural error, not just fail to catch something that is actively being hidden or for failing to do an extra step to confirm an identity after it has already been confirmed by the suspect. Most likely, will never be in criminal court, and if it is, small chance (though possible) that it will find them guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, and the sentence would be rather light, certainly not to the level of kidnapping and rape.
Civil court is another matter. I won't be surprised if the headlines in a few days are that the family is suing ICE for the physical and "emotional distress" this has had on the girl. That case could go either way, and while it is quite possible that ICE will be held some level of accountable, the fact that the girl was not only a willing participant, but one of the most active in trying to be deported, will probably be a major card for the ICE lawyers, and one that could severely reduce or eliminate the claims and what the family will be able to recover from the court's judgement.
Third option is for ICE to settle out of court with the family. Small payoff that ICE probably wouldn't have to pay if they fought it off in court, but would save them a lot on legal fees and the negative press and attention from a lengthy litigation process.
Especially since ICE seems to be in the habit of deporting US citizens and asking questions later.
She would have had to have been caught before,under her real name, to have fingerprints on file. Illegals don't stop and get fingerprinted on the way in either.
She was the one who was adamant that she was who she said she was. My question to you is why the hostility to the Tea party? Afraid that you may actually have to manage your own life for a change? I know the one party has done a great job of convincing their party members they are incapable of managing with out the big government support but you may actually enjoy being the master of your destiny.
Human beings are not useless; they are exactly equal in value to you. (Apologies to the young woman--she probably does not, like you, post cruel, hate-filled, ignorant rants directed against people she has never met on msnbc.)
Rainbow and lollipop dreams it seems.. With such a blanket statement I'm amazed you haven't been called out sooner. With your rational you are stating that an innocent young girl or boy has the same equal value as a rapist or murderer.. I'm sorry people are NOT of equal value to myself nor to society for that matter.
The only ones trying to destroy merit based standards are those who are incapable of competing. Higher pay for better work is merit based, as is higher IQ= better off. For the SAT test on the verbal side they say "U cun luuk up wordz wuy I gosta no", and for math they say "maszinzes cun does dat wuy I gosta no" totally ignoring that having a good vocabulary and math skills affect every money based decision you make in life. Affirmative action and welfare teach them they don't even have to try. If they graduate high school with a 2.5 grade point avg and use AA to get into Harvard they think that they deserve to be there more than the high IQ whites and asians. If no minorities pass a technical test to be promoted in a NYC firehouse the test must be rassesst, not because any minority smart enough to pass would have gotten a free ride to college and AA his way to a better job than firefighter.
Also check out the interpol crime #s for african nations vs everyone else. If they are equal in value why do those of european decent end up flying 1/2 way around the world to dig wells in africa, europeans mastered the tech of digging a well before recorded time, if we where equal you could just mail a shovel and a picture based instruction on how do build one.
It doesn't sound like she was accidentally deported, it sounds like she solicited deportation.
My grandfather ran off and joined the circus when he was 14 but his older brothers tracked him down and brought him back in time for harvesting. He grew up and even completed college which was not that common 100 years ago. I hope this young women will complete her education and lead a productive life.
She has a better chance of finding the lost city of Atlantis
I am a mother and a resident of Dallas. I have been following this story closely wandering where the truth lies. As a mother, I see a rebellious teenager who bit off more than she could chew by running away, lying about her identity and age causing consternation in two different countries. It would not surprise me that when the case has been thoroughly investigated that the girl met some unsavory folk who help get her from Dallas to Houston. How was she living in Houston before getting caught for shop lifting? Not only does the Houston area house thousands of illegal/undocumented people but it is a gateway to drug and sex trafficing. Once deported to Columbia, how did she support herself for 7 to 8 months before being found out? She might not have spoken Spanish but she managed to live in that country for months so she developed some kind of communication skills. The bottom line - there is blame to go around and it starts in the Turner household.
If you know how the ICE program works and the documentation problems with illegal aliens then it isn't hard to understand how this could happen. Having an accent or "looking latino" has nothing to do with whether or not you are illegal. Many Hispanics are of darker complexion and can easily look African American and vice versa. Not only that, many younger Hispanics who come to this country illegally (brought by their parents) as toddlers learn to speak English perfectly and have no knowledge of Spanish (their parents want to integrate them to the culture). Not only that, but most illegal immigrants do not have any type of identification - they lose what they had from their country and are unable to get any type of identification in this country due to their lack of a SS number.
So, considering those facts it isn't unusual for an ICE officer to meet a young Latino who speaks perfect English, no Spanish, and has no documentation. And the officers have a standard list of questions they ask including when you came into the country, how you came in, where you came in, how long you've been here, if you have relatives, etc... so obviously she gave some type of responses that were acceptable. Yes, they probably weren't 100% but ICE officials process thousands of people a week and not everyone is a genius - I'm sure after a while they pretty much take any response, which is a serious flaw in the current system.
Also, at an ICE hearing the judge is extremely clear about asking a deportee if they understand the process, if their information is accurate, and if they have any questions - obviously this girl just stuck to the lie. Had she at any point told anyone the truth they would have immediately *had* to stop the process and investigate the claim, that is standard procedure so as to avoid a situation like this.
And while she may be a young girl - she was able to survive as a runaway here in the US and in a foreign country for several months, clearly she has a keen intellect and knew all she needed to do was say something - anything - to at least garner some kind of attention. Hell, she could have just called her family from the detention center and I'm sure they would have gotten an attorney on it stat to get her in front of a judge. The deportation process, from arrest to flight, takes several months - most spent in a cell just waiting, with daily phone access as well as a case officer assigned to you that checks in weekly. She had plenty of opportunities to stop this and chose not to.
It's very sad all around - the ICE system needs reform because unfortunately many innocent people are deported accidentally and it doesn't get this much attention. Furthermore, other countries are obviously not equipped to handle our ICE process since Colombia clearly did not do any research on the validity of her claim to be a Colombian national - which raises serious concerns as to who the heck is getting into Colombia!
Unfortunately this was a perfect storm of multiple people probably failing to do their job in some way, and a confused girl refusing to talk - and hopefully one positive that comes out of this is that it draws attention to the serious problems we have with the ICE program because unfortunately most people don't care when the people being taken advantage of are those who are poor and don't speak the language well.
Yeah, and fingerprints wouldn't help at all since they lie too. Oh, oops. I guess I punched a big hole in your nonsense narrative.
Actually, fingerprints don't help if you have no prior criminal record and your parents don't register you for an identification program in the US. Foreign countries don't register their citizens via fingerprint archives either - so, as long as she hadn't committed a crime before there was no need for any government to have her fingerprints. Which they ran by the way, if you follow the story. There's also no need to insult anyone else for voicing their opinion on an issue that really does affect a lot of people in this country and abroad. People should be able to engage in intelligent debate, not insult swapping.
"So, considering those facts it isn't unusual for an ICE officer to meet a young Latino who speaks perfect English"
I would say it would be extremely unlikely that an ICE officer would meet a young mulatto who speaks "perfect English". In fact it probably has not happened in years. Perhaps you meant to say Ebonics.
I wouldn't believe anything my government says about this matter or any other. The government lies so much that you know if a government official is speaking, the government is lying. They probably just figured they'd mess with this girl and get away with it. WE live in a day and age where the government has the technolgy to tell who you are and where you are at all times so how the hell did they deport a US citizen? Intentionally, that's how.
Wow, some people are so dumb. How would the police have her fingerprints to match? Unless she committed a previous crime where fingerprints were taken she would have none in the database.
Yeah daniel, we have always here, a true blue teabagger who hates the evil federal government except when DEFENDING this particular bunch of gestapo morons.
And she's pregnant..so here goes some more tax dollars for food stamps and welfare.
That's an ignorant comment because she was WORKING while she was in Colombia.
and now that's she's pregnant, suddenly her true identity comes out, and viola, she's returned at no charge to the USA, with free medical and of course she'll be signing up for every benefit she can get, welfare, WIC, food stamps. Does Columbia provide any of that to poor women who get pregnant? I doubt it - so, bingo, she's ready to return to the USA.
By working do you mean the worlds oldest proffesion? That would explain the pregnancy. if she was actually working it would only be due to the fact colombia doesn't have welfare.
Should have left her in Colombia
she pretended to be an illegal immigrant probably because illegal immigrants get treated like middle class here
SHE DOES NOT SPEAK SPANISH!! Could someone not have figured that out BEFORE all this happened? She is obviously a troubled child, but sheesh.
Most of the people here would like to crucify the child....and she is a child. They'd bet you a million dollars she's going to get on welfare but she was working while in Colombia. People have no faith in children these days and ALL children makes mistakes, I don't care WHO comes on here and lies and says their children haven't made mistakes.
The only reason she was working there is that Colombia doesn't have welfare so to eat she had to work. The worlds oldest profession could explain how she got pregnant.
I am somewhat taken a back by the people who are in support of this troubled youth. It's clear in my mind that the only person to blame for this child being deported out of the country is herself. This child provided law enforcement with a bogus name only to realize that the name she provided was already wanted by authorities for being an illegal. Law enforcement was unable to confirm the child's identity because her fingerprints were perhaps in a juvenile data base as oppose to an adult data base. The two data bases are not intertwined. When law enforcement ran her prints in the adult system nothing came up so that's understandable why this ruse was undetectable.
Instead of this child getting a somewhat hero's welcoming, she should be brought up on criminal charges. At first glance, she lied to law enforcement no big deal you say but it is still a crime. Secondly, she lied in a court of law, originally in the local courts and then the federal courts. When that child's name or (alias) was called out in court, she advised the courts that she was the person in question to answer to those deportation charges. There should be some serious consequences for people who knowingly and repeatedly decieve the system. She wants to be an adult. I say let's not stand in her way. Treat her just the way she wants to be treated. It's no dought in my mind, the public will probably hear this child's name again in the news and it won't be for graduating from college.
Blacks don't belive in any merit based ideas. Eric Holder is trying to make it so its discrimination if you don't hire a felon, since most felons are black. Merit should be able to earn you more money or explain why you cant hold on to any. This girl earned her way to Colombia by lying.
What a racist!