Posted on 11/14/2010 2:18:08 PM PST by Tennessee Nana
Guatemalan Jose Vicente, 31, has lived in the United States for 15 years but never applied for a passport to his home country until this weekend.
The closest Guatemalan consulate is in Atlanta, and "It's really hard for people to go to Atlanta, especially if you don't have a driver's license," said the Chattanooga resident, who had a work permit until recently and now needs official identification.
But this weekend, for the first time in almost four years, the consulate came to Vicente.
A mobile Guatemalan consulate came Chattanooga on Saturday and remains today to process passports, birth certificates and consular identification cards.
Over the weekend, consulate officials will see close to 600 people in the East Lake Recreation Center off Dodds Avenue.
Every year, Atlanta consulate officials visit the cities with the largest Guatemalan populations in their four-state region -- Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina and South Carolina.
Liaison Officer Merari Alvir said they came to Chattanooga because there's a need.
"There are a lot of people returning to Guatemala, either just to visit or for good," who need to process their passports or register their children, said Alvir.
He estimates there are about 15,000 Guatemalans in the Chattanooga region, which includes Dalton and Rome in Georgia and Cleveland, Tenn.
Although many Guatemalans who came to see the consulate are in the country illegally, many others are legal residents who settled here more than 15 years ago, Alvir said.
La Paz Chattanooga helped set up appointments with consular officials.
"The appointments filled up two weeks ago and, on Monday morning, we came in and had 150 calls on the machine," she said. "That's not counting people who hang up and don't leave a message.
"The following day we had 80," she said, "so the need is definitely there."
On Saturday, several people drove long distances and didn't know they needed an appointment. They were served anyway because the consulate's goal is to reach those who can't easily go to Atlanta, Alvir said.
Vilma Gutierrez drove from Kentucky with her two daughters, ages 9 and 14, because she needed to apply for a Guatemalan passport.
Gutierrez and her husband were detained by immigration officials for being in the country illegally. Her husband was deported but she was allowed to get things in order because of her daughters. She also must return to her native country, she said.
"We were looking for the address at 11 p.m. [Friday night] and were here at 5 a.m. [Saturday morning]," she said.
The next consulate visit will be in Rome, Ga., on Jan. 15-16. For more information, contact the General Consulate of Guatemala at 404-320-8804. __________________________________________________
So how does a person get to enter the US without a passport ???
Oh yes right ...
There are those who are "special"
PING
Guatemalan officials consider this an “investment.”
The object is to get get these people organized into a hyphenated lobby.
The hyphenates will be cued to prime the pump for US foreign aid billions.........that will grease the palms of salivating Guatemala insiders with their hands out.
Ping!
It seems there are legal immigrants, who work hard for many years to do it the legal way, but the southern border is treated totally differently.
No passport (so must have entered illegally), but has a work permit? How does that work?
A lot of people from Guatemala and El Salvador came here about 15 years without visas/passports and got asylum.
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