US: Immigrant Goes, $49 K in Savings Stays

Trials & Litigation

Posted Oct 10, 2007, 01:32 pm CDT
By Martha Neil

After nearly a decade of washing dishes in a Florida restaurant, Pedro Zapeta had saved $62,000. He reportedly lived a frugal life, bicycling everywhere and denying himself all luxuries once he paid for his rent and electricity. No one questions that his savings come from his own hard-earned wages.

However, because the illegal immigrant failed to report his savings on the proper form before he tried to board a plane to return to his native Guatemala in 2005, customs agents confiscated his money and a federal judge decided that the U.S. government should keep $49,000 as a civil penalty. "The 'crime' he's being punished for is not illegal immigration. It's a bureaucratic technicality meant to catch drug dealers and smugglers, of which he is neither," writes a Miami Herald columnist.

Zapeta's situation, which has been reported by the Palm Beach Post and in a CNN broadcast, has ignited controversy. Many are outraged, but some opponents of illegal immigration say he got what he deserved, writes columnist Ana Menendez. Ironically, she notes, "most Americans are deep in the red" and Zapeta "may be the last man on earth who still embodies the great American ideal of thrift and hard work."

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Posted by J.D. - 10 months, 3 weeks, 3 days, 10 hours, 22 minutes ago

Why is it that all immigration articles begin with overly-dramatic sob stories?

How about a statistic on exactly how much money this guy owes in back taxes? If you do your research, you learn that he owes MUCH more than $50 K to the government.

If we want things like this to stop, we need to start enforcing immigration laws. He would never have been hired, never have been exploited, and never would have been in the country.

But the ABA along with the ACLU, AILA, MALDEF and others have created this situation themselves.

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