PHOENIX — Her parents are criminals, technically speaking, having pleaded guilty to impersonation for falsifying a Social Security number to secure employment, a felony in this state. They were caught in a workplace raid led by Sheriff Joe Arpaio in 2009, a tactic for catching illegal immigrants that solidified his reputation as a no-holds-barred lawman, but one that has turned out to be as questionable as it was effective.
The raid, which was televised live on a placid Saturday, seized her attention because it occurred at her parents’ workplace: the Lindstrom Family Auto Wash.
Katherine Figueroa, 9 years old at the time, dropped the game of bingo she had been playing and stared at the screen, where she spotted her father, Carlos Figueroa, the carwash’s supervisor, hands bound before him as he was led to a sheriff’s office van that took him to jail, where he spent 90 days. Her mother, Sandra, who worked at the vacuuming station, was close behind.
Katherine cried. She screamed. Then, inside the tidy trailer her family still calls home, she sat before a video camera and delivered a plea: “Mr. President, I want you to help me, and my family, and my parents. I want them back.”
She was just getting started.
On Wednesday, in a courtroom here where cases like the Figueroas’ often end in tear-filled goodbyes and deportation, Katherine, who is now 13, reaped the rewards of four years of activism, an unlikely role for a child whose idea of a pastime was playing with dolls, not debating immigration policy.
On Wednesday, in a courtroom here where cases like the Figueroas’ often end in tear-filled goodbyes and deportation, Katherine, who is now 13, reaped the rewards of four years of activism, an unlikely role for a child whose idea of a pastime was playing with dolls, not debating immigration policy.
The case against her parents was effectively closed after the federal authorities, invoking the discretion that the Obama administration has afforded them, offered the couple a reprieve based on their strong family ties to this country and without regard for their criminal record. The outcome highlighted the tension among forces in a state whose combative stance against illegal immigration sparked a divisive debate across the country, after years of relentless pushing by Sheriff Arpaio, Gov. Jan Brewer and the Arizona Legislature.
Advocates for immigrants, already emboldened by a federal judge’s decision in May that Sheriff Arpaio had violated the constitutional rights of Latinos by making them the targets of traffic stops and raids, feel empowered.
“We’ve been able to challenge the notion that deportation is about sending the worst criminals away,” said Carlos Garcia, executive director of Puente, a grass-roots group that has worked with Katherine from the start.