Dallas teen missing since 2010 was mistakenly deported

[Panzersharkcat]

Link.

DALLAS - “It's very frustrating," Lorene Turner said.

She has spent hours on Facebook trying to find her granddaughter, Jakadrien.

"Once I get home I am up until 3 or 4 in the morning searching and looking," Turner said. "It's all I can think about. Finding my baby."

Turner has been searching for Jakadrien since the fall of 2010, when she ran away from home. She was 14 years old and distraught over the loss of her grandfather and her parents’ divorce.

Turner searched for months for a clue.

"God just kept leading me," she said. "I wake up in the middle of the night and do whatever God told me to do, and I found her."

Turner said with the help of Dallas Police, she found her granddaughter in the most unexpected place - Colombia.

Where she had mistakenly been deported by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in April of 2011.

"They didn't do their work," Turner said. "How do you deport a teenager and send her to Colombia without a passport, without anything?"

News 8 learned that Jakadrien somehow ended up in Houston, where she was arrested by Houston police for theft. She gave Houston police a fake name. When police in Houston ran that name, it belonged to a 22-year-old illegal immigrant from Columbia, who had warrants for her arrest.

So ICE officials stepped in.

News 8 has learned ICE took the girl's fingerprints, but somehow didn't confirm her identity and deported her to Colombia, where the Colombian government gave her a work card and released her.

"She talked about how they had her working in this big house cleaning all day, and how tired she was," Turner said.

Through her granddaughter’s Facebook messages, Turner says she tracked Jakadrian down.

U.S. Federal authorities got an address. U.S. Embassy officials in Colombia asked police to pick her up.

But that was a month ago, and the Colombian government now has her in a detention facility and won't release her, despite her family's request.

"I feel like she will come home," the grandmother said with tears in her eyes. "I just need help and prayer.”

There are still many unanswered questions about how an African-American girl who speaks no Spanish is mistaken for a foreign national. Immigration officials are investigating and released a statement late Tuesday.

"ICE takes these allegations very seriously," said ICE Director of Public Affairs Brian Hale. " At the direction of [the Department of Homeland Security], ICE is fully and immediately investigating this matter in order to expeditiously determine the facts of this case."

ICE officials also noted there have been instances where ICE has seen cases of individuals providing inaccurate information regarding who they are and their immigration status for ulterior motives.

Carry your papers, citizen!

[Sidewinder]

She was 14 years old...

<snip>

She gave Houston police a fake name. When police in Houston ran that name, it belonged to a 22-year-old illegal immigrant from Columbia, who had warrants for her arrest.

Talk about police (and ICE) incompetence. We'll probably see something similar happen to Homer Simpson, in a future episode.

[Darth Wong]

It's not just a "papers please" scenario. She was caught committing crimes, and she gave them a fake name which happened to correspond to a wanted criminal and non-citizen. Perhaps more information will come out, like whether she realized her mistake and tried to get them to contact her family, but given that she ran away from home, maybe she chose not to. We don't know at this point.

It's easy to bash the immigration people, but it's not too hard to understand how this could have happened, at least based on the information we have so far.

[Simon_Jester]

Although her not speaking Spanish should have rung alarm bells is that she doesn't speak Spanish, assuming that's true. It seems likely that someone screwed up very badly here- the mistake is understandable, I'm not dumbfounded that it could happen if she was claiming a false name.

What I don't understand is why the Colombians won't release her.

[Panzersharkcat]

Fair enough. I was being a bit facetious.

[Grumman]

It's not just a "papers please" scenario. She was caught committing crimes, and she gave them a fake name which happened to correspond to a wanted criminal and non-citizen.

I agree. Having the same name as a criminal shouldn't be enough to break the system, but in this particular case she brought it upon herself. There's a lesson here, and that's "Don't try to trick the police into believing you're someone you don't know".

[Solauren]

What I don't understand is why the Colombians won't release her.

If she is in a detention facility, she probably did something down there, and they don't want to release her until she's been punished.

[Zixinus]

To be fair, this does sound like one of those mix-ups that are sadly bound to happen.

There should have been plenty of facts that should have risen red flags to anyone paying attention, but it may be that simply no one was. They were so keen on focusing on working the system that literarily no one noticed that they had a 14-year old who is supposed to be a 23-year old.

Not that I am saying that this is excusable, just that something like this is bound to happen. Especially in a country that has a bit of an immigration hysteria. I wouldn't be surprised that other countries that have such a hysteria also have stories like these.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

What I don't understand is why the Colombians won't release her.

If she is in a detention facility, she probably did something down there, and they don't want to release her until she's been punished.

Illegally entering Colombia under a false name, I suspect, which makes this more of a retarded dark farce.

[Darth Wong]

To be fair, this does sound like one of those mix-ups that are sadly bound to happen.

There should have been plenty of facts that should have risen red flags to anyone paying attention, but it may be that simply no one was. They were so keen on focusing on working the system that literarily no one noticed that they had a 14-year old who is supposed to be a 23-year old.

Not that I am saying that this is excusable, just that something like this is bound to happen. Especially in a country that has a bit of an immigration hysteria. I wouldn't be surprised that other countries that have such a hysteria also have stories like these.

Honestly, the "doesn't speak Spanish" thing is not exactly what I'd call evidence. If you have someone who was caught committing a crime, and is going under the name of a known criminal, why should you believe anything she says? If she says "I can't speak Spanish", why should you believe her? It's hard to pretend you do understand a language, but incredibly easy to pretend you don't understand a language.

[DoomSquid]

To be fair, this does sound like one of those mix-ups that are sadly bound to happen.

There should have been plenty of facts that should have risen red flags to anyone paying attention, but it may be that simply no one was. They were so keen on focusing on working the system that literarily no one noticed that they had a 14-year old who is supposed to be a 23-year old.

Not that I am saying that this is excusable, just that something like this is bound to happen. Especially in a country that has a bit of an immigration hysteria. I wouldn't be surprised that other countries that have such a hysteria also have stories like these.

Honestly, the "doesn't speak Spanish" thing is not exactly what I'd call evidence. If you have someone who was caught committing a crime, and is going under the name of a known criminal, why should you believe anything she says? If she says "I can't speak Spanish", why should you believe her? It's hard to pretend you do understand a language, but incredibly easy to pretend you don't understand a language.

However, being eight years too young and black (which, presumably, the illegal immigrant was not, given the article goes out of its way to point this out) should have been rather more of a clue. I can see why this happened, but that still makes it the fault of the immigration people. It's like they've never come across the concept that more than one person might share an identical name, and not performing the basic checks that would reveal that, oh, she's too young and the wrong skin colour, is entirely their fault.

She rightly deserves the blame for using a fake name, but the rest of the responsibility rests on ICE personnel apparently having to wear velcro shoes because they're too dim to tie their own shoelaces. It doesn't take a mental giant to note that a 14 year old is not a 22 year old, unless the only information they have on this illegal immigrant is her name, which would strike me as pretty bloody incompetent in its own right.

[Dominus Atheos]

This is a weird story.

http://dallasisdblog.dallasnews.com/arc ... porte.html

A story in today's Dallas Morning News describes a 15-year-old runaway, Jakadrien Turner, who was deported to Colombia despite being a U.S. citizen. Jakadrien attended Kimball High School during the 2010-2011 school year, according to Dallas ISD information.

The girl ran away from her Oak Cliff home in November 2010 at the age of 14.

The deportation snafu occured after the girl was caught shoplifting in Houston in April and gave police a fake name, which belonged to a Colombian in the U.S. illegally.

Jakadrien, who is now pregnant, was discovered living in Bogotá after one of her Facebook pages was traced to the location.

The girl, who didn't speak Spanish when she left home, has been in the custody of Colombian authorities since last month at the behest of American officials.

Read the full story here.

(The photo above is from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children's website. The site lists information on Jakadrien here).

More information: Jakadrien was active on her Facebook page, which she maintained under the name TiKa SoloToolonq. The 15-year-old updated her page regularly and made references to missing the city of Houston and the United States. She refers to herself as TiKa in some of her posts. Here's what I pieced together in the months following her departure from the United States after reading many of her posts, with the first dating back to May 26.

May 26, 2:02 p.m.: She stated that she was bored and back home in Colombia. She said she got deported and really misses everyone in Houston and someone she calls "red."

May 26, 4:37 p.m.: She lists her current city as Bogota, Colombia.

May 26, 8:00 p.m.: She states that she misses "Red" and misses Houston. She says that Colombia is her home always but she had so much going on in Houston.

May 27, 7:34 a.m.: Someone posts on Jakadrien's Facebook page that she was hoping Jakadrien didn't go back to Colombia. "BUT U HAD TO DO WHAT U HAD TO DO....BE SAFE AND STAY OUT OF TROUBLE..." the post read.

May 30, 6:42 p.m.: She states that she misses "Red" and misses Houston.
June 6, 6:42 p.m.: Jakadrien says that she's going through hard times and lists family members that she misses, including her mother and father.

June 23, 9:33 a.m. and 10:02 a.m.: She says that she works doing translation for foreign people who are visiting or traveling. She said that she works at an "airplane company," starting at $15 and up. She also said she is a maid for the elderly making $20 an hour.

June 25, 10:35 a.m.: She says in a post that she is 21.

June 29, 7:51 a.m.: She said that she lived in New Orleans for three years in the Ninth Ward. She also notes that she stayed in Dallas on Kiest and Polk. She also said she stayed in Houston on the northside.

June 30, 3:40 p.m.: She is looking for a second job and waiting on a Colombian identification card. She states that she's not like "everybody else in the majority of this house" and has to get money because she doesn't like being broke. She also says that she is trying to find another place.

June 30, 7:16 p.m.: She states that she's having "many problems" in her life and just found out she can't go back to the United States for another five years. She talks about letting down an ex and letting herself down.

July 5, 4:52 p.m.: She states that she misses the United States but that Colombia is her home. She said that she will be in her "real home" soon in Bridgetown, Barbados.

July 6, 8:24 a.m.: She wants to get another job because she needs money. She says that times are getting hard and she's trying to go to Barbados. She reiterates that she wants to be in the United States to see everyone she loves.

July 28, 10:44 a.m.: She wishes for a "time machine" to rewind all the bad things that she did wrong. "I'M NEVER GOING TO BE HAPPY HERE!" she writes.

Aug. 1, 2:19 p.m.: She writes that rumors of her being dead are not true. She said that she was in a coma for about a month and is now recovered.

Aug. 2, 8:24 p.m.: She said that she misses Kimball and misses Dallas.

Aug. 4, 8:06 p.m.: She writes that she is trying to go to Mexico or Cali, Colombia. She says that she needs to be in the United States and that the closes location is Mexico. She says, "Houston I'm coming to you." She said that she also misses people in Dallas and Houston.

Jakadrien's last post was on Nov. 15 at 6:26 p.m. It read:
"Well bak in a relationship with same man I broke up with, lol! I love him dearly tho!!!! I think that will never happen, mae that mistake of oing that, beause he show me that he is serious with me, an so on, so ok lol!!!!!"

[Darth Ruinus]

If you look up that Facebook account, you see that she's got an album that says "family, me happy 4 once, in the mountains" that was updated in September. So, it seems to me that after the initial mess up she just decided to stay there? I mean if that news story update is accurate then it sounds like she's been in Colombia before (the poster hoped she didn't go back to Colombia). Maybe she'd been there before and decided to return for some reason. Just seems to me that someone wrongly sent to a country wouldn't make a new Facebook with a new name and set up albums with a new family (if that picture is in fact a different family).

[CaptainChewbacca]

According to this article, its not just mistaken identity. The girl DELIBERATELY LIED about her identity at every turn, even maintaining the false identity while interviewing at the colombian consulate.

[SirNitram]

Wow. ICE deports a US citizen, but for once, it's the glaring incompetence of the citizen. Didn't expect that, honestly.

[Solauren]

It looks like she used the deportation as a way to get to Columbia on the coin of the US government.

If they get her back, quite frankly, she should face related charges.

[bilateralrope]

Wow. ICE deports a US citizen, but for once, it's the glaring incompetence of the citizen. Didn't expect that, honestly.

I wouldn't call her incompetent as it seems she wanted to get sent to Colombia.

[weemadando]

So did they not have fingerprints on file for the actual holder of the name who had the warrants out? Or did they just not check them to confirm ID?

This case isn't entirely dissimilar to that of Cornelia Rau who spent more about a year in immigration detention in Australia as she suffered from mental illness and had given authorities a false name and not revealed other details.

[Simon_Jester]

So did they not have fingerprints on file for the actual holder of the name who had the warrants out? Or did they just not check them to confirm ID?

If I had to guess, I'd bet on the former. She gave the false name of an illegal immigrant who was wanted for arrest; the real suspect's fingerprints might well not be on file at all.

[Korto]

Wow. ICE deports a US citizen, but for once, it's the glaring incompetence of the citizen. Didn't expect that, honestly.

Oh no, it's still the glaring incompetence of ICE. To illustrate, I'll just change one little detail of the story.

The fourteen year old black girl The wanted multiple murderer, Yao Ming*, said "It's great! All you have to do is give them a false name and then they send you off in a plane to Columbia, give you a work permit, and let you go! They don't check up or nothing! All my mates are lining up for the trip. Marvin the Mangler O'Farrel* came through last week, but since he gave his name as Abila* he did have to wear a pink frock. He told them his moustache was a hormonal problem and they didn't ask any more questions.

To think other than pure incompetence, you have to accept first, that a fourteen year old black girl looks enough like a 22 year old hispanic to not cause anyone to question (actually possible), that people they deal with never give false names (seems somewhat doubtful), and that no-one ever has the same name as anyone else (admittedly this does seem to be the assumption that airport security runs under).


* This name was selected purely at random. Any resemblance to anyone, living or dead, is purely coincidental

[CaptainChewbacca]

I'll say it again Korto, there's many people living in South America who aren't hispanic-looking. More slaves went to South America than the US, though folks mostly forget that.

[Darth Wong]

To think other than pure incompetence, you have to accept first, that a fourteen year old black girl looks enough like a 22 year old hispanic to not cause anyone to question (actually possible), that people they deal with never give false names (seems somewhat doubtful), and that no-one ever has the same name as anyone else (admittedly this does seem to be the assumption that airport security runs under).

1) Have you never seen any fucking pictures of Colombians?

I can't believe so many people think the police should have said "oh wait, she's black, she can't possibly be a colombian".

2) What makes you think she even objected to the erroneous identification? They're still investigating what happened. For all you know at this point, she kept going along with it even after they deported her.

[Simon_Jester]

To think other than pure incompetence, you have to accept first, that a fourteen year old black girl looks enough like a 22 year old hispanic to not cause anyone to question (actually possible), that people they deal with never give false names (seems somewhat doubtful), and that no-one ever has the same name as anyone else (admittedly this does seem to be the assumption that airport security runs under).

(emphasis added)

1) Have you never seen any fucking pictures of Colombians?
[image of black Colombians]
I can't believe so many people think the police should have said "oh wait, she's black, she can't possibly be a colombian".

He said that was "actually possible," not "can't possibly be true."

2) What makes you think she even objected to the erroneous identification? They're still investigating what happened. For all you know at this point, she kept going along with it even after they deported her.

I imagine Korto is thinking: "Even if the girl kept giving a false name, shouldn't they be trying to do some kind of cross-check to verify her identity? Like, trying to contact someone who might know or recognize her, like whoever accused her of the crime she's wanted for?"

He complained about airport security's habit of assuming anyone who shares the name of a person on their watch list is that person, even if the name is the Muslim equivalent of "John Smith." So I think there's something in there about how law enforcement should be double-checking people's identity, not just hearing a name and automatically spending thousands of dollars to deport them.

Of course, it's possible they did that and somehow she was never detected as a fake, granted. Or that doing so would be inordinately expensive. I don't know.

[Darth Wong]

He said that was "actually possible," not "can't possibly be true."

He said it was actually possible that they might think a black girl looks hispanic. He did not even consider the possibility that there is a such thing as a black colombian, or that black colombians are in fact quite common.

I imagine Korto is thinking: "Even if the girl kept giving a false name, shouldn't they be trying to do some kind of cross-check to verify her identity? Like, trying to contact someone who might know or recognize her, like whoever accused her of the crime she's wanted for?"

If she isn't contesting the identification even after you've told her you're going to deport her, why the hell would you think it's incorrect? Under normal circumstances, if someone was erroneously identified as a criminal of the same name and subject to deportation orders, he or she would immediately object. He or she would object continuously until the moment you close the aircraft door.

As I said, we don't know that this happened; we don't know what happened at all yet. But to chalk it up to gross incompetence is premature.

[Simon_Jester]

He said that was "actually possible," not "can't possibly be true."

He said it was actually possible that they might think a black girl looks hispanic. He did not even consider the possibility that there is a such thing as a black colombian, or that black colombians are in fact quite common.

[Scratches head]

Well, I'm not sure I agree with your take on his phrasing, but I'm not going to dispute it.

I imagine Korto is thinking: "Even if the girl kept giving a false name, shouldn't they be trying to do some kind of cross-check to verify her identity? Like, trying to contact someone who might know or recognize her, like whoever accused her of the crime she's wanted for?"

If she isn't contesting the identification even after you've told her you're going to deport her, why the hell would you think it's incorrect? Under normal circumstances, if someone was erroneously identified as a criminal of the same name and subject to deportation orders, he or she would immediately object. He or she would object continuously until the moment you close the aircraft door.

As I said, we don't know that this happened; we don't know what happened at all yet. But to chalk it up to gross incompetence is premature.

Point.

I would think it a good idea, as a matter of routine practice, to always try and double-check the identity of people in your custody. At least to the extent of snapping a photo and making a few phone calls to people who you think know them, if possible. It avoids a lot of problems that are, at best, awkward for the bureaucracy.

But maybe it would be too much work; I am not an expert on the logistics of keeping people in custody.