A Chicagoan's journey through incarceration, deportation and the fight for ‘A New Path'

Chicago Tribune

08-02-2025

Erick vividly remembers stepping off a plane at the Texas-Mexico border, shackled, when he was deported in 2013.
The group he was with was marched single-file across the border to Matamoros, Mexico, to a bus terminal, which he said was just sandbags and barbed wire.
Though Erick was familiar with gangs in Chicago, he said he had no familiarity with what group violence looked like in Matamoros.
'It's worse,' he said. 'You know how to navigate that world, as opposed to here, you have no idea what to expect.'
Erick was brought to the United States from Mexico at 4 months old. He was deported 33 years later, after being imprisoned for 15 years for a first-degree murder he says he didn't commit. Without knowledge of the judicial system, he pleaded guilty to murder because his attorney told him he thought it would shorten the length of his sentence.
Upon request, his last name is being withheld by the Tribune to maintain privacy.
His wife, Lee Ragsdale, was familiar with the travails of formerly incarcerated people due to her work for the Education Justice Project, a unit of the College of Education at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign that produced guides to help with reentry. She began working for the project in 2010, and after watching her husband deal with the unknowns of deportation, she advocated for a similar resource specifically for noncitizens navigating a different type of entry into a new country.
Published by an EJP team in 2018, the guide, called 'A New Path: A Guide to the Challenges and Opportunities After Deportation,' provides tips not just for those facing the threat of deportation but also for their family members. It offers an in-depth explanation of the detention process's logistics and suggestions for moving forward.
President Donald Trump's recent return to the White House has skyrocketed requests for the guide, written in both English and Spanish, Ragsdale said. About 4,000 electronic or hard copies of 'A New Path' were accessed in the 12 weeks after November's election, Ragsdale said, compared with only about 50 to 100 in the same period of time before it.
It's unsurprising, she said, given the recent law passed by Congress and signed by Trump that permits the detention of unauthorized immigrants accused of widely disparate crimes from shoplifting to murder.
The 172-page guide delves into complicated processes and explains how to obtain IDs and documents in different places. It is unique in providing country-specific information for people who may not have lived in those places since childhood.
​​'This is the only guide of its kind out there,' she said. 'There's 'Know Your Rights' pamphlets, there's small deportation planning guides, but there's nothing that's as comprehensive as this.'
Managing paranoia
For people without U.S. citizenship, Trump's immigration policies can add paranoia to every aspect of life, said Maria-Elena Young, a faculty associate at the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research and an assistant professor at UC Merced.
'The way our immigration laws work in this country is that they function essentially to criminalize (noncitizen) peoples' day-to-day activities,' Young said.
The guide suggests it's not too late to start thinking about a plan for a possible return to a home country, even setting up a caregiver plan in case a parent is separated from a child. A 'caregiver affidavit' form lets someone else take over responsibilities like sending a kid to school or the doctor.
'A New Path' also sheds light on the ways that undocumented people live in the shadows — in some cases avoiding driving, health care or reporting crimes committed against them. The guide contains information about which vulnerable groups who have faced acts of violence or crime may be able to get protection to stay in the U.S.
'Knowing what to expect can take away some of the anxiety and stress,' the guide states.
One of the most-used aspects of 'A New Path' is a card that people can tear out and have with them if Immigration and Customs Enforcement comes to their door. The cards include a reminder of basic constitutional rights that apply to everyone, regardless of citizenship status: the right not to open the door if an immigration agent is knocking, to remain silent, to ask for a judicial warrant and to have a hearing.
Ragsdale said the guide's main questions at the outset are: 'How can you avoid detention? And if you are detained, how can you organize your affairs so that you and your children are less vulnerable?'
One of many
Growing up in Chicago, Erick was involved in a gang at a young age but said he didn't commit the murder he was charged with in 1999 when he was 19.
He said police officers used coercion and manipulation against him when he was arrested about a year earlier.
'I remember being handcuffed to the wall at the police station,' he said. 'One officer would come punch me and slap me and put a knee on my neck against the wall.'
Because his family didn't have much legal knowledge, he pleaded guilty to a crime he said he did not commit because he thought it would cut down on his time in prison.
But Erick's attorney didn't advise him that by pleading guilty as a noncitizen he would be deported upon his release from prison — permanently separated from his family in Chicago, including his mother.
'It never crossed anybody's mind, not mine, not family members, anybody,' Erick said.
Though Erick had his green card, he found out later — when he was in prison in Joliet — that he would be deported. Green-card holders getting released from prison and sent to their home countries is standard deportation procedure, according to immigration attorneys. Erick's attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Due to a 2010 Supreme Court ruling, it is now required to inform noncitizens of the potential immigration consequences of entering a guilty plea.
In the early 2000s, while in prison, Erick said he turned his life around and detangled from the gang he had grown up with while living in Little Village. He took his General Educational Development test, got three associate degrees, and co-founded an English as a second language peer tutoring program. He started his bachelor of arts degree while incarcerated and completed it after he was deported.
Immediately after getting out of prison in 2013, Erick was briefly taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He was shackled in the back of a bus and shuttled between ICE detention centers in four different states before being sent to Mexico.
Starting over
It can be hard to deal with the logistics of getting a job and finding a place to live in a new country while processing the trauma of deportation, said Ragsdale. It was hard for Erick, she said.
'Having 15 years of your life stolen from you … those are key developmental years for someone,' she said. 'And then on top of it, you thought you would be able to go home to Chicago, to your family, to your friends, to your community, and instead, you're exiled from the only country you've ever known.'
'A New Path' speaks to what to know after being dropped off at the border and offers specific resources for reentry to Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. It outlines how people who have been deported can get important IDs and documents, and think about their job search.
Erick now processes his deportation experience through poetry:
'We climb on the buses / Like a field trip / But no zoo at the end / Another lifetime / Wrapped in chains / Closed windows / Grates.
'The burnt smell wafts from that dark / Wood? Rubber? / And then I see it— / That's Mexico. / Is that home?'
Cases like Erick's and others who seek out 'A New Path' raise fundamental and tough questions about the purpose of the criminal legal system, said Caitlin Patler, a sociologist whose research examines U.S. immigration and criminal laws.
'Why do only some people get a second chance (after serving time in prison), and why should that be based on where they were born?' she asked.
Pieces and people left behind
Erick and Ragsdale have lived in Mexico for 12 years now and have created a community for themselves. But they said it's challenging to find work that pays enough, and it's hard to feel close to family when you're so far away. Erick hasn't been able to visit his mother, Maria, in her Chicago apartment since he went to prison 26 years ago.
On a recent afternoon, Maria, whose name is being withheld by the Tribune for protection, sat in her house in Little Village and looked at photos of her son.
Large canvases of the sketches and paintings Erick created in prison were propped up against the pink walls around her. Though Maria has her citizenship and can visit Erick where he lives in Mexico, she said it's not the same. He can't help her as she gets old or watch his niece and nephew grow up.
With the paintings, at least, she said she 'always has something of his.'
Erick said that if he tried to reenter the U.S., he might lose his mom forever. Entering the U.S. illegally after deportation can result in fines or imprisonment for up to two years. Returning to the U.S. with a felony conviction can result in imprisonment for up to 20 years.
Healing and moving forward
One of the last sections of the guide touches on how to practice mindfulness and build connections in an unfamiliar environment. It maintains a note of positivity.
'How did deportation help you grow? How have you become a better person?' it asks.
Erick and his wife have started an animal rescue organization (Mexipets, a nonprofit in the U.S.). They focus on the friends they have in Mexico and their work. And they appreciate time with their family even more.
Ragsdale is researching and preparing a new guide to come out this summer, which will respond to Trump's immigration orders. But Erick, who was deported under former President Barack Obama, said deportations happen no matter who the president is. The system is the same, he said.
Growing up in Chicago, he said he remembers reading the Polish street names under the Spanish ones in Little Village.
'In many ways, immigration is not going to change,' he said.