6 months & counting

Today marks 6 months since Jose was arrested.  Since then so many things have happened.   Weeks after Jose was taken by ICE Governor Quinn backed out of S-Comm and recently the Cook County Sheriff also backed away from the horrible program that does little to keep communities safe.  Both decisions were too late for Jose but will, thankfully, stop other families from being separated.

As I mentioned in my previous post I sent a request to the ICE director here to get permission to marry Jose.  I hope this time it moves much faster.  I'm looking forward to being able to be in my Gordos arms even if just for a moment.  Sadly this will be a treat we will not be able to share with Cairo since he is not "needed" for the ceremony.  I'm going to try and argue him in but we'll see.  I've sent a letter to States Attorney Alvarez in hopes she will help us some how with Jose's old case.  I've decided to send that letter to Senator Durbin and the Governor.  As my friend said "what's the worse that can happen?". She's right the worst part is already here, Jose is gone and may never be able to come back.

Cairo and I are both in therapy now.  I've only been going for a couple of weeks so far.  Cairo has been going for about two months now.  He's become much more vocal about his feelings.  He's made very strong statements about how he's interpreting what is going on.  It's a good thing though because he's letting it out rather than keeping it all in.  It's just very heart breaking.

I've made an effort to be home on the weekends rather than spend the entire weekend at my parents house.  I've actually enjoyed it.  We get to accomplish alot more things at home and I noticed I'm less on edge.  I love my family but sometimes some of them are not very supportive.  Plus I already see some of them 5 times a week, that's more than enough.


I'm also looking for a second job.  Between our super basic needs, life and all the attorney fees I'm facing one of several things can happen.  The worse is that I will be out thousands of dollars and no attorneys to finish either of Jose's cases.  I'm getting really frustrated.  You'd think with the holidays coming up there would be a lot of seasonal hiring.  I feel like such a jerk.  So many people are currently unemployed and I'm over here hoping to get a second job.  I just hope I can get a second job before time and the little money I have left runs out.

I'm running out of attorneys

So remember I had mentioned Mr. L would be taking over for Mr. B?  He originally said he would take care of Joses old case for $2,000 then charge $1,500 to take care of the lingering charge against him.  I said ok and gave him $1,000, of loaned money, to get him started.  He went into court on Monday and we were denied our request. We started on plan B which is to file a motion to reconsider the judges denial.  I spoke to him about this and he tells me that it will cost another $1000 to do this motion to reconsider.  In my mind this whole thing, going to court on Monday, filing the reconsider stuff, all falls under trying to vacate the case....right?  Well NO, these are all little steps that lead up to getting the case vacated and he wants 1K for ever step.  When we talked about this I told him I don't have a lot of money and that I need for him to work with me to take care of this (I mean I can pay him but not a grand at a time!!) , he says he has other clients and is not going to work on a case if he's not going to get paid and would rather spend time with his family.  I was stunned.

I am pissed and I am scared.  I am doing this all on my own and I feel like I am in a losing battle.   It is no wonder that people with money can do what they want, they can afford to hire attorneys who do what ever they want as long as they get paid and it's the people like Jose and myself who get screwed because although we are humble and no threat to anyone we have no money to freely give to attorneys and so we are S.O.L.  I don't know what to do.  I've already spent $1,000 on this guy but he's not interested in helping me or Jose, he doesn't believe in our case, his heart is not in it and he's going to nickel and dime all the way to the poor house.

What do I do NOW?