{"id":1313167,"date":"2019-08-04T19:45:02","date_gmt":"2019-08-05T01:45:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/?p=985400"},"modified":"2019-08-05T08:51:49","modified_gmt":"2019-08-05T14:51:49","slug":"long-journey-back-home-granted-asylum-after-third-deportation-salomon-viera-steps-forward-to-share-his-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/long-journey-back-home-granted-asylum-after-third-deportation-salomon-viera-steps-forward-to-share-his-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Long journey back home: Granted asylum after third deportation, Salomon Viera steps forward to share his story"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>

Salomon ‘Gus’ Viera and his son Warren stand in Bethel Plaza beneath the Grand Avenue Bridge, on which Viera was one of the many construction workers two years ago..<\/strong>
\nChelsea Self \/ Post Independent<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The most incredible aspect of Salomon Viera\u2019s story \u2014 that he hiked or train-hopped the 2,600 miles from El Salvador to Colorado with a bullet imbedded in his sinus cavity \u2014 is exactly what convinced immigration courts to stay his imminent deportation this summer.<\/p>\n

Viera said he knows who shot him in the back and in the head when he was deported to El Salvador in 2005, but he doesn\u2019t want to say. He still worries about retribution.<\/p>\n

His friends know him better as \u201cGus,\u201d and other than trips to visit family in California, his three deportations to El Salvador, and the last eight months at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Aurora, the Roaring Fork\u00a0Valley has been his home for 30 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was born in El Salvador, but I grew up like any American kid. They brought me here as a child, so I had no recollection (of El Salvador),\u201d Viera said in an interview at his immigration attorney\u2019s office in Glenwood Springs.<\/p>\n

Viera said he understands his mistakes. He has entered the country without documentation after each of his three deportations. He has also battled methamphetamine addiction.<\/p>\n

He was arrested in September 2018 after a domestic violence conviction put him back on ICE\u2019s radar.<\/p>\n

But he owns up to his mistakes, and is relieved to finally be living legally in the country he calls home after an immigration court stayed his removal this summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m telling my story because I\u2019ve gone through a hardship when I was a young man,\u201d Viera said. \u201cAnd seeing this thing at the border, it\u2019s sad, it\u2019s depressing \u2026 not everyone who comes through the border is a criminal.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Salomon \u2018Gus\u2019 Viera stands in Bethel Plaza underneath the Grand Avenue Bridge.<\/strong>
\nChelsea Self \/ Post Independent<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\u201c\u2026 like any American kid\u201d<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Viera grew up in California, but after his mother died when he was a teenager, he was pretty much left on his own. His family considered putting him up for adoption.<\/p>\n

Viera knew a friend in Basalt who had offered him a place to stay, so he drove to Colorado in 1989 and camped for three weeks around Lake Christine, trying to get in contact with his friend.<\/p>\n

He eventually found his friend\u2019s uncle by hanging around the Frying Pan restaurant and bar during the day. The network in Basalt was strong, and he began building a life.<\/p>\n

But he never got over his mother\u2019s death and his difficult youth, and he turned to drugs. He said he also got into tattoos, which he admitted wouldn\u2019t help him in later years.<\/p>\n

The first time he found out he wasn\u2019t a U.S. citizen was when he was arrested in Nevada for drug possession in 1997. He was there to visit his mother\u2019s grave.<\/p>\n

Officers found \u201ca couple grams of meth\u201d in his backpack, he said. Clark County prosecutors filed charges July 16, 1997, according to court documents, and Viera sat in jail all that fall.<\/p>\n

The judge dismissed the possession and trafficking charges that December, but 15 days later, prosecutors charged him again with the same offenses, according to court documents.<\/p>\n

Viera remembers the judge being confused about seeing him back in the courtroom.<\/p>\n

Court records show Viera pleaded guilty to felony possession, with the trafficking charge dropped. He was given time served and released in April 1998.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s when the federal Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), the precursor to ICE, picked him up.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn April 1998, a federal immigration judge ordered (Viera) removed to his country of origin; he was removed in June 1998,\u201d according to a statement from ICE.<\/p>\n

Long way from home<\/h4>\n

Viera is vague about what he did in El Salvador each of the three times he was deported.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I got to El Salvador, it was hard because I couldn\u2019t get along with anybody,\u201d he said. He didn\u2019t speak the language well (he spoke Mexican Spanish and \u2018Spanglish,\u2019 a combination of Spanish and English). He also dressed differently and acted differently.<\/p>\n

He tried to work, but got harassed by police. So, he decided to try to get back to Colorado.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat first time, I train hopped all the way back. It took me three months to get to the border, across Mexico,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

INS encountered Viera again in Denver in July 2001, \u201cafter Viera illegally re-entered the United States,\u201d according to ICE. He was again removed that December.<\/p>\n

He again made it back to the states, got picked up by ICE in Grand Junction on a marijuana charge, and was deported to El Salvador for a third time in January 2005.<\/p>\n

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A bullet fragment was removed from Viera\u2019s sinus cavity when he came back to Glenwood Springs.<\/strong>
\nProvided<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Bullet in his head<\/h4>\n

The third time he made the trek across Mexico, he had a bullet in his skull after being shot twice in the back while in El Salvador. The other bullet exited his body near his neck.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had made my peace with God,\u201d Viera said. He said his only thought was that he had to get home.<\/p>\n

Viera says he was walking through the jungle of southern Mexico when a soldier put a gun to his head and told him to freeze.<\/p>\n

The soldier told him to sing the national anthem of his country, but Viera could only remember the pledge of allegiance. So he recited it, and the soldier said he didn\u2019t belong there.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe took out 50 pesos out of his pocket, and said, \u2018walk that way about half a mile and get on a bus,\u2019\u201d Viera recalls.<\/p>\n

He train hopped, hitchhiked, and eventually made it back to Glenwood Springs, where a doctor removed the largest bullet fragment from the base of his skull.<\/p>\n

Viera has pictures of the x-rays showing the bullet fragment before surgery, and the fragment once it was removed in Glenwood Springs.<\/p>\n

Deepening his roots<\/h4>\n

After that, he tried to keep a low profile. He started dating Angie Waters in 2009, and they had a son, Warren, in 2012.<\/p>\n

He got a job with Pioneer Steel, and helped set the beams for the new Grand Avenue Bridge.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was there setting the first piece of steel, and I was there putting the last bolt on that bridge,\u201d Viera said.<\/p>\n

Viera\u2019s relationship with Waters was not healthy, he said, and she called the police on him, after they had broken up, in October 2017.<\/p>\n

The allegations in the affidavit for his arrest are troubling. He was charged with felony assault and menacing, and took a plea deal for misdemeanor assault. He was sentenced to time served (three days in jail) and one year of probation in April 2018.<\/p>\n

He finished the work on the Grand Avenue Bridge, then moved to a new project in Snowmass.<\/p>\n

ICE took notice of his guilty plea, and arrested him as he was going to work in September 2018, as part of a targeted immigration enforcement operation.<\/p>\n

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Salomon Viera at work on the Grand Avenue Bridge project in 2017.<\/strong>
\nProvided<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cCan\u2019t thank her enough\u201d<\/strong><\/h4>\n

It was Viera\u2019s ex wife, Waters, who found Glenwood Springs immigration attorney Lucy Laffoon and convinced her, lat last fall, to take the case. It had barely been a year after the violent fight that put Viera in jail, and later, into ICE custody.<\/p>\n

Laffoon was moved by Waters\u2019 story and took the case, but was skeptical that anything could be done.<\/p>\n

Viera was not eligible for asylum, since he had been deported three times. What\u2019s worse, he had a criminal record.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the face of the matter, my advice was that we should prepare for the imminent deportation of Gus,\u201d Laffoon said.<\/p>\n

They discussed the possibilities of arranging his travel to Canada or elsewhere in South America if he was deported.<\/p>\n

All his siblings, who are significantly older (one of his sisters is nearly 80 years old), are U.S. citizens. Laffoon contacted them, advising they say goodbye to Viera.<\/p>\n

\u201cGus knew that this deportation meant the end of his life. It was almost like making funeral arrangements,\u201d Laffoon said.<\/p>\n

There was one option beyond asylum to stay the removal order, but the standards were even higher.<\/p>\n

The U.N. Convention Against Torture, as implemented by the U.S., allows for a stay of removal if the subject faces imminent death or harm upon return to his or her deportation.<\/p>\n

But the threat of death or harm must be either at the hands of public officials, or with the knowledge and \u201cacquiescence\u201d of public officials.<\/p>\n

For example, a Ghanaian immigrant was granted asylum under the Convention due to her fear of female genital mutilation. But in 2003, the asylum was reversed: \u201cAlthough the practice was widespread, the (Ghanaian) government had not acquiesced to the practice because it had been made illegal and public officials had condemned the practice,\u201d according to the Congressional Research Service\u2019s summary of the final order.<\/p>\n

Making the case<\/h4>\n

It was a long shot, Laffoon told Viera. But he wanted to take it.<\/p>\n

\u201cA slight chance, when you\u2019re sitting \u2018in death row,\u2019 is a lot of hope,\u201d Viera said.<\/p>\n

Laffoon describes the strategy as her \u201cbiggest Hail Mary ever.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not one to believe, but I did go to a Catholic law school, so I\u2019m supposed to be a Catholic lawyer,\u201d Laffoon quipped.<\/p>\n

She and Viera went into the hearing \u201cwith fists up,\u201d and a number of people showed up to support him. She describes the judge as tough, but just.<\/p>\n

Waters had assembled her own family members, Gus\u2019 friends and coworkers. They wrote letters attesting to his character and importance to the community.<\/p>\n

Within minutes of the hearing, the judge dismissed those things as irrelevant to the case.<\/p>\n

Instead, they laid out all the facts of his deportations, his medical records, as well as his criminal convictions, and put it in the judge\u2019s hands.<\/p>\n

Imminent danger<\/h4>\n

One thing they could not deny was that Viera was shot in El Salvador. Viera also took the stand himself, and Laffoon believes his credible testimony went a long way in the case.<\/p>\n

\u201cI cannot tell you specifically what made us win the case,\u201d she said. \u201cI walked out of there with a very heavy heart.\u201d<\/p>\n

About a month later, she received word that his removal was stayed, and the government would not be appealing the decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cI opened it up, and just fell to my knees and prayed,\u201d Laffoon said.<\/p>\n

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Salomon with his son, Warren, at his immigration lawyer\u2019s office in Glenwood Springs.<\/strong>
\nThomas Phippen \/ Post Independent<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Viera was released under supervision on June 10. Waters drove to Denver to pick him up.<\/p>\n

Every six months, Viera has to check in with immigration officials. Otherwise, the conditions of his residency in the U.S. are light.<\/p>\n

He is still friends with Waters, and because of Warren, will be friends forever, \u201cwhether we like it or not,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t thank her enough,\u201d Viera said.<\/p>\n

tphippen@postindependent.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Salomon ‘Gus’ Viera and his son Warren stand in Bethel Plaza beneath the Grand Avenue Bridge, on which Viera was one of the many construction workers two years ago.. Chelsea Self \/ Post Independent The most incredible aspect of Salomon Viera\u2019s story \u2014 that he hiked or train-hopped the 2,600 miles from El Salvador to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1313167","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-21 18:38:13","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1313167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1313167"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1313167\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1313181,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1313167\/revisions\/1313181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1313167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1313167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1313167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}