Neil Knight Private Dick

Estúpido Mojado

Today Orange County has an estimated 13,000 documented gang members, with the greatest numbers located in Santa Ana and Anaheim. That may sound like a lot, but it's actually a reduction from the mid-1990s, when the county was home to somewhere in the area of 19,000 gang members.

It's generally believed that gangs emerge from communities affected by poverty, lack of opportunities, institutionalized racism, limited school resources, overextended parents and inadequate supervision. But even with that as a backdrop, most young men in disadvantaged neighborhoods don't join gangs.

Still, about two out of ten may, which was the case for Frankie Hopeless.

Frankie was born Angel Secundino, to Inocente Javier Secundino who emigrated to the U.S. in 1982 looking for a better future for himself and his wife. He hadn't planned on becoming part of the underground economy, but working and survival go in his way and he had forgotten to show up for his asylum hearing. His case was automatically referred to immigration court where he was summarily placed in removal proceedings and scheduled to appear in front of an immigration judge.

Before March of 2003, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) was called the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). For a brief time it was also known as the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services (BCIS). No matter the name, it has always had the legal authority to decide issues of either granting asylum or removal of petitioners from the United States.

For an application for asylum, in response to removal proceedings, to be accepted and processed, the application must be filed in the immigration court during the removal proceedings, which is what Inocente's lawyer, Hwan Lee Lee, a naturalized citizen himself, working pro bono, did in his case.

A hearing was scheduled for the INS judge to hear evidence in support of, and against, his application for asylum.

At the hearing Attorney Lee Lee presented a passionate appeal for the consideration of Mr. Secundino, with a court appointed interpreter providing translation for the defendant so he could fully understand what was happening.

The attorney for the government, William Buckwald "Buck" Jones peppered the defendant with questions, at times not waiting for the translator to complete their task, before pushing Inocente for a response, which did nothing to endear himself to INS Judge Harriet Periwinkle of Dublin, California.

As Buck concluded his line of questioning, he turned from the defendant and muttered under his breath, loudly enough for Inocente to hear, "Estúpido mojado." A smirk gracing his lips.

Now Dublin, formerly, Amador and Dougherty's Station, is a suburban city of the East San Francisco Bay and Tri-Valley regions of Alameda County, California. It was named after the city of Dublin, Ireland, and beyond being the second fastest-growing city in the state of California, it is also one of the most liberal counties in the state.

For this Attorney Hwan Lee Lee and his pro bono client Inocente Javier Secundino would be forever thankful.

"Please stand Mr. Secundino" said Judge Periwinkle. "I'm ruling in your favor for your request for asylum, based on the information you have presented here in my courtroom as well as the fact that the government's lawyer is, in his mannerisms and exhortations, a "horse's ass".

"I'd like to protest your description of my actions as well as your assessment of myself" chortled Buck.

"I'm sure you would, but I'm equally sure you'd screw that up as well. Te deseo la mejor de las suerte Mr. Secundino. Next case."

Buck was stunned.

The white woman from Dublin spoke Spanish. She'd heard him call Secundino a "stupid wetback". He felt his testicles draw closer to his body.

Within a year Inocente applied for permanent residency, which was granted for both him and his wife, who had joined him from their home in Guerrero, Mexico.

Initially he found work in restaurants as a dishwasher and cook, but within a few years secured a construction job while Dolores Secundino worked in hotel housekeeping in Laguna Beach. In 1992, after years of saving they bought a house in Santa Ana, about a mile from the civic center, fulfilling a shared dream.

In 1998 the couple welcomed a baby boy, Angel Miguel Secundino, 10 pounds 14 ounces, into the world. The couple worked diligently at their professions, latino neighbors providing daycare as "backup parents" so they could continue their pursuit of the "American Dream". Soon other siblings arrived, and as he grew older Angel was pressed into service to watch and care for them as the family expanded, while Inocente and Dolores worked longer hours, sometimes double shifts, to provide for them.

The rest of the story one could most likely guess. Angel being a "large boy" from the beginning was an outcast at school among the children at the Saint Joseph Catholic School located at 608 Civic Center Drive East in Santa Ana.

Mass, delivered in Spanish on Sunday mornings at Saint Joseph Catholic Church on Minter Street, helped to add some semblance of normalcy to his life, but upon graduation from Saint Joe's, it only served children up through the eighth grade, Angel's moral rudder was displaced and he began to drift.

After entering Century High School in Santa Ana, Angel started skipping class, staying out late, close cropping his hair, and dressing in baggy clothes. Inocente and Dolores tried to impose discipline, kicking unwelcome acquaintances out of the house, throwing away the baggy clothes he borrowed from friends, and speaking with the parish priest.

But it was too little, too late.

One summer Sunday afternoon Angel rushed home, entered the house and exited with a gun flashing in his hand as he raced across the street to a waiting car, the windows tinted.

Dolores called out his name. It was the last time she saw her son, and the first time he began to answer to his new name Frankie Hopeless.