There are three families with children seeking asylum in the U.S. who are living in rugged conditions without running water or sewer services at an improvised trailer park on Hardwood Street in Bellevue.
Property owner Jose Martinez is facing an investigation into possible criminal charges for allowing them to live there without a permit. He is hoping to get the trailers permitted and hooked up to city services, an idea city leaders were pursuing somewhere in the city earlier this year. Either way, though, he said he has no intention of kicking the families out without an alternative.
“If the city doesn’t have land to do this, I do,” said Martinez, an employee of Sun Valley Resort. “All I am trying to do is help people have a place to live. I am not throwing them out with no place to go.”
Gabriel, 28, from Huancayo, Peru, landed in Mexicali and turned herself into U.S. authorities in September. She said she is seeking asylum from domestic violence and a wave of kidnappings and fled for her life and the life of her 11-year-old son. She spoke through an interpreter.
“It is like a Hollywood dream being here, and so much better than Peru,” said Gabriel, a trained hairstylist and nail technician who cooks meals for the others in the trailer park in exchange for a few dollars, when cash is available.
“All I want to do is work,” she said.
Gabriel’s case is one of many that are being processed in Blaine County as a internationally recognized human right. But there is no guarantee that she will be allowed to stay, and, like all asylum seekers, she must wait 150 days after submitting her asylum application before apply for a work permit.
But Gabriel has been told that she could be waiting for up to two years for asylum approval. She said she spoke with the Mountain Express under fear that she might be deported.
The same goes for Elmer, 30, and Joe, 26, also from Peru and living on Martinez’ property. They said they are fleeing violence and what Martinez described as “terrorism” in Peru.
“It’s really messed up down there,” Martinez said. “These people have dreams. This is a temporary situation.”
Martinez, who came to the U.S. 25 years ago, is a citizen and U.S. military veteran. He said everyone at the trailer park is a registered asylum seeker, each with a cell phone with a tracking device given to them by U.S. authorities while they await a court date.
Hundreds of Peruvians arrived in the Wood River Valley last summer, flooding The Hunger Coalition and other nonprofits while seeking jobs and housing. Many of their children have been placed in local schools.
Becky Lopez is Executive Director of the Alliance of Idaho, a Bellevue-based nonprofit that works to protect the rights of immigrants and their families. She said the organization has 20 cases, some of them families with children, seeking asylum through the Alliance. She said many more asylum seekers are working with other groups in the area.
Lopez said the Alliance’s first client to have a hearing will be before the court in January.
“Getting asylum is not easy. It depends on the judge,” Lopez said.
The Alliance charges $4,500 for a family for an asylum application, payable within one year.
Martinez recently came under scrutiny by the city of Bellevue after a neighbor complained about an “trailer park” that had allegedly been operating for months or years, using city services illegally.
Martinez said all the people on his property are getting water in buckets from his house and using electricity from extension cords that have driven his electrical bills to $1,200 per month, some if which they pitch in for when they can. The property has two outdoor porta-potties. Martinez said he also shares the three bathrooms in his house and charges nothing for people to stay on his property.
“Some people are also cleaning up at the rest area bathrooms [on Highway 20],” he said.
Numerous people are living in trailers throughout the city. City Council Chair Doug Brown estimated at a recent city council meeting that 150 trailers are illegally being used beyond the 21-day limit established in city code.
The Bellevue City Council instructed city consultant Troy Butzlaff in November to research a permitting process to allow trailers to be used year-round, and to explore the possibility of developing a trailer park on city property. Brown said in an interview Monday that he does not know if any progress has been made on the permitting process.
Mayor Kathryn Goldman said the city has no comment while the case of whether there is an illegal trailer park operating at the property is under investigation.
Martinez said he intends to help the people living on his property in any way he can. He said he sympathizes with them because he remembers how hard it was for him to get started 25 years ago and eventually own property of his own.
“God gives gifts to everyone. Mine is to help these people,” he said, looking back at the trailers beside his house. “Is leaving my property empty and abandoned better than this? That is the question.” 
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Really heartbreaking that people travel for months and even years just to find out how tough it can really be to survive in the US without government assistance. At what point does the government care more about the immigrants than natural citizens? Or has that time arrived? When you advertise yourself as a “Welcoming City or County” don’t be surprised if you need to “welcome” a lot of immigrants. The WRV has many rundown properties that are housing overcrowded conditions for immigrants. Sanitation should be everyone’s concern. Perhaps the elected officials that put forth the WC idea should open up their homes to overcrowded conditions.
Reagan's 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act.
“ … yet was largely considered unsuccessful because the strict sanctions on employers were stripped out of the bill for passage.”
Wonder which side didn’t want sanctions for employers?
https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128303672
McCarthy has said he won’t bring any bill about fixing immigration to the floor - only willing to look at border issues.
This is an important local issue that need to be addressed. But is this the time of year to resolve it? By Spring these folks may have improved their situation or at least have better options.
“Empathy” will eventually burn America down. At the end of his term, Biden (and his supporters) will have let around 8 million people come here illegally. “Looking for a better life” lacks the admission that there is a huge draw here from gov’t assistance. Cut to the chase. How many are enough ? Another 10 million ? Another 20, 30 or 40 ! Your children and grand children are going to find out because no one from either party will do anything.
What would Jesus do.... especially around Christmas time?? But make sure you all are running to church on Sundays....
As this is a situation of "breaking" the law he would say, "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s; and to God the things that are God’s” We, to be trite, are a country of laws from those that require one entering the country legally to paying taxes on every penny that we earn and to stoping at a stop sign. Then there are the laws of compassion like paying a fair wage in line with the effort expended and cost of living, Otherwise, we will fall in anarchy like that of Peru. Look people; you cannot run away from the problems rearing their ugly heads in this country by sitting behind the walls of your gated community or moving to the once laid-back Wood River Valley. The problems will follow and have followed you. Further, those coming to our country from perceived persecution have an obligation as our forefathers did to fight against that tyrany and not run from it leaving others to fight and die for change.
Wes. Why not declare war on the Cartels? Billions going to a corrupt Ukraine government....
New article title: “Local Man breaks numerous laws harboring illegal immigrants and swears he’ll keep breaking the law.” Dear Tony, you might need a blood transfusion considering how much your heart appears to be bleeding writing this article.
They are not “illegal”
This article is so one sided and just propagating this whole idea of struggling asylum-seeking hard-working immigrants and the city is evil for enforcing its ordinances. Is it fair and right to adjacent property owners dealing with an illegal trailer park. Is it right to allow a private citizen to let families live in substandard conditions without proper utilities? The city ordinances are there to protect public health and safety. Mr. Martinez says his electric bill is $1200 a month. What about the increased fire risk to this neighborhood with unregulated unpermitted extension cords to support these trailers. Four families are now occupying this lot and paying $33.70 a month for water the same rate as every other single-family home. That is $100 per month they are stealing from the city. Mr. Martinez wants to get the trailers permitted and connected to city utilities. It is $2750 for a water connection and $3330 for a sewer connection. Around $18,250 to connect the current three trailers to the city utilities. Who is paying that? Does the city just eat it and the rest of the rate payers absorb the cost? Tony probably could have gotten a picture or edited it with out Mr. Martinez fly open as well.
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