LAWRENCEVILLE - His mother left when he was very young. His illegal immigrant father was deported.
Now, a 13-year-old boy waits for a Georgia court to decide his fate. Among the court's options are keeping the boy in the only country he's ever known, living as a ward of the state, or sending him to his father in Guatemala.
It's a tangled case that defies easy solutions. The boy is a U.S. citizen who has never set foot in Guatemala and says he wants to stay in his native country. His father, a bus driver without regular work, says he would gladly take his child though he agrees the boy would be better off in the U.S.
But the boy has a history of being rebellious and stubborn and has behavioral problems, which make him hard to place with a foster family.
Beatriz Illescas Putzeys, Guatemala's consul general in Atlanta, said that while she usually argues for family reunification, in this case she is prepared to argue that the boy should stay here because he is a U.S. citizen and would have access to better education and counseling.
``It is highly unusual, totally unusual,'' Illescas Putzeys said. ``What I have been dealing with most of the time is trying to get children sent back to Guatemala to their families.''
The boy was born in Los Angeles in December 1995 to illegal immigrants a father from Guatemala and a mother from El Salvador. His mother later abandoned the family and her whereabouts are unknown, according to Rebeca Salmon, a lawyer hired by the boy's court-appointed guardian. The boy's father, Edgar Ovidio Juares, 40, was arrested in June 2007 and deported to Guatemala last year, he told a lawyer in Guatemala.
In a recent phone interview with The Associated Press in a mix of Spanish and English, Juares was conflicted about his son's fate. He said he wanted to have his son in Guatemala with him but acknowledged the boy's quality of life would be better in the U.S.
``I don't want to lose contact with my son,'' he said. ``I want him here, but here it is hard to help him with the problems he has because we don't have much money.
``He said to me he doesn't want to come here,'' Juares said of his son.
Salmon asked the AP not to identify the boy to protect his privacy. The case is being handled in Gwinnett County Juvenile Court, and juvenile cases are sealed to protect the child.
Salmon said she was hired by the boy's court-appointed guardian who believes the state intends to ask the court to sent the boy to his father in Guatemala, which she does not believe is in the boy's best interest. The AP, seeking to hear the discussion about what is in the child's best interest, has filed a motion seeking to open the court proceedings to the media.
The boy has been in foster care since his father's arrest and has been moved from one home to another, nine in all, over about two years, Salmon said. He has had various run-ins with the law and needs counseling, she said. He now lives in a group home, but Salmon said she is seeking therapeutic placement for him. Therapeutic foster care generally involves placement in a group home or with a family that is specifically trained to handle special needs.
``Instead of solving the problems he has, he's just been shuffled from one place to another, and now they're out of places and they are trying to send him to a foreign country,'' Salmon said.
The state's Department of Human Resources, which oversees the Division of Family and Children Services, contacted Guatemalan officials earlier this year asking for a home evaluation for the family in Guatemala. An agency spokeswoman, Dena Smith, declined to comment on the state's plans for the boy, but said the agency's priorities for every child are safety and permanency.
``Legally, we cannot talk about any open case of any child,'' Smith said. ``Case plans are individualized and are based on the needs of the individual child.''
The boy's older brother, who is 16, lives with relatives in the U.S. But they have other children and are unable to care for the boy because of his behavioral problems.
A Guatemalan official wrote a letter to the Georgia child welfare division in July 2008 stating that the boy's aunt in Guatemala said he would be better off in the U.S. because of his ``psychological and behavioral problems.''
In February, Georgia officials sent an e-mail to Illescas Putzeys asking for an assessment of the father's home, including interviews with family members.
A translation of the report provided to the AP says Juares lives with his father, the boy's paternal grandfather, that both are interested in having custody of the child, and it appears they can care for and protect him. But it also recommends the child's rights as a U.S. citizen, including a better quality of life, be taken into account.
The report indicates Juares lives with his father, the boy's paternal grandfather, who is 67 and that the boy's grandfather earns $555-$616 a month farming his land and operating corn mills. Juares earns about $18 a day as a bus driver but doesn't have regular work, the report says. They live in a rural area with access to ``basic public utilities such as water, electricity, elementary and basic education.''
Several family law attorneys consulted by the AP said that while some of the specifics in this case are unusual and the international aspect makes it seem more complicated, it is essentially a child custody case. As such, they said, the main responsibility of everyone involved the courts, the court-appointed guardian and the state is to find the solution that is in the child's best interest.
A hearing scheduled for earlier was postponed and has been rescheduled for July 20.
Illescas Putzeys said she was prepared to argue at scheduled hearing that the child not be sent to Guatemala to be cared for by his father.
Illescas Putzeys said she spoke with Juares before the scheduled hearing date. Since her role as a consular official requires her to argue for the rights of Guatemalan citizens, she said, she felt it was important to make sure Juares didn't object to her arguing that the boy should stay here.
``He says that he would like to be able to take care of him but he realizes he cannot,'' she said.
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