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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
Ironclad
Published Letters: 68 Editor's Choice: 19
Let's see here - we have a sob story about a "poor innocent" family locked up by the mean ole Feds. But wait; they are here illegally - on a tourist visa! And it is ALL their rotten immigration lawyer's fault too - certainly THEY never had any part in this situation.
So, let ME understand how a family comes and takes up residence in the USA on a Tourist Visa, starts a business and sets up a life, and expects that everything is just fine? How DO you pay federal taxes without a Social Security or Alien Registration number? How do you set up a business without proof of residence or send your kids to school? The answer is that the laws are not enforced and in most cases blinded to insure that one agency does not "snitch" to the Immigration Service.
Again - after 9/11, what should have been the response by the government? I guess it was a response to those Sweedish highjackers that prompted the "pogram" on illegal (read criminal) aliens from Arab countries that were here on invalid or expired visas. When the government did act - how many citizens were detained inside the USA? (except Padilla?) Or does this whole story collapse because the incarcerated here are all "victims" of the INS regulations.
I have bad news for these people - since I have lived an expatriate lifestyle, I can assure you that the first thing you do is make sure your papers are clean, when you live in a foreign place. Why? Because most places are a lot less sympathetic than the INS. You get booted, if caught.
My question after reading this story is this? - Why were these people not expelled? Ethnic grocery stores are great I know, but explain to me why this is suddenly a critical job skill needed for immigrants, especially when people waiting LEGALLY for a chance to immigrate have much better skills. Sorry too - crash landing a plane in a rainstorm is not my idea of justification for asylum either. I thought that was for people that deserved it.
I can read quite well - especially the part where it mentions that the family was staying in the USA on a tourist visa - I missed the part where that document was converted into refugee status. You see, the story dances around the critical issue of their residence status - had they really applied for asylum? Had they been granted interviews for their case? Had their "tourist visa" been extended for 12 years? Or was this all the fault of their "bad immigration lawyer"?
Intention is not action - and desires do not necessarily change the facts that the legal procedures are not followed. The FBI went after the family because their residency status was invalid. If the father was fleeing for political asylum reasons, it is strange that he did not do so from the moment he entered the USA - the dialog is unclear, but one must surmise that the father fled and then brought his family to the USA.
My point is this - if the father made a declaration for political asylum the minute he set foot in the USA, and then brought his family - I would have more sympathy. But this is clearly not what happened here. And this is where I have the problem with the whole story - that the family entered on one basis and then set up shop on the assumption that they could stay. They did not have permanent residency, they did not have a business visa - they just came in and stayed. And when 9-11 hit and the government got serious for a second about illegals - they got picked up. Not because they were Muslim or Arab, but because they were illegally residing in the USA. True?
And I still want to know how you file taxes to the federal government if you do not have a Social Security or an Alien Registration number.
Was the government heavy handed - certainly! I never said I agreed with that action. - but stick to the facts and avoid the weepy part - and tell me why they were fingered? - was it because they played the system and tried to slip through the cracks? Seems like it to me.
Lynx -
Civil discourse in debate is welcomed. Personal attacks are not appreciated. (And I have not been thrown out of my foreign residences because I do make sure my papers are in order, I assure you. In those places, you go straight to jail without many questions - so you learn to appreciate a bit of respect for the systems, even if you do not like them.)
We may disagree over the story and the conclusions, but I welcome the debate - especially where the presented facts are, shall we say, glossed over about certain critical details.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Once seen as a lunatic fringe, reactionary anti-women groups are courting respectability
Salon headlines in your mailbox
