Do
You Know Where You Stand?
She is a foreigner living in a foreign country. One day,
she was returning some clothes to a store but she didn’t have the receipt with
her. Soon, she found herself in court facing charges of shoplifting. Wanting a
quick end to this unpleasant situation, she pleaded guilty and was fined. Years
later, she faces deportation for reasons based on her past mistake.
Oh, just another sad isolated case in life, or which
insolent government in somewhere in the world is this? The unfortunate news is,
its neither isolated nor some other place in the world but the Good Ol’ US
of A. Ah! But deportations happen constantly. Some of them deserve it and maybe
this woman has other committed other offenses not reported that built a good
reason for her deportation. But is that altogether true?
Consider this other case. A geologist living and working
legally in the U.S. and by all accounts is a responsible man in society. One
weekend, after a family trip to the mall, he and his American wife got into one
of those family tiffs. While reaching over the car to get something, he
accidentally hurt his wife. In an already highly charged situation, she assumed
he had done so deliberately and ran out of the car accusing him of it. A police
officer soon comes by and asked if she would like to press charges. She says no
but the officer goes ahead to do so anyway. The rest of the story is a long
series of miscommunications coupled with bad legal advice. Now he's in detention
and awaits deportation because of such charges.
How can this be? This can’t be true and there are laws
protecting legal residents. True, there are laws but they will surprise you.
All this comes about with the advent of a few laws passed in 1996.
The Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act. This
law is supposed to fight (naturally) terrorism but unfortunately it gives room
for an unfair blow to someone who has been here as a legal resident for say 30
years, paid taxes, observed the law to be arrested, detained and deported for
drug possession charges he had oh maybe 29 years ago. On top of that, this law has a provision that denies the accused of judicial review.
And then there is the more famous Illegal Immigration
Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRIRA) where people like in
the two cases mentioned fall. This law allows the INS to deport legal residents
regardless of length of residency for minor crimes. It also restricts federal
courts from review the case.
So, where does this leave us? We who have foreign-born
spouses (or family), we brought into the country? We who enter the country
believing to be giving the best in life for our family and education for the
children? We who enter the country simply to be united to the one love of our
life and build a family?
We cannot overturn this immediately, neither should we be
constantly fearing it. But, we can learn more about it and be informed. In some
web sites, you are can also take action. These are some good sites to learn more
about this, read about real stories and arm yourselves with information:
The
American Civil Liberties Union at www.aclu.org/features/fix96.html
Citizens and
Immigrants for Equal Justice at www.ciej.org
Civil Rights.org at www.civilrights.org/crlibrary/issues/immigration_reform.
On the other hand, here is a link in support of this law by those, who are in
favor of halting all immigration; The Federation for American Immigration Reform
(FAIR) at www.fairus.org/html/03205707.htm.
Granted, this law is supposed to protect the nation’s
societal equilibrium, control illegal immigration and the rights of citizens.
There is nothing wrong with that, but how it is done is something else. And when there is such an across the
board effect, unsuspecting individuals who try to live by the rules, often lose
out. The worst thing for us is, to ignore it and naively think that if we stick
by every law there is and be ‘good’, we will be fine. That unfortunately was
what some people thought too until they found themselves about to lose their
family (who are American citizens) and for some, the only life they ever knew. There are so many laws in this country
that many citizens themselves do not know about let alone legal permanent
residents. Again, this isn’t to say you should live in constant worry, but
stay informed, voice out when given the opportunity, get a good lawyer and
don’t say anything without them around.
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