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Immigration Reform - Do you know what it's like to be deported?

I hope the law enforcement will be wise enough not to just arbitrarily question someone who's not white. However, if you live in AZ and crime is up, you would want to get something done to enforce the law.


I for one agree there's got to be Immigration Reform BUT should not only favor one race. People say to go in line. But what if there is no other legal option to get an entry to this country? It shouldn’t take 20 years for a sibling to petition a brother or sister while other countries’ take shorter amount of time.

Having family members deported after living here for 20 years (on-and-out of status) and after incompetent lawyers screwed up any chances of legal status, and US Embassies “teasing” us of hope of re-entry only to be denied once and twice, I sometimes wonder if there’ll ever be a comprehensive Immigration Reform.

The experience of being detained for 30 days, the experience of being removed from a country you grew up in for the past 20 years, the experience of not being able to touch or hug or say good-bye to your loved ones, the experience of freedom being taken away from you, the experience of being chained and hand-cuffed, the experience of having ICE officers pointing a gun to your crying 8yo son at 2am in your own home, the experience of losing a loved one – broken marriages and being separated from your child(ren), the experience of hope being snatched from your being – those experiences I don’t want any one to experience. (But that’s what my 3 young brothers experienced when they were picked-up and detained!)

If the US enforced the laws, maybe none of this would have happened! If the immigration lawyers did their jobs well and  conscientiously, none of this would have happened.Why allow anyone to live here for twenty years and only for that lifestyle and community to be taken away? If the immigration lawyers did their jobs well and conscientiously, none of this would have happened. If we weren’t trusting, hopeful and ignorant, none of this would have happened! If we were lucky like the others (esp those who applied in CA or those close to the border) who were able to skirt the law and got into the first Amnesty Bill, then none of this would have happened! But we were the "unlucky" ones! We didn't want to hide, we wanted to have legal status and yet...we were kicked out and doors were slammed!

The President in one of his many speeches this week commented that AZ illegal alien law is “poorly conceived” . He also said that said that illegals shouldn’t be harrassed with requests for papers, but rather the US should “make them register, make them pay a fine, make them learn English.

My family did just that! We hired lawyers, spent tens and thousands of dollars of our hard earned income, paid taxes, didn’t ask for welfare, speak and write English, paid numerous lawyers to renew expired visas, and yet, 6 out of 8 of my family members were deported! And recently, one of my brothers filed a waiver to re-apply but denied by the US because the US didn’t think there’s any extreme hardship for a father to be separated from his 2 young US-born children and US citizen wife. What is extreme hardship?

I am for Immigration Reform and enforcing the laws and I hope and pray that the legislators are not in it just to collect votes or appease one group of registered voters.

Comments

  1. My heart goes out to your family. I think the migration laws of this country need to be rewritten from the ground up! This is horrible. We are a country of immigrants, yet many forget that. My great-grandfather came to this country from Germany. My husbands, from Switzerland. My Best Friends husband was from Poland and the hoops she had to jump through was CRAZY. They even questioned her marriage at one point because they didn't have any children. I also think that asking people to carry documentation is a scary, scary slope we are sliding on.

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  2. I feel so sad for your family. Hugs to you, my friend. I missed you.

    God Bless.

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  3. Just dropping by to wish you a great day and may God bless you. Ingat ka rin! :)

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  4. That must be SO, SO frustrating!! Could you write a letter to your congressman or something?

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  5. That is devastating to read about your brother. I 100% agree with this new law in AZ. It's outrageous!!

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  6. Praying you find a solution for your family situation.

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  7. Jen...

    Let me say this again... some brain cells of some peoples' brains have irreversibly atrophied.:(((...:(((!

    Ever a friend of the good citizens of America,
    Ate M.

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  8. You should send this letter to the newspapers, our representatives in the Senate and House of Representatives, and the White House.

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  9. Thanks for all your kind words and letting me vent.
    I did write to the Congress, the White House. But I got a "formal" response.
    The next step for me is to write to a newspaper or television (wish me luck)
    Thanks for listening!

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