raining cats and dogs
31 Oct 2006UPDATE: There is now a website.
When Sarcastro, Aunt B, and I all agree on something, you know it’s something you can really get behind.
Meet Claudia Nunez and her family. Claudia is in the process of deportation from Nashville back to El Salvador. Despite residing in the country for years. Despite her 3 year old daughter and her 4 year old daughter – both U.S. citizens by birth. Despite her husband, also a legal resident. Despite all this, she’s being sent back to El Salvador, where, beyond being stripped of her family, she’ll have to deal with these guys. What family of four did she murder, you ask? Well, actually, she just overstayed her visa (which, incidentally, is not a crime).
I am not going to re-hash the whole story, since Sarcastro and Aunt B have already done a good job on that. But I will be talking about it. A lot. I’ll probably use a graph. You know how I do. But you’ll be hearing a lot about this case from others, as well. This is a test case for a lot of things: our tolerance for inflexible bureaucracy; our tolerance for counterproductive, exploitive immigration law; our, well, intolerance and xenophobic hysteria. It’s a test case for how far we’ve strayed from the inscription at the base of the statue of liberty:
“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me.
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”
At least, I think that’s what it says. Maybe it’s “Don’t let the golden door hit your ass on the way out.” I forget.
More to come on this..
UPDATE: See Sean Braisted and John H on this as well.
I’ve said this every other place, and I’ll say it here too. (For the record, my most extensive comment was at Aunt B’s.)
Why did she NOT apply for protective status? The Nashville Scene article about the case states right up front that she could have followed the law as her husband did and thus have become a legal resident.
I think this story is tragic and I think there is a better way than deportation to handle it. Having had several friends and acquaintences who braved the lengthy, frustrating immigration process to be here legally I know that it can be done. I also think it’s unfair to expect her to not have some type of consequence for failing to follow the law. In this case I think the levy of a fine and the insistence that she follow procedure would be a sensible, merciful and just solution.