Posted on 05/25/2006 6:10:12 PM PDT by AZRepublican
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The U.S. Supreme Court may have the final word on whether an immigrant mother must leave her husband and son - both American citizens - and be deported next month to her native Mexico.
Now that the Senate has reached an agreement on immigration reforms, the plight of 31-year-old Myrna Dick could also become part of the contentious debate under way in Washington, her lawyers say.
The government first tried to deport Dick in 2004, charging she lied about her citizenship while crossing the U.S. border. She was pregnant at the time of the deportation order, and a federal judge allowed her to stay, saying her fetus essentially was already a U.S. citizen.
Since then, Dick's lawyers have argued in several federal courts that she never claimed she was a U.S. citizen, but instead told officials she was attempting to enter the country illegally.
Next week, they will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to take up the case, and to stay a deportation order that would force her to leave her family by June 10.
"We've put the house on the market, I've requested all my medical records, and we're taking carloads of our things over to the church," said Dick, who has spent most of her life in the U.S. and now lives in the Kansas City suburb of Raymore. "But my husband and I are still hoping that somehow we can stay and fight the case here."
She sees a fraction of hope in a proposal sponsored by Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo. The draft bill could allow some illegal immigrants who are married to Americans and have children born in the U.S. to remain in this country.
The proposal would create a new legal step to require the government to review such cases while keeping the best interests of the children in mind.
"There are probably thousands of people in this situation across the country and little boys like Myrna's son have rights," said Danny Rotert, a spokesman for Cleaver. "We have an obligation to protect their rights as well."
Cleaver may introduce the proposal as an amendment when the House-Senate conference committee meets to resolve the differences between the two immigration reform packages passed by Congress, Rotert said.
But unless the high court decides to stop her deportation order, Dick will likely need to return to her home state of Chihuahua, Mexico, while lawmakers wrangle over the contents of a massive immigration overhaul.
Yes, I thought that was quite thought provoking.
"In declining States the leadership intuitively choses the most harmful course of action."- A great historian 1888
DING DING DING DING DING DING DING DING ! We have a winner!
BTW, this is related to the way bureaucrats assign the lowest budget priority to the items that will generate the most complaints if cut. That way, it will be impossible to cut anything.
Probably related to my observation about bureaucracies (previous post)
Yep. It's called the "compassion trap", and it's used to rationalize everything from late term abortion to securing the "rights" enemy combatant terrorists captured in Afghanistan.
Why would they want to buy property in Mexico when she's applying for citizenship here?
ncountylee was using whatcha call "sarcasm" to make his point about... oh, never mind.
I understand. I was also using a bit of sarcasm in my response. :)
Since she has been here several years, is married to an American and had a kid here, and there are millions of other illeglas they aren' targetting, WHY are they targetting her???
Perhaps to try and discredit people who want to deport illegals, that's why. They are making a trial case of an unusual circumstance and then will apply the result to all the illegals infesting our respective states and plaguing the border.
Don't underestimate the Byzantine thinking of Alberto Gonzales.
at a certain level of mega law firms. Cases are set up for LOSS on appeal in order to establish law outside of the legislative process.
Judges are less expensive than politicians and don't have that pesky voter nusance.
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