Posted on 09/02/2006 2:48:33 PM PDT by Alter Kaker
One widow has more than $2 million but walks or rides the bus everywhere, terrified of drawing attention. Another millionaire widow stopped going to 9/11 support groups because she feared that families of police officers and firefighters might betray her. A widower has enough money to start a business building houses, but cannot buy himself a home. All three lost a husband or a wife when the World Trade Center collapsed. Like thousands of others, they were beneficiaries of the federal Sept. 11 Victim Compensation Fund, which awarded millions of dollars to families whose loved ones died in the attacks. But a secret sets these three apart. Like their spouses who died, each is in the country illegally. Even though the government compensated them richly for their losses, making them wealthier than they ever dreamed, the money did not change their immigration status. They fear they could be deported any day. Five years after the terrorist attacks, these people are living with extraordinary contradictions. Long accustomed to stashing dollar bills in coffee cans, they became millionaires overnight. But because they do not have Social Security numbers or work visas, they cannot get mortgages or driver’s licenses. They say they have spent little of the money, afraid of attracting notice. Their spouses were labeled heroes, their names emblazoned on placards ringing ground zero. But none of these three, still living in or near New York City, feel they can publicly identify themselves. “I can’t dream very high, because I have no papers,” said one widow from Ecuador, who, like the others, agreed to be interviewed on the condition that she not be named. “You’re always afraid of exposure. It’s a horrible feeling. But I don’t want to go back to my country. I know my husband’s spirit is here.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
if they feel so guilty about having the money then maybe they should just donate it to a charity, maybe even in the name of their loved one that they lost.
There are now TWO Nation States who willingly identify themselves by threats and action as our enemy..
There is no longer any justification for refusing to deliver massive destructive "messages" to Syria and Iran -- before they have the capability to move first against us...
Semper Fi
How do you know that, Miss Cleo? They could have been still ben working in the WTC on 9/11 if they had been legal.
It's ridiculous comments like that show you don't think and using your "logic" if the bond traders in the WTC had been illegal, does that mean they wouldn't have been working there on 9/11.
The burning question. Why the heck don't they simply return to their home country.
That is hardly nothing.
You're right, Dane. It doesn't matter whether or not their loved ones were here legally or illegally. If they weren't cleaning toilets at the WTC they would have been cleaning them somewhere else and would have lived.
There is always the alternative view: it's a few less illegals in our country.
Well, I couldn't figure out why four surviving widows were essentially running the Congress for a time. Maybe they still are.
There is nothing ridiculous about cleos statement. If the illegals hadn't been here they wouldn't have been killed on 9/11. They would not have been here legally, if they could have been they would have been here legally, they chose to sneak into this country, breaking our laws and they paid for it with their lives.
You are so pro-illegal you can't even use common sense when you discuss the subject.
Ironic that the government will compensate someone for dying during a commission of a crime.
$250,000?? I've never heard that. I've heard figures like $25,000. We've adopted three soldiers and/or Marines thus far who have been KIA and I've haven't heard of any sums that size. Maybe the families were doing something wrong - or it wasn't necessary for me to help them with the costs.
Don't know if congress has passed this legislation but I'm pretty sure the $250,000 has been in effect for a while.
Thanks for the info. That is certainly something deserved and costs us a lot less than paying off illegals whose family members died in 9/11.
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