Posted on 02/18/2007 11:32:16 AM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
Madison (WI) businessman Tomas Contreras had his bail hearing denied this week by an immigration official, which means he is beginning his fifth week of detention near the Mexico- Texas border.
One question has come up during the coverage of his plight: Why did Contreras - who has lived in the United States nearly all of his life and has been a legal resident since 1964 - never become an American citizen?
His daughter, Carmen Contreras, said her father was caught in a dilemma that immigrants from many countries face. If he gave up his Mexican citizenship, he could no longer own property in that country. Carmen Contreras said that when the Mexican government recently changed the law, her father began the process of becoming an American citizen.
This is a common issue, two immigration lawyers said.
Sardar Durrani, who practices immigration law in Madison, said India and Germany also recently changed their laws to allow their nationals to hold property after becoming U.S. citizens.
"Now we are seeing a lot of Indian citizens apply for U.S. citizenship," said Durrani, who himself became a U.S. citizen after emigrating from India to attend college.
Durrani and Grant Sovern, another Madison immigration attorney, said many legal residents feel that holding a green card is nearly as good as being a citizen. The only differences are that they can't vote and their citizenship isn't protected.
Sovern said he urges clients who live here to become citizens as soon as possible.
"I like to quote the Supreme Court, which says that aliens aren't people under our Constitution," he said.
Permanent residents who have been in the United States for years may have a false sense of security, the attorneys said. For one thing, a law change in 1996 as part of welfare reform stripped legal residents of their rights to a number of social programs, including Medicare and Medicaid. The same law also made it much easier to deport non-citizens who have been convicted of crimes.
Immigration law considers some crimes - including drug crimes and domestic abuse - as "aggravated felonies," even though the person many not have been convicted of a felony under state law. And the 1996 law applied retroactively, meaning crimes committed long before could result in deportation.
Contreras apparently got caught by this law, when a computer check at the U.S. border turned up a 1989 ticket for drug possession.
Durrani said the Immigration and Customs Enforcement recently upgraded its border computers, which could be why Contreras crossed the border many times previously and was not detained.
The attorneys say they have seen people deported for crimes as minor as drunken driving or misdemeanor domestic abuse.
"When people read about it, they can't believe it is true, but it is," Sovern said of the harshness of immigration law.
Nevertheless, Sovern said he has clients who want to hold on to their nationality because it is part of their identity.
Patti Devries, a Dean Clinic nurse, has lived in the Madison area for 18 years and raised her four children here, but she never seriously considered becoming a U.S. citizen.
"Being Canadian is part of my identity," she said. "My family is all there, my values were formed in that environment. The bottom line: I feel Canadian."
Jacqueline Hitchon McSweeney, chair of the department of life sciences communications at UW-Madison, moved here from England about 20 years ago and was fine with being a legal resident.
"You can do everything a American citizens can do, except vote," she said. "Because my research interest was political advertising, I felt I could contribute to the political process that way."
But the longer she has lived in Madison, the more she missed being able to vote. Recently, that most British of screen icons, James Bond, or at least Pierce Brosnan, the actor who played Bond, became a U.S. citizen because he wanted to cast a ballot in the 2004 presidential election.
Hitchon McSweeney said she decided to do the same and has begun the naturalization process.
"I think there comes a time when you've been a member of a community for a long time that you start to appreciate all the ways you can contribute," she said.
And voting for leaders willing to reform U.S. immigration law might be the only way to fix the dilemma that some people in this nation of immigrants find themselves in.
Link to original article:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1779145/posts
Ping!
I have some problem with the ex post facto nature of that law. I do know some judges are allowing folks to withdraw old guilty pleas because they were not fully informed of the consequences of the plea. I heard of a very conservative judge who did so just to give the feds a poke in the eye. I'm surprised this guy couldn't find a judge in Wisconsin who would grant a motion which would nullify the conviction.
One thing that greatly irks me about our southern "neighbor" is that they insist that we treat them far more nicely than they treat us. If the restrictions on property ownership in Mexico were eliminated, things might improve there to the point that there would be fewer people trying to come here.
Unfortunately, similar ex-post-facto provisions still apply to the Lautenberg Abomination.
Which is precisely the point. If Mexico is ever allowed to develop a middle class, then it is the end of the monopoly on power by a handful of elite ruling families.
notwithstanding the fact that it is MEXICO which requires them to give up citizenship once they become US citizens, not the other way around... but somehow we got to pay for that... sheesh... he need not stay in Mexico, forgo the money and go where the spirit lives on... but they want it both ways.
This is despicable!!! I'm a real American, IOW a native born citizen. I have no dual loyalty. I get treated like trash if I own property in Mexico. This guy wants the best of both worlds. Live here forever on a green card and have nice property to retire to and/or vacation to in Mexico
ZERO sympathy for this wise guy.
I could care less that he got tripped up on the border
Carmen is humorously naive to lay it all out so honestly
Right, but my point is that people complain about how the U.S. treats Mexicans without regard for the fact that it's far better than the way Mexicans treat non-Mexicans.
I wish the U.S. politicians pushing for fences and such would make clear in both speeches and legislative preambles that any harshness of the U.S. toward Mexico was in reciprocity for their harshness toward outsiders.
Mexico requires nothing now that I think about it. They could care less if a Mexican has US citizenship and does not renounce Mexican citizenship. It's don't ask, don't tell.
This is the problem, people coming here and wanting to keep their countries identity, culture, language, customs. Prior generations that came here gave up there countries ways and became Americans. We need to change the laws so that you can only live here for about 5 years and either get out or become Americans. This is nonsense people living here for 18 years or longer and still thinking of themselves as something else. I was talking to a young man the other day who although born here, though his native language is Spanish. If he is a native of American his native language is English. We need to fight this multicultural BS. There should be one standard for all. One language, one country. Remember we are the UNITED STATES, not the Whatever States.
These people are drive by "Americans". They actually aren't Americans but they will live here forever and their children born here are Americans. They picked the best place to squat for 30 years and make money and a retirement back "home". But I can't see what loyalty they have to America. They laugh at us
He rolled the dice and lost. Like he couldn't find a cut-out to hold property for him?
They envision our country as a cash cow of which they can take advantage without having to have any loyalty or love or appreciation of the U.S. They see American patriots as either oppressors or dopes to be taken advantage of. They have no clue about democracy and only a very narrow understanding of capitalism and markets. Ultimately their loyalty and affection is fixed on their homelands -- unlike those who came before them. It all started to go down hill after the 1965 immigration bill that Splash Kennedy pushed through by lying about its potential consequences. We are living with that evil now.
Then she needs to get her butt back to Canada.
Agreed!
Then she needs to get her butt back to Canada.
Agreed!
Ain't nothin' wrong with that. The problem is that far too many of our citizens (guided by the drive-by media) are all too eager to help them achieve it, at the expense of American citizens. If we're too weak to stop it, then I guess we deserve what we get. =^/
ping back!
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