Gap in policy forces woman to deport herself, reluctantly

The Kansas City Red Star ^ | Jul. 17, 2012 | ERIC ADLER

[Second Amendment First]

To be clear, no one is threatening to deport 20-year-old Lauren Gray.

No federal agents have rapped on the door of her family’s home, or at the Lakeview Motor Lodge and Restaurant they’ve owned for 17 years in Trenton.

She’s received no phone calls or letters from the Department of Homeland Security telling her she needs to get out of the United States.

Yet at 9:30 a.m. on July 31 — if the miracle Gray and her family have been working for does not come through — she will board an American Airlines flight that will take her to Dallas and then Houston and, on that same day, out of the U.S. and away from her mother, father and teenage sister, who are here on a visa, and her grandparents, both of whom are naturalized citizens.

It will take her away from the only home she has known since her parents, both British citizens, brought her and sister Gemma here from England when they were ages 4 and 1.

It will take her away from her friends, from the town where she said the Pledge of Allegiance and rooted as a high school cheerleader, and from the state where, at Stephens College, she graduated with distinction in May as a dancer.

Lauren Gray wants desperately to stay in the United States and become a citizen. But on Aug. 8, her 21st birthday will bump her off her parents’ visa.

“My lawyer has informed me that as of midnight on my birthday, I am here illegally,” she said.

So she is leaving — heading to live with relatives in London, unsure what the future holds, and sending this northwest Missouri town of 6,000 residents into a last-ditch petition-signing frenzy to keep her home.

[Second Amendment First]

Lauren Gray’s grandparents became naturalized U.S. citizens in 2003. Aware that their grandchildren could eventually age out of their E-2 status, the grandparents immediately put in applications for Ali Gray and her family to obtain “green cards” that would allow them to forever live and work in the U.S., as legal permanent residents.

That was when Lauren was 12.

At the time, the Grays thought it could not possibly take nine years for the family and the girls to receive their green cards. They didn’t think they had to worry about either Lauren or Gemma “aging out” of the country.

“We thought we had plenty of time,” Ali Gray said.

They were wrong.

TAMMY LJUNGBLAD | The Kansas City Star

Lauren Gray (foreground) has lived in Trenton, Mo., since she was 4, but she feels she has to leave the country before she turns 21 in August and is no longer covered by her parents’ visa. Her mother,Ali Gray, has been trying to avoid this for years.

[DuncanWaring]

Just teach her to say “No habla Inglis” - she’ll be set for life.

[Gay State Conservative]

Every civilized country has residency and citizenship laws.I have no problem with what's happening here just as I'd understand the same kind of thing happening to a member of my family in Britain.*ALL* illegals should be expelled from this country....not just the black,brown and yellow ones.

[Zhang Fei]

She can relax. If she overstays her visa, she’ll be covered under the Obamney administration’s illegal alien amnesty. It’s only a matter of time. Dems need the illegal alien vote, whereas Pubs need the illegal alien employer campaign cash.

[brytlea]

I definitely think it is my right as a human being to live here and stay here.

What?

[EEGator]

Can’t there be a hotness clause?

[freedumb2003]

>> heading to live with relatives in London<<

Too bad she isn’t going somewhere with a common language with the USA.

[Oberon]

I’m just glad she’s obeying the law. Yes, the government agency has screwed this up, but at least she’s doing the right thing by leaving.

[1010RD]

Have you or someone dear to you ever gone through the process of legal immigration in America?

This process should have taken months, not years. We have a broken, needlessly bureaucratic and punitive, humiliatingly punitive process to become legal here. Your life is literally at the whim of a bureaucrat. That’s stupid and if we’re to fix illegal immigration it must start by making legal immigration faster, fairer and objective.

[Verginius Rufus]

I think Obama’s amnesty is supposed to be applied to Hispanics only. But it does sound odd that 9 years is not long enough to get through the red tape for the green card.

[1010RD]

Bottom line:

Lauren Gray meets all the criteria — except one. She didn’t come to the U.S. illegally.

[Ron C.]

Screwed by US Government idiocy

[WashingtonSource]

This sob story has only one purpose, to convince Americans we shouldn’t ever deport any illegals. That’s why they chose a pretty white girl to be the poster child of illegal immigration.

[Zhang Fei]

I think Obama’s amnesty is supposed to be applied to Hispanics only.

All facetiousness aside, the current immigration system, of having no land border controls but applying stringent standards to visitors who have to fly here or come here by boat, is more or less an open door policy to Latin Americans. I suspect the Hispanic lobby wouldn't like it one bit if we started visa-free entry for India, China, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Cambodia, Burma, the Philippines and Thailand, the way we do for developed regions and countries like Canada, the EU, Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore.

[Spktyr]

This. It should take two weeks to a month at most to process things like this and for the person to get back some sort of an answer. There’s no good reason why it should take longer.

[TXnMA]

Too bad she was so busy cheerleading, dancing, etc. that she had no time to take citizenship courses and become a naturalized citizen... Waaaaah!

Hey, ditz -- it's called "priorities"...

[TXnMA]

Too bad she was so busy cheerleading, dancing, etc. that she had no time to take citizenship courses and become a naturalized citizen... Waaaaah!

Hey, ditz -- it's called "priorities"...

[gunnut]

If we did not have so many illegals, there could be more legal immigration and more family sponsored green cards could be issued.

[Zhang Fei]

Too bad she was so busy cheerleading, dancing, etc. that she had no time to take citizenship courses and become a naturalized citizen... Waaaaah!

Hey, ditz -- it's called "priorities"...

Her parents are on work visas. You can't become a citizen by taking classes unless you already have a green card (aka permanent resident status), which lets you stay in the country as long as you want. She is piggybacking off her parents' work visas. The reason her parents haven't been able to get green cards is because they haven't found an employer willing to sponsor them for the documents, so they're relying on her grandparents to get the chain migration process started.

[Flatus I. Maximus]

> Can’t there be a hotness clause?

There is. It's called, "Marry an American citizen."