Posted on 02/03/2007 4:28:09 PM PST by Kitten Festival
U.S. immigration officials announced Friday that they would drop efforts to deport the illegal immigrant parents of an academically gifted American child, ending a nine-year battle over whether exceptional educational needs can avert deportation.
Benjamin and Londy Cabrera, who illegally emigrated from Mexico and Guatemala, respectively, in the 1980s, argued that deportation would cause "exceptional and extremely unusual hardship" to their two American daughters, both Los Angeles natives.
In particular, attorneys for the Cabrera family cited the special academic needs of 15-year-old Diana, a straight-A student who has been identified as exceptionally gifted and honored with national awards. Their case attracted the attention of several elected officials, including U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who unsuccessfully sponsored a private bill for the parents to secure legal status.
"I am speechless," Londy Cabrera said in a telephone interview from Reno, where she moved her family from Bell Gardens in 2005. "Sometimes I lost my faith and said, 'Forget it, it's over,' but because of my daughters I kept going. Now I feel like flying."
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
There's something in the law called "laches." I think I spelled that right. It means that if you have a right and you rest on the right for a long time, you lose that right. IMHO, the government should be bound in some cases. If the fed government hadn't caught up to these people in all that time, and they've done a good job of being de facto citizens, then I think that they should be citizens. Maybe it isn't fair to people who do it the right way but hey, life isn't fair.
I'm a strong supporter of immigration, and have just as strong a dislike of illegal immigration.
A country like ours needs legal immigration to keep a vibrant and innovative population. After all, with the exception of the Native Americans and the GEICO Caveman, we all are the result of immigration.
All that having been said, should this family be the exception? Probably not, but on human terms, if they have been fighting deportation since the 80's, and the kids are so talented, I can see where it would be this countries benefit to make the exception.
They violated the law. I don't care if their kids create the next best thing since sliced bread - they're CRIMINALS. Deport post haste.
A good call in my opinion. Reward excellence, and disdain the opposite.
The kids should not be Americans because their parents were here illegally. That needs to be changed for the future.
(...The Cabreras furnished evidence that they pay taxes, obey the law...)
Whoops! Strike the 'obey the law' part! If they are in the US illegally, they don't "obey the law".
What a crock of Bull.
By God, that little gal better find a cure for cancer or something! If she decides to drop out and have babies in another couple of years, a whole lot of people are going to feel like chumps.
You violate the law everytime you go over the speed limit too. What's your point?
usually when one breaks the law, they suffer an appropriate penalty for doing so. If one speeds, one is fined. Thats what the law prescribes. Being here illegally should have as a consequence DEPORTATION. Or is this case one of those "hypertechnicalities" that the NJ Supreme Court lectured us about a few years back?
So if I rob a bank and give most of the money to charity, I can expect to be given a pass?
So - what is the difference between the "need" for exceptional educational situation and the needs of say a learning disabled illegal immigrant's child?
Any exception to the rules makes yet another opening in an already swiss cheese immigration policy...
And yes, I understand what you are trying to say regarding those who actually work hard and value education. But...
Gifted doesn't mean high achiever or hard worker. Argument could exist that a disabled or delayed child works even HARDER to succeed than a gifted child.
So are you saying "Keep the smart ones and throw the other ones back over the fence"? What about the cute ones versus the more homely ones? Sorry. We have American gifted kids with American parents we should worry about first. There are gifted kids in LOTS of third world countries whose parents couldn't swim the oceans to break them into the United States.
oops forgot to add: (...The Cabreras furnished evidence that they pay taxes, obey the law...)
What a great idea! Flaunt and trample our laws! Its no problem, just as long as you promise to have "gifted" children, whatever that means.
Why don't we just go ahead a erase our borders? American citizenship is overrated anyway. Its obsolete for us global citizens.
God bless the North American Union!!!
sarcasm/off
Deport illegals and Muslims.
"Under federal law, immigrants can win cancellation of their deportation orders if they have been in the United States for 10 years..."
OMG, so if they are sneaky enough to avoid deportation for 10 years, they are rewarded, unbelievable.
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