Posted on 07/22/2002 11:25:59 AM PDT by stefeb
INS Set to Deport 9-11 Hero's Family
Just a few months after the Immigration and Naturalization Service approved a student visa for long-dead 9-11 hijacker Mohamed Atta, the usually lethargic agency is pulling out all the stops to deport the family of 9-11 hero Paul Gilbey, who died while rescuing his coworkers on the World Trade Center's 84th floor.
Gilbey was a currency broker with EuroBrokers. He and his wife Deena - both British nationals - had lived the U.S. for 10 years before the 9-11 attacks. Their two children, Mason, 7, and Max, 4, are both U.S. citizens.
Nevertheless, the immigration agency is invoking a technicality to give the boot to the 9-11 hero-dad's American boys along with their Brit mom.
"Two days after he was killed, they coldly told me, 'Your husband has expired and so has your right to stay in this country,'" Mrs. Gilbey told the New York Post.
Immigration officials warned she faced arrest and deportation if she didn't leave voluntarily.
The couple had applied for green cards in 1994. But when Mr. Gilbey changed jobs they had to start the process all over.
The Chatham, N.J., mom tried to re-apply under the USA PATRIOT Act, which was passed in the wake of the 9-11 attacks. But INS officials have constructed a Catch-22 argument, telling Gibley she doesn't qualify because her paperwork remains stalled in the system.
An INS supervisor told the 9-11 hero's wife that it would set "a dangerous precedent" if they sped up the green card process on her behalf.
Two days...a new record in efficiency!
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