Web nycny.com

GAZETTE STAFF / NEW  YORK CITY

his week "The Staten Island Advance" ran a six-part series on the Immigration and Naturalization Service and its strange (to state it politely) blunders towards many of the people who attempt to come to "the land of the free."

The series (which is ongoing as of this writing) is a shocking exposé of the powerful institution that controls the lives of the many people who depend on the INS's goodwill in this country. What shocked me the most is the treatment the agency gives to people who would have, in normal circumstances, their "Green Cards" or citizenships granted automatically, such as spouses and children of U.S. Citizens and US-born children of immigrant mothers.

Many men, women and children have been mistreated, illegally jailed and even suffered deportation without having a chance of exercising the right of contacting legal counsel - a right which is not denied from admitted murderers, rapists and other felons. Families have been broken. Every basic individual right has been breached under the grounds of "protection of the country's borders".

Take, for example, the case of Antonio Hernandez, an immigrant worker in Alaska.

According to the "Advance", Hernandez came to the United States as an illegal immigrant. In 1986, he applied for legalization under an amnesty program.

Due to the INS's mishandling of his case, his case was rejected, but a correction was later provided. In the meantime, his wife, who could only stay in the U.S. if Hernandez became a legal resident, was wrongfully deported after the agency misfiled her documentation.

By the time the INS had realized what they had done, Mr. Hernandez's wife and kids(who - hello! - are US Citizens) had already departed to Guatemala.

Another absurd case was the one of João Herbert, a Brazilian youngster who was legally adopted by an American family when he was about five years old.

Herbert, who is now 22, was imprisoned (according to a report by the Los Angeles-based Brazzil magazine) after falling into a police sting while trying to sell marijuana to an undercover policeman.

After his conviction, the INS moved to deport him since his adoptive parents never filed for his naturalization, and Herbert was officially considered a foreigner.

His family, backed by the Brazilian government, argued that Herbert could not be deported on the grounds of his irrevocable adoption.

They also argued that he could not be sent back to Brazil once he could not speak Portuguese and had no one to go back to in the country.

Finally, there was the fact that, due to his adoption, he was no longer considered a Brazilian citizen.

It was to no avail. The INS moved to deport him anyway, and his only alternative would be to spend the rest of his life in prison.

In the end, the Brazilian government, on humanitarian grounds, granted him Brazilian citizenship and issued him a Brazilian passport.

He was sent back to the country last November and is currently living with a pastor's family in the interior of the state of São Paulo.

As most readers might know, I am married to a Brazilian woman.

While I was in Brazil, I received a job offer from an U.S. company, and in order to get the job, we came here last October.

Once we got here (my wife was granted a six-month tourist Visa), I applied for her adjustment of status, remarried her at City Hall and we have ever since been waiting for her work permit to be issued, even though our marriage should have granted her automatic residence status.

As of this writing, we have received nothing.

My wife was recently offered a job by a local language center, and we went over to the INS in order to speed up
her the permit.

As we got there, we were bluntly told "to wait for the permit", regardless of the fact that the job she was offered is intended for native speakers of Portuguese and is not a "risk" to the American worker.

I understand that marriage to a U.S. citizen has become a business in recent years (an acquaintance of mine was recently offered $5,000 to marry a Dominican woman - I talked him out of it). However, I believe that the INS should be able to see the difference and help out bona-fide people, instead of considering every applicant to residence status as "guilty by suspicion."


Fortunately, there are voices for the immigrants - last Monday, Archbishop Egan led a rally at St. Patrick's Cathedral in favor of all the immigrants who are suffering under the 1996 Immigration laws that made it difficult for foreign people to be granted legal residence or citizenship. And there is the press, who have repeatedly (in recent times) denounced the INS and its harsh ways.

Ernest Barteldes
Staten Island,NY

richard e. schiff,
richard
e. schiff,
 richard e. schiff
Richard Schiff
 Richard Schiff
Richard Schiff ...

Recorded by
The Backhouse
Bluesers®
1988 at
Coyote Studios
Brooklyn NY