Largely overlooked in the charged debate over illegal immigration, many of these are long-term legal immigrants in the United States who were confident of success when they applied for naturalization, and would have continued to live here legally had they not sought to become citizens. As applications for naturalization have surged, overburdened federal examiners, under pressure to make quick decisions and also weed out any security risks, prefer to err on the side of rejection…. Though precise figures are not available, an increasing number of these denials involve immigrants who believed they were in good legal standing, according to lawyers and researchers. Under the law, a number of grounds for naturalization denial can lead to an order of deportation, and appeals are more limited than in criminal cases…. “It’s no wonder there are so many illegal immigrants,” said Brad Darnell, an electrical engineer from Canada living in California who applied for citizenship but is also now fighting deportation. “The legal method is so intolerant and confusing.”
One of the things frequently overlooked in the debate over illegal immigration in this country is the very real and sad reality that the system as a whole is a complete and utter clusterf—k. It doesn’t take much to figure out why being an illegal immigrant is, given the current bureaucratic climate, preferable to dealing with a horribly inhuman, out of touch, and ridiculously unfair system. I’m all for getting rid of people who shouldn’t be in this country- whether they’re unfit, unqualified, or illegal. When a man who has been in this country for 17 years can face deportation for a crime that’s (allegedly) no longer even on his record, we have not so much an immigration system as a trip down the bureaucratic rabbit hole.
While Michael Chertoff is hell-bent on building a wall along our southern border to keep out the Brown People, this nation’s immigration system is proving itself to be rotting from within. Congratulations, America! We have an immigration system that not only encourages illegal immigration, but it often (&^%s over the very people who SHOULD be granted citizenship. Because people debating immigration tending to talk AT one another instead of WITH them, the poisonous political atmosphere has rendered it virtually impossible to identify the real problems…much less fix them.
Becoming an American citizen may be the dream of millions around the world, but given our indecipherably unfair, criminally insensitive, and unreasonably inflexible and intolerant bureaucracy, one almost has to wonder why.
In a case that drew Congressional attention this year in Illinois, Marin Turcinovic, an immigrant from Croatia, was twice denied citizenship because he did not show up at the immigration office to be fingerprinted. As his lawyer explained to no avail, Mr. Turcinovic was a quadriplegic, dependent on a ventilator and unable to leave his home.
Mr. Turcinovic died in April 2004 without becoming a citizen, creating an immigration crisis for his French widow, Corina, who had taken care of him. In January Representative Daniel Lipinski, Democrat of Illinois, presented a bill that halted her deportation.
When common sense, fairness, compassion, and simple human decency are no longer part of the equation, how are we to reasonably claim to be a welcoming and tolerant society? What’s truly sad is neither the story of Mr. Turcinovic or Mr. Darnell are anything resembling unusual. Let’s face facts, shall we? The system is broken…and it’s not because of Brown People sneaking in over the Mexican border. It’s because of careless, thoughtless bureaucrats who have demonstrated themselves to be inept, incompetent, and devoid of anything resembling compassion and simple human decency.
WE DESERVE BETTER…and Lord knows those immigrants playing by the rules certainly do.
