[Mb-civic] Two Immigrants, Two Standards - Stacy Caplow & Lauren Kosseff - Washington Post Op-Ed

[William Swiggard]

Two Immigrants, Two Standards

By Stacy Caplow and Lauren Kosseff
Saturday, February 11, 2006; A19

We recently learned that U.S. immigration policy is, in fact, capable of 
fast action and flexibility. It just depends on who the immigrant is.

In December Congress speedily passed special immigration legislation to 
benefit just one person: an ice dancer. As a Canadian, she couldn't join 
the 2006 U.S. Olympics team. But a law was written that lasted exactly 
two days, long enough for her to be fast-tracked for citizenship and 
sent to compete for the United States.

Around the same time, we at the Safe Harbor Project at Brooklyn Law 
School received notice that the U.S. immigration system had denied entry 
to Teresa, a 14-year-old African girl who has been stranded as a refugee 
in Guinea almost all her life. She is trying to join her adoptive 
mother, Momara (no real names are used here, as is generally practiced 
with asylum), a refugee from Sierra Leone who was granted asylum in the 
United States. But in this girl's case, there is no fast track, only the 
rigid application of a procedural rule.

Teresa's harrowing story began when she was born in the bush, where 
everyone from her town had fled to escape rampaging rebel forces 
threatening to kill them. Her birth mother died giving birth to her. 
Without a second thought, Momara scooped up the infant and from that 
moment on considered Teresa her own. She, Teresa and her other young 
children went to a refugee camp and remained there until the rebel 
forces struck again, robbing the refugees and stabbing Momara. Somehow 
the family made its way to Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, but 
they were still not safe. Rebels beheaded Momara's husband before their 
eyes, gang-raped and beat Momara, and stabbed her sons. Miraculously, 
they escaped and, without husband and father, fled to Guinea.

With our legal representation Momara received asylum in 2004. She now 
lives with her grown son in Queens. An uneducated woman with few 
personal belongings, she has great dignity and endless hope for her 
future in the United States. Yet her worries have not ended, because she 
has not yet been reunited with all her children.

The law permits immediate relatives of refugees -- spouses and 
biological and adopted children -- to come to the United States. 
Momara's three biological children were recently granted derivative 
asylum and are waiting for visas. But Teresa is another story. Since she 
is not Momara's biological child, she can qualify for a visa only with 
proof that she is adopted. The Department of Homeland Security denied 
her application because she does not have an "official adoption decree" 
from Sierra Leone.

As Momara's lawyers, we explained to DHS that Sierra Leone was 
devastated by a 10-year civil war. Many children have been orphaned in 
the war, and it is customary for other families to adopt and raise them, 
albeit without official adoption papers. The country does not have a 
functioning government, much less a formalized adoption procedure.

Momara is pleading to be reunited with all of her children and to know 
that they are finally out of harm's way. But the DHS stated in its 
denial of Teresa's visa application that "[s]ince there are no formal 
adoption decrees in Sierra Leone then you are unable to provide a copy 
of the final adoption decree . . . which has been registered with the 
proper civil authorities." This is a new version of Catch-22: We know 
it's impossible for you to get the proof we request; nevertheless we 
will withhold the relief you seek because you cannot obtain the proof.

The DHS's flat denial shows an all-too-familiar inflexibility in the 
administration of U.S. immigration policy and frustrates one of its most 
fundamental stated goals: family unification. Our nation's consensus, 
derived from international norms, is that innocent families, survivors 
of terrorism and brutality elsewhere in the world, be granted asylum 
here. Yet the DHS has chosen to bar a victimized and vulnerable girl 
from rejoining her family for the flimsiest of reasons -- lack of an 
unobtainable document.

The machinery of Congress was geared up to make it possible for an ice 
dancer to bring Olympic glory to the United States. Why can't it be set 
in motion for humanitarian cases such as that of Teresa and her mother? 
That would bring us a measure of glory, too.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/10/AR2006021001715.html?nav=hcmodule
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