Jorge Mújica Murias Northern Mexico
Yes, there will be amnesty and all outstanding immigration cases will be given a fair and immediate resolution. Or that we hope, because there was already was a case and that means there might be another 12 million.
The case is Barack Obama’s aunt, a woman with an almost unutterable name for us, Zeituni Polly Onyango, who came to this country in the year 2000. Two years later she requested political asylum (for fear of violence among the tribes in Kenya, since she is a member of a minority tribe,) which was refused and she was ordered to leave the country. Not strange, because the judge of the case, some Leonard I. Shapiro, has about the worst record in the country in asylum cases. Between 2004 and 2009, Shapiro rejected a 67 percent of the cases he saw, a percentage higher than the national (57%) and greater than Boston (61%), where he works.
Thus, Onyango became a fugitive from justice (or the Immigration authorities, which is not the same because they are not very just,), and became another Elvira Arellano. But the long arm of… not the law, but newspapers, cached up with her, living in Boston, a few days before the 2008 elections in a subsidized apartment. Obama declared again that he wanted a full immigration reform, and deportations were suspended during the elections so nobody could deport “by mistake,” the aunt of the guy who could be the next President of the country.
Onyango escaped again. She moved to Cleveland and hired a lawyer. Striking news is that her case was reopened, despite being a fugitive and all, and in six months she won arguing on this occasion that in case to return to Kenya because, being as she is, the aunt of the President of the United States, things could go wrong for her. Good argument, but common, because of the lack of popularity of USA in many places.
Onyango will be provided with a work permit, Social Security number, driver’s license, and she can apply for full permanent residency in a year and for citizenship in five more years.
PA ‘ your aunt and the MIA
What I say is that if you can do it for one, you can do it for 12 million. As the popular chant in the immigration marches goes, “We Want Amnesty for Your Aunty and Mine.”
For example, we want amnesty for the courageous young immigrants without papers and without fear, whom this week created a ruckus at John McCain’s office in Tucson, Ariyan-zona, sitting on the floor and stating that they were not leaving until McCain “declares its support for the DREAM Act.” Lizabeth Matthew and Mohammad Abdollahi were not only arrested, but put on deportation process.
As arguments to release them and give them work permits, social security, driver’s license and the chance to apply for permanent residence and then citizenship, would be that all that was already given Obama’s aunt. No more, no less. If needed, it can be also argued that Mohammad is gay, and in Iran, where being gay is illegal and punishable with the death penalty, there’s more reason to fear. In Mohammad’s case, is not that “things could go wrong for him” but absolute certainty they will, as Iranian laws state. At the very least, legally, Mohammad would receive “at least 100 lashes”.
The laws are clear, both here and in Iran. And the one here grant asylum for proven “fear of persecution in their native land based on race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a social group.”
In Lizbeth’s case, and any Mexican for that matter, in our “native land” we can be fearful for many reasons, and if someone does not believed, just go ask the recently kidnapped “Jefe Diego,” Diego Fernandez de Cevallos, former Senator and former presidential candidate. Nobody knows if he was kidnapped by the Narco, the drug dealers, or by the governing PAN, or the radical right-wing group el Yunque, or the PRI. It could even be worse for people who “suddenly become famous,” as it also argued Onyango’s lawyer. These young guys are already famous.
Of course the ultra-right fascist who govern in Arizona and have offices in Washington are already crying heaven, but as they like to say, “the law is the law” and must be respected.
The problem here is that one alone cannot open an immigration case. You have to be arrested to initiate your case. But the solution is simple: Let’s all go to Arizona and sit down in the offices of John McCain and be arrested!
mexicodelnorte@Yahoo.com.MX
