Democracy Now: Very disturbing information on the immigration bill

[Humor_In_Cuneiform]

I included excerpts of the transcript below. The worst part is that there are people who are likely to be deported, only to be left to die back in their home countries, or worse. People who fled persecution and came here the only way they could, may now face deportation as a result.

I've highlighted parts of the excerpt, but the whole thing is interesting, as is the entire transcript found at the link below.

From Thursday's "Democracy Now:"

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/05/25/1413209


"...AMY GOODMAN: We wanted to turn also to Miami, a large Haitian community there. Steve Forester has worked with the Haitian community for many years. Steve, I remember speaking to you more than ten years ago during the first coup against the president then, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, when tens of thousands of Haitians were fleeing the brutality there and coming into this country. Some were caught at Guantanamo who had HIV/AIDS. Now you're dealing with another situation with this bill. Can you talk about that?

STEVEN FORESTER: Well, there are many problems with this bill. The first problem is the cutoff date, January 7, 2004. About 1.6 million people who arrived thereafter are left out. For the persons in the two- to five-year category before that, you only got three months to apply for this thing. There's no confidentiality in your application procedure and no right of appeal, unless you deport yourself, as I understand it.

Now, in terms of the people that we're particularly concerned about, there are many problems. You know, a lot of Haitians have green cards, just like all Americans -- I'm sorry, nationalities, there are green cards all over the place. There's a vast expansion of the definition of aggravated felony in this bill that means that you can be deported if -- let’s say you’ve had a green card for ten to twenty years; thirty years ago you pled guilty to a bogus shoplifting charge. There's a vast expansion of that definition of aggravated felony to include the most minor misdemeanors, no matter how remote. In terms of specific Haitian concerns, you mentioned the people who came through Guantanamo with HIV. Those people are barred from legalizing. There's no waiver provision. That's a sentence of death. They're living healthy productive lives here, but if they're deported to Haiti the lack of medical care will mean simply they're not going to make it.

And there are two other groups we are very concerned about. There's a bar to legalization for persons who have what's called final orders of deportation and also persons who came into the country fleeing persecution with a fraudulent or phony document. Now, remember those two years you were just referring to. President Clinton was saying things like “They're chopping people's faces off.” The United States led an international political and economic boycott of the Cedras dictatorship that killed thousands of people from ‘91 to ‘94. Yet our Coast Guard was still repatriating every boatperson caught trying to flee. The only way out, especially if you were politically active, was to fly out with a phony document. At Miami International these people said, ‘My true name is such-and-such. I need political asylum.’ This bill bars them from legalizing. That’s wrong. It violates basic American traditions.

Also, persons who have been here for years and came forward early on to comply with U.S. law and identify themselves and were placed in proceedings, and it's gone through the process, and now they have orders of deportation that are final, those persons also barred from legalizing. So this bill is riddled with problems. It's going to be a nightmare in enforcement, and probably millions of people are going to be left out. ..."

[Viva_La_Revolution]

1. Is this concerning the House bill? In the Senate, they passed a Feingold

amendment...

Next up was Senator Feingold (D-WI), with an amendment (No. 4083) that would strike an obscure provision in the bill-section 227(c)-that was added during Committee markup without any discussion, and with little awareness by most Members or staff that it had been included. Section 227(c) would bar federal courts from staying the deportation of any immigrant with a final removal order unless he or she shows by "clear and convincing evidence" that deportation is prohibited as a matter of law. This heightened standard would make it virtually impossible for most asylum seekers, domestic abuse victims, and human trafficking victims to obtain stays of deportation while their cases are on appeal to the federal courts, resulting in grave, potentially life-threatening consequences for legitimate asylum seekers. Section 227(c) also would cause the United States to violate the United Nations Convention and Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees, which prohibits the return of individuals to countries where they will face persecution. This same provision was stricken by the Senate during the conference negotiations over the REAL ID Act.

Senators approved the Feingold amendment on a vote of 52 to 45.

http://www.aila.org/content/default.aspx?docid=19507

[Humor_In_Cuneiform]

2. It was about the Senate bill, as you can see at the link.

I found it so disturbing that all I could bring myself to do was post this much of it.

If the relevant provisions were removed, then thank goodness!!!!

Were they?