U.S. Returns Young Girl, a Citizen, to Guatemala

[alp227]

Leonel Ruiz, a landscaper in Brentwood, N.Y., was waiting at Kennedy International Airport on the early morning of March 11 for his 4-year-old daughter, Emily, to arrive home from a trip to Guatemala. The plane arrived hours late, but Emily was not on it, and neither was her grandfather, who was supposed to be escorting her back.

It took several hours for Mr. Ruiz to learn what had happened. Emily, a United States citizen, and her grandfather, a Guatemalan traveling with a valid work visa, had been detained by immigration authorities at Dulles International Airport near Washington, where the plane had been diverted because of bad weather. The officials had told Emily’s grandfather that because of an immigration infraction two decades ago, he would not be allowed to stay in the country.

That has left Emily, a pigtailed native of Long Island, in an unusual limbo. As a citizen, she has the right to re-enter her country. But her parents are illegal immigrants, which has complicated the prospect of a reunion.

Today, Emily is in Guatemala, her parents are struggling to bring her home, and lawyers and federal officials are arguing over parental responsibility and citizenship rights. The Ruizes find themselves on the front lines of a heated immigration debate: how to treat families in which the parents are here illegally, while their children, born in the United States, are citizens.

Full story: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/23/nyregion/23citizen.html

Is this really what the Republicans want? For children to suffer the consequences of their parents' misdeeds?

[HEyHEY]

1. More republican family values for ya.

[LiberalAndProud]

2. No, this isn't exactly what the Republicons want.

What they want is to revoke Emily's citizenship. But you knew that, right?

[Horse with no Name]

15. You are so wrong.

Because what they really want is to NEVER give them citizenship in the first place.

[Angry Dragon]

3. You have to remember they do not care about anyone

except themselves. They do not care about their families, they do not care period.
They go through life with blinders. Seeing only their petty ideals of what life should be for everyone.
They care only for power and riches. They are just basic scum.

[dkf]

4. What did the parents expect would happen?

I don't understand why people expect things will be okay when you break the law. The child can stay here if someone agrees to take care of her. Otherwise she needs to wait until she is old enough to take care of herself and then she can come back.

What is crazy is thinking that you can come here illegally, have a child and that becomes your instant citizenship paper. If that were true, then there is no point to citizenship.

[alp227]

6. I agree, but please don't reinforce that right-wing "anchor baby" stereotype

I did a little research and found that from 1997-2007, 100,000 immigrants who were parents of children born in America had been deported. Do realize that some of the more bigoted Americans jumped on the "no more birthright citizenship" bandwagon for some obvious reasons. Also, of the 5.5 million children of I.I.'s, 4 million were born in the US.

Rep. Duncan Hunter, a Republican who represents a district around San Diego, Calif., advocated deporting natural-born Americans born to I.I.'s.

[proud2BlibKansan]

7. OMG

I would think families expect to be able to raise their children and to be treated humanely.

Humanely. Maybe you should look up the definition.

[Kali]

11. I think this is my very first: ++++10000000000000

thankyou

[RC]

5. To deport the grand father for a 20 year old infraction?

That is insane. No hearing. No chance of defending himself. Where is the legality here?

[SlipperySlope]

8. "Deport" isn't the right word.

If I understand the article, the grandfather was attempting to enter the country. He wasn't deported - he was denied entry.

[RC]

9. He had a valid work visa. He was living here.

[TorchTheWitch]

10. so?

He was denied entry for an old infraction that he was lucky enough to not have had catch up with him sooner. Having a work visa doesn't mean you can then do whatever you want. Obviously, there was an infraction that revoked the work visa. If it's something that can be resolved, than fine, he can get it resolved and THEN re-enter the country.

EVERY other country would do the same without batting an eye and have far more stringent immigration requirements. I never understood why anyone thinks it's so cruel of the US to be doing even less then what other countries require.

[Kali]

12. you seriously don't understand?

read up on nafta, for starters

then a little basic history of US-Mexico relations

[treestar]

14. He should at least have been able to have a hearing on whatever the issue

was. That's the part that doesn't make sense.

[treestar]

13. If they were going to have her make that trip, the parents should

have arranged for a US citizen to meet her at the airport. Though I guess they could not have predicted the grandfather would be denied entry. They did arrange for her to be with an adult legally allowed to come in, or so they thought. They just didn't know that the grandfather would end up unable to enter. Just an unfortunate set of events. They need to now find a US citizen relative to go and get her and return with her.