5th grader could be deported without mom

[deadparrot]

LOS ANGELES - At the age of just 8, Jonathan Martinez and a teenage cousin set out from El Salvador to the United States in search of his mother, whom he hadn't seen for four years.

U.S. Border Patrol agents caught Jonathan trying to cross the border into Arizona and turned him over to his mother.

Now 10, he's learned English, joined a soccer team and generally embraced life as an American fifth grader — except that Jonathan isn't here legally, and on Monday a judge could order him deported back to El Salvador.

Though his mother has been living and working legally near Los Angeles, a wrinkle in immigration law doesn't let her apply to keep him here.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060910/ap_on_re_us/immigration_minors

[Kagemusha]

1. I'm sure a lot of Americans would be outraged if she could keep him.

Rewarding bad behavior.

Edit: Excuse me. "bad behavior," in quotation marks.

[lostnfound]

2. That is so sad and horrible.

What a twisted, awful world we live in.

[napi21]

3. Who writes these laws? Do they have NO common sense?

If you're going to issue a Temp.immigrent status to a parent,what are you supporting? Didn't anyoneTHInk that a child might just want ot join his parent(s)?

I am totally against illegal immigrants, sneaking across the border. The AH's that hire them...only to use themfor cheap labor should be fined and imprisoned if the number of illegals they hired washigh enough. But if our Country is going to offer temporary legal status to someone,they should have given some thought to that person's family!

Geesh! What the hell has happened to common sense

[sandnsea]

5. They're supposed to wait in line

Families have a choice how they come into this country, if they don't want to come without their family, they shouldn't come. She made her choice, where's her responsibility? Maybe she was willing to make the sacrifice, why should our government stop her?

Just saying what the right wing nuts would say. I think it's a stupid policy. They go flippo over Elian, but send other kids out every day and don't bat an eye. Just pathetic.

[Sterling]

16. She sounds like a terrible parent.

Seriously what kind of people leave their children behind and move to another country. What kind of people let smugglers carry their children across the boarder like this. That is the most irresponsible bullshit I have ever heard. DHS should deport the parent and put the child in a foster home.
Bets to send mom and son back together. Families belong together. And immigration laws should be respected, period.

[High Plains]

19. That is a really, really stupid comment.

Whoever wrote obviously has no clue about why someone would uproot themselves and move thousands of miles away to a foreign land.

The mother is in the country legally. You would still deport her?

Nothing like the Ugly American.

[nodehopper]

20. I agree, this is a really stupid comment

People leave their children and move to another country when it's the only way they can provide for their children, because the IMF and the World Bank has screwed the countries of Latin America so badly that in many places finding menial work in the US is still more auspicious than staying put.

[Alameda]

24. leaving a child behind

<<Seriously what kind of people leave their children behind and move to another country>>

A parent that wants/needs/has the chance to earn enough $$$ to help their family back home....that's who. How many know where their children are all the time. Don't we know how creative children can be. I'm sure she left him in the care of a family member....maybe even her own parents?

[Sterling]

35. More like left him in the care of coyotes

That is what they call the people that smuggle people across the border.

[LostinVA]

37. Oh boy

[dionysus]

34. you sound more and more linke a winger every time you post lately

[LostinVA]

38. I agree with you except for one thing:

What do you mean, "lately"?

[LostinVA]

36. Good grief -- I hope you thank your gods, fate, luck every day

That you were born in such circumstances that you NEVER have to make a decision like this woman did.

Ugh. I shouldn't be surprised you posted this.

[gorbal]

6. Not to mention the fact that we need more LEGAL immigrants

People working for slave wages in one thing, but there were many famers who didn't have enough help to pick fruit off their trees this year.

Once a kid goes to school and sets up in a neighborhood he becomes a part of his community, he isn't just some nobody you can just throw across the border willy nilly.

[Doremus]

10. I dunno ... the obverse of that coin is that they'd have plenty of

applicants if they paid a living wage.

Letting more immigrants in to supply the low-end labor market is enabling the exploitation of human beings.

If the growers can't get help, they need to raise the wages and/or benefits they're offering. If they need to get by on less profit or raise their prices to pay for it, so be it. I personally would rather eat my salad knowing someone didn't make slave wages picking it.

[Bridget Burke]

13. Whose job is Jonathan Martinez stealing?

Since he's living in the USA & getting an education--I doubt he'll settle for "slave wages."

[Doremus]

23. Uh, I don't think I said anything about that, but thanks for playing. n/t

[hedgehog]

18. You have spoken the answer that dare not say its name!

What an amazing notion! Increase legal immigration from the neighborhood! The problem is the traditional xenophobia against people "not like us": heaven help the politician who dares to recognize the obvious. I suspect that over the years, most immigration to the US took place in the absence of immigration laws and/or quotas. I can count several people in my family, including my grandmother, who slipped into this country illegally. Wait your turn, indeed!

[kestrel91316]

15. Easy solution to the dilemna without caving in to the illegal imm issue

in this case: give the kid temporary resident status so he can stay with his mom, but tell the mom that when he turns 18 he has to go back, and it's up to her whether or not she goes back with him now, or then. I am opposed to EVER giving permanent status to anyone who came illegally. There have to be understandable consequences for violating the law.

[Maat]

21. Well, I support giving the child a permanent visa.

I believe in families being together; she can make a living wage her. There is obviously a need for her to be here. I welcome her, and I welcome her family.

[LostinVA]

39. Bingo, Maat

[Maat]

42. Thanks for the "Bingo!" I appreciate it.

I'm a retired social worker (who has moved on to another career after adopting our daughter). I believe it is critical to keep families together - HERE - if one of the members is entitled to be here (immediate family - parents, children). I welcome them.

Our problem is not with the hardworkers, or their kids/parents; it is with exploitive employers. Let's address the issue THAT WAY, and preclude employers from being exploitive.

[Nikia]

26. Why should he be prevented from becoming a permanent resident?

If she eventually becomes a permanent resident or citizen.
Why should someone be penelyzed for life for something they did when they were eight? In some places, 8 year olds cannot even be charged for crimes.

[kestrel91316]

33. I don't think of it as "being penalized for life". I think of it as loss

of a privilege.

Permanent residency and citizenship are privileges, not rights (for those not born here).

No citizen of another country should be entitled to such rights by mere virtue of being clever enough to evade our laws.

On edit: I personally think this MOTHER is the one who messed up by leaving her child behind. WHAT WAS SHE THINKING?? There is nothing stopping her from returning to where she came from to be with family.

[LostinVA]

40. What was she thinking? She was thinking she was helping her family

With a better quality of life.

This isn't unusual for immigrants to do -- they've been doing since the United States has HAD immigrants. And, they also did it for the same reason.

[rocktivity]

4. If they weren't legal, were they turned over to his mother?

Because though she's in the US legally, she's not an American citizen? The judge should rule in her favor because the boys should have been turned away when they were apprehended.

:crazy:
rocknation

[Dogmudgeon]

7. He broke the rules. There must be consequences.

Isn't that what most Americans -- including most DUers -- have to say about them hoss-thievin' brown-skinned people from South of the Border?

Oil the whips and prepare the rack!

--p!
Give us your Whites, your Asians, your well-educated Elites, yearning to breathe free ...

[Roy]

8. Why don't we send him to Miami......

Those that wanted to ignore the law for Elian Gonzalez it would seem, would be advocates for this child.

But, The same people that want to severe this child from his mother argues that it is now ONLY about what is legal, nothing else matters.
And no, differences between the two countries politics is not germane if as they argue it is only about what is legal and what is not.

With ideologues.... it not about the crime..... it is about who is accused of the crime.

[matcom]

9. Bet Lou & Pat are thrilled

:eyes:

[Lurking Dem]

11. My Chinese doctor

has a green card. Two of her kids came here with her and they finally got green cards. Her youngest son just came over and he has to wait 5-8 years for a green card.

He cannot go to China to visit his father or his grandparents. His father works for the Chinese government so he is not allowed to visit the U.S. (China will not let him).

I think that is child abuse. It's amazingly cruel.

[Xenotime]

12. No child left behind also applies to deportation

[Ilsa]

14. Let's hope the judge uses judgment. Not the

RW, George W. Bush* "compassionate conservatism", but real Christ-like compassion.

[pinerow]

17. Simple solution...we'll pretend he came from Cuba, and that Fidel

wants him back...:wtf:

[w4rma]

22. The judge hasn't deported the kid, without his mother, yet.

Hopefully the judge isn't some right-wing loyalist, Federalist Society, Bush appointee.

[Nikia]

25. I thought that legal immigrants could bring their minor children

It seems to not be the case. That definitely needs to be changed.

[Benhurst]

27. After the mayhem and death we rained down on El Salvador

during the Reagan and Bush years, I think it wouldn't be all that bad for us to take in one little boy who wishes us no harm.

God, it's embarrassing to be an American these days.

[VegasWolf]

28. This is what Bush brain considers Compassionate Conservatism. nt

[UndertheOcean]

29. Haven't you heard ? the USA must maintain an Anglo majority ...

thats the crux of the matter.

[Eugene]

30. AP: Judge Says Immigrant Child Can Stay

Judge Says Immigrant Child Can Stay


Tuesday September 12, 2006 5:01 AM

By PETER PRENGAMAN

Associated Press Writer

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A 10-year-old Salvadoran boy who was apprehended
while trying to cross the U.S. border on his own to find his mother
can stay in America at least until next summer, an immigration judge
ruled Monday.

Judge William Martin's decision means Jonathan Martinez can live
with his mother in Inglewood while the family prepares an asylum claim
to keep him here, lawyer Julianne Donnelly said. That case is expected
to be heard in August.

-snip-

Full article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6074000,00.html

[proud2BlibKansan]

41. Great!

[Lurking Dem]

43. Does anyone know

how difficult an asylum claim might be to prove? I hope some good lawyers volunteer to help them.

[sadiesworld]

31. Another sad immigration story from the cheap labor PR dept.

[Javaman]

32. America, land of inopportunity. nt