Former Navy SEAL fights deporting of adopted son

[underpants]

Mods this story is hard to shrink down to only 4 paragraphs. Not very long just lots of facts and statements.

http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/story.cfm?story=64222&ran=79657



Julius attended school, his mother got a job and Schombs began a successful military career as a Navy SEAL. He took part in Operation Just Cause in Panama in 1989, and won numerous military awards, including the Defense Meritorious Service Medal.

Throughout his grueling commando training, and the special forces service that followed, Schombs assumed that when he adopted Julius, his son automatically became an American citizen.

He was wrong.

Julius, 22, currently is in the Piedmont Regional Jail in Farmville. He could be deported at any time.

The 5-foot-5 inch inmate does not know the native language of the Philippines and has only distant relatives there.

The immigration service began investigating Julius after he was caught with stolen video recorders in March 2000. Julius, who attended Green Run High School before dropping out, was 18 at the time. The other youths involved in the crimes were younger and were charged as juveniles. They have since enlisted in the military, Schombs said.

In July 2000, Julius pleaded guilty in Virginia Beach Circuit Court to felony charges of statutory burglary, grand larceny, and conspiracy, and to misdemeanor charges of obtaining money under false pretenses and possession of marijuana.

Julius made the guilty pleas thinking that he was a U.S. citizen, said Portsmouth attorney Stephen E. Heretick, who is helping Julius with his immigration problems.

Everything that now bedevils the Schombs family could have been avoided for an $80 citizenship application fee back in the 1980s.

“It would have been a simple matter of filling out a form,” Heretick said. “But nobody knew it or considered it a problem. It just didn’t occur to anyone.”

St. Brides officials were so impressed with Julius that several attended his immigration hearings to lend moral support.

[DoNotRefill]

1. Warner should grant the kid a pardon and restore his rights....

That'd go a long way towards ending the problem.

[chasqui]

2. The 'KID' is 22 years old

He is not a kid anymore, he is an adult with all the responsibilities and rights that come with that status. The fact that he is not a citizen, and has a lousy ability to sustain himself in the Phillipines should be mitigating factors in this case. But a pardon is ridiculous, he commited crimes, and he should pay for it.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

3. oy vey

[DoNotRefill]

4. Ah.

I thought that's what he did by being in jail.

From reading the article, I got the distinct impression that his family thought that by being adopted, he became a naturalized citizen.

[underpants]

5. Well I would have

but I don't know how that works. I guess no one really worried much about it.

As far as him PAYING for his crimes he has. He did his time and apparently was actually rehabilitated (what a concept).