Just in case anyone is tempted to fall for Bush's newfound love of immigrants, here's a flashback to one of the most incredible stories of the war:
http://engforum.pravda.ru/showthread.php3?s=&threadid=48350
Dearly Deported
Just months after Zeferino Colunga Sr. lost his GI son in Iraq, the government arrested him and sent him back to Mexico.
By Eric Boehlert
Dec. 11, 2003 (Salon) U.S. Army soldier Zeferino Colunga Jr. died four months ago from a mysterious illness he contracted while serving in Iraq and was buried with full honors in a Texas cemetery. Last week, with the family still in mourning, the soldier's father was deported to Mexico as an illegal immigrant. Now family members wonder if the deportation of Zeferino Colunga Sr. was connected to their public demand for an independent investigation into the young soldier's death.
The son's passing, and now the father's deportation, have shocked and saddened many in the small Texas community of Bellville, 60 miles west of Houston, where the Colungas have lived for nearly 20 years. But the U.S. Department of Homeland Security insists the death and the deportation were completely unrelated. And a review of the facts suggests the family may simply be suffering from a cruel twist of fate. But even the Austin County, Texas, sheriff who handled the case doesn't think it's fair that the still-grieving father was deported so soon after his son was buried.
"Sometimes I see things that I don't totally agree with even though I'm a lawman doing my job, and this is one of those times," says Sheriff DeWayne Burger. "Maybe my patriotism gets the best of me, but the man gave up his only son to serve the United States, and now we're deporting him?"
<snip>
Three months later, the elder Colunga, a mechanic and truck driver, was picked up on an outstanding warrant for having entered the country illegally in 1999. He was deported Dec. 5. He had been deported once before, in 1993, after pleading guilty to an aggravated felony charge of marijuana possession in 1987. "He was removed in '93 as an aggravated felon. After he was deported he came back, but he can't reenter the United States if he's an aggravated felon," says Louisa Aquino, spokeswoman for the Houston office of the Department of Homeland Security, which now oversees deportations.
"Tragic as his son's death may be, it's irrelevant to this case," Aquino says. "Based on the laws on the books, we don't have any recourse but to remove illegal reentries. This case does not qualify for any hardship."
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