[lbo-talk] Homeland Sec Protects Us From Journalist

[J Cullen]

I know a guy from the Austin area whose mother, an Irish native who 
has been married to a retired Defense Department veteran for more 
than 30 years but only recently applied for permanent residency, 
because most of her postings were overseas anyway. After she applied 
for her green card but before she got permanent residency status she 
went home to Ireland for a wedding and was denied re-entry to the US 
because she had failed to apply for an "advance parole," which she 
didn't know she needed.  Now she's stuck in Ireland. Ashcroft's 
Justice Department could waive the requirement on a humanitarian 
basis, noting that her husband is an Alzheimer's patient and needs 
her care, but it chooses not to.

The threat of a bureaucratic snafu causing deportation or denial of 
re-entry is apparently a matter of major concern in the immigrant 
community, but like you say, most Americans could care less.

-- Jim Cullen


>It's scary and depressing how hostile the U.S. government has gotten 
>to foreigners. A British friend who's a freshly naturalized U.S. 
>citizen is having severe problems with the authorities over his 
>lawful wife, who'd be arrested if she ever set foot back in her 
>native Uzbekistan. Another Brit friend is having trouble bringing 
>over his Spanish girlfriend for an extended visit. And these are all 
>educated people from countries who are supposedly our good allies in 
>the war on terror. Obviously there are thousands more stories, and 
>more horrible stories, but one of the good things about the U.S. 
>used to be its relative hospitality to foreigners. Now that's gone, 
>and you don't hear much complaint about it.
>
>Doug