>www.bergen.com
>Some Trade Center families face deportation
>
>Monday, February 24, 2003
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>On a sunny day last May as an emotional ceremony was being held at Ground
>Zero ending the search for victims, a New York woman and her 5-year-old son
>were in deportation proceedings at an Immigration and Naturalization Service
>office only a few blocks away.
>It didn't matter that the woman's husband had died in the World Trade Center
>attacks and that he was among those being honored at the service that very
>day. According to the INS, the woman did not have the right to remain in
>this country.
>After a legal battle that some major law firms launched on her behalf, the
>INS finally backed down and decided not to deport the mother and child -at
>least for the time being. But one has to wonder why INS bureaucrats felt the
>need to treat the unfortunate family so insensitively.There are roughly 200
>other close relatives of 9/11 victims who face a similar nightmare of being
>deported as a result of the family member's death. About half are relatives
>of those who were in the United States on work visas that permitted their
>spouses and children to live here. The rest are the relatives of immigrants
>here illegally when they died in the attacks.
>Some members of Congress are trying to help these family members. U.S. Sens.
>Jon Corzine, D-N.J., and Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., sponsored a
>provision that would have prevented the deportation of these families for at
>least a year. Unfortunately it was dropped from a bill recently passed by
>Congress.
>Mr. Corzine plans to introduce legislation that would give either permanent
>residency or citizenship to relatives of victims who were here on temporary
>work visas when the 9/11 tragedy took place. That's only fair.
>These families deserve at least that much consideration. Just as the
>families of Sept. 11 victims who were American citizens received help after
>the attacks, so should these non-citizens. At the moment, there is little
>these families can do to improve their chances for staying in the country.
>While the INS says it will not pursue their deportation, there is no
>guarantee they wouldn't be deported if their paths happen to cross those of
>the agency.
>Without legal status, many of the spouses and children of those who died are
>prevented from working, obtaining a driver's license, or going to college.
>Many cannot apply for assistance from the Federal Victims Compensation Fund
>for the loss of their family member because they lack a Social Security
>number.
>Sadly, there has been a string of failed attempts by various elected
>officials and others to help these families. Last year, a measure that would
>have extended a provision allowing them to stay in the country legally
>failed on the Senate floor.
>Last month, New York Gov. George Pataki asked Attorney General John Ashcroft
>to give legal status to the survivors of workers who were in the country
>illegally as well as those who were here legally. In view of the horrible
>experiences they went through, people in both categories deserve that
>consideration.
>Congress should reconsider its reluctance to help these families stay in the
>country where their loved ones were slaughtered by terrorists. After all,
>isn't the United States known for its compassion?