Stupid and cruel. Woman, 38, ordered back to Mexico after lifetime in U.S.

[cali]

TACOMA, Wash. - A 38-year-old Omak woman who was taken from a Mexican orphanage as a baby and adopted by a U.S. family has been ordered back to Mexico after a judge ruled she never legally immigrated to the United States.

Tara Ammons Cohen, who has lived in the U.S. virtually her entire life and is married with three children, thought her mother had legally adopted her when she was a child and that she was an American citizen.

But an immigration judge ruled Thursday that she has no choice but to order Cohen deported back to Mexico, because her adoptive family never actually completed her immigration paperwork when she was a child.

Cohen says she has no family in Mexico, doesn't speak Spanish and is frightened at the prospect of facing life in a foreign country she knows little or nothing about.

<snip>

http://www.komonews.com/news/local/111629494.html

[Angry Dragon]

1. This country is totally insane

we need to tear down the Statue of Liberty, return it to France, and get our Eiffel Tower back
Because I guess we are done using it and the Eiffel would be good for tourism

[hlthe2b]

2. Stupid and cruel, indeed

[PDJane]

3. This is the third case of something like this I've heard

in less than a week. The US has lost whatever credibility it had, and is marching to fascism.

[davidinalameda]

4. I'm confused

she told the authorities that while she was in rehab, she was trying to work out her immigration status

when did she find out that her parents didn't complete the paperwork?

the thing that kills me is that her husband won't move to Mexico with her

granted there are parts of Mexico which are dangerous but not the whole country; it seems like he's doing his part to break up their family

[CBGLuthier]

6. The US of fucking A is breaking this family up.

Sorry but mexico is a shithole and I don't blame anyone for not wanting to live there including all the illegals that come from there.

[ZombieHorde]

10. They might think the children are better off here in the States. nt

[Poll_Blind]

5. Can't this sort of thing be fixed by the governor or somebody?

Because that's a terrible thing to do to someone who is, for all intents and purposes, a U.S. citizen.

PB

[xxqqqzme]

7. No senator, congress critter or

governor has been contacted? Is her husband a US citizen? If he is, she should at least be able to get a green card as a permanent resident. I would think that married w/ 3 kids would rule out a marriage for citizenship charge. This is crazy.

[cali]

9. yes, I think her husband is a citizen- at least there's no indication

in the story that he's not. I don't see how she can be deported under the circumstances.

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

8. She needs to fight this! Also what about the 10+ years she has worked here in the USA

and was paying into SS ? I wonder if she can get any of it?

[ZombieHorde]

11. The concept, Rule of Law, needs to be abandoned.

It does not apply to the wealthy, it only fucks the poor.

[ExTheUnknown]

12. That is just plain wrong

If an exception is warranted, this poor woman should be granted one.

[Monique1]

13. That is why the Dram Act should be

enacted.

[tammywammy]

14. How do you accidentally use someone's ATM card?

That's what stuck out at me, sure grab the wrong purse, but the ATM thing doesn't make sense.

:shrug:

And you'd think there would be a way for her to get a green card since she's married to a citizen.

edited to add: Okay, thinking about this, she could have used the card at a place that doesn't require a PIN, but I was thinking an ATM machine. Okay, so I could see how it's plausible to use someone's card accidentally, possibly.

[BlueCheese]

17. She's not perfect, obviously.

That part of the story isn't very plausible. On the other hand, I'm not really sure why that incident was included in the story, other than maybe to explain how she was noticed by the authorities in the first place?

[tammywammy]

18. I have to agree it's not very plausible

Regarding the card, I'm sure yes, if it's an non-PIN transaction she could accidentally use another's ATM card, but then wouldn't the friend have a different wallet? I dunno, seems strange.


Regardless, it's not a reason to deport her. I really wonder if there's a reason she cannot apply for a green card through her husband.

[BlueCheese]

23. I posted an article below.

It's because she pleaded guilty to a felony regarding the prescription pills. It sounds like she got some bad advice in that regard, ironically because people didn't know she wasn't technically naturalized.

[SoCalDem]

22. she's in a pickle, but again, a story with lots of "oddities"

....... thought her mother had legally adopted her when she was a child and that she was an American citizen.

.........accidentally took her neighbor's purse,

........ the purse contained prescription drugs, she said.

.........used her ATM card.

.........got rid of the purse.

........cops showed up at my house, ........I said, 'Yes, I did do it,'" said Cohen.

..........sentence of three months

...........undergoing drug treatment, Cohen told authorities she was trying to sort out her immigration status.

........... the second time that a court has ruled against her in her immigration case, and Fitting says she had no choice but to rule against Cohen.

...........husband has said he will not move to Mexico with his wife, if she loses all appeals, because it is too dangerous for their three children.



those phrases jumped out at me..

No woman "accidentally" takes another's purse and doesn't IMMEDIATELY realize that the "stuff" in it is not hers

I realize that alcohol & drug abuse clouds one's judgement, but the fact that the cops went to HER house means that a police report was filed and that she broke the law.

It sucks that this is happening to her, but I don't buy the fact that she did not "know" she was not a citizen... When she entered school, she had to have a birth certificate, and at her age, she probably had to again show it when she got a driver's license ( my oldest is a year off from her age, and we had to send off for a copy of his because we could not find it)

Again when she married, she needed that birth certificate.

At each juncture, the place of birth would have been there. Immigration issues have been at the forefront for DECADES, so she cannot claim now that she thought she was "legal".

What gets me is that a legal adoption does not convey citizenship.. I thought it did.

She's got an odd marriage too.

I feel for her, but in the current climate, she's S.O.L.

[DustyJoe]

15. Somethings Wrong

I was adopted from a German orphanage by American parents and still had to go through the naturalization process when I was 10 years old. Unless something has really changed in the adoption process, then the parents and INS dropped the ball probably 25-35 years ago.

[BlueCheese]

16. Geez.

She's been here so long that she probably qualified for the 1986 immigration amnesty.

[FLAprogressive]

19. she's obviously an Al Qaeda drug smuggling terrorist trying to take jobs from real Americans

Shame on her. She should know better than to break the laws of this country!!

:sarcasm:

[BlueCheese]

20. Much more in this article.

http://www.thenewstribune.com/2010/03/29/1127368/an-illusion-of-citizenship-woman.html#ixzz17eyijkXc

A lot of things had to go wrong for this to happen--legal snafus here and there. She certainly didn't help her own cause, but it seems she still deserves the same rights as US citizens in not being deported.

[tammywammy]

25. Sad she didn't listen to her sister back in 2003/2004

When her sister told her she wasn't a citizen. What a shame.

[Spider Jerusalem]

21. This is one of the more fucked up aspects of US immigration law.

In the UK, if you've been in the country for 14 years, either legally or illegally, you qualify for legal settlement ("indefinite leave to remain", as it's called), and are eligible for British citizenship a year after getting indefinite leave to remain. Which seems fair and reasonable; more so than deporting someone to a country they left years before and with which they no longer have any meaningful connection, anyway.

[Mike 03]

24. Cruel beyond belief. N/T

[StarsInHerHair]

26. she is married to another American-yes? Then this is illegal-yes? It's judicial

racism.

[Hello_Kitty]

27. Marriage to a US citizen does not guarantee automatic legal status anymore. eom

[StarsInHerHair]

29. when did this change?

nt

[Hello_Kitty]

30. Years ago. Another gift from Ronnie Raygun. eom

[Luciferous]

28. She refused to get a green card and now that she's a felon she can't get one

so she will be deported. I felt sorry for her when reading the OP, but after reading the whole story, not so much. She brought a lot of it on herself by not taking care of it when she found out 7 years ago.

[sakabatou]

31. *facepalm*