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Deportation For Wrongly Accused Man?

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Michero

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http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/103...005-520438.html

I'm sad to say that this is my town:

Omar Lezama de la Rosa was wrongly thought to have been the perpetrator of a brutal subway rape. After his face was plastered all of the news media, he turned himself in. They soon realised that he was not the man they were looking for. Looking into his past they found that he'd been convicted of assaulting a police officer in 99, but they decided not to deport him then. Now immigration has decided to pursue getting Omar deported based on his original charge.

He is married to an American citizen and has a 16 month old son now. He has nothing in Mexico.

I think this is just awful. And could it be double jeopardy or is that reserved only for prosecution and not punishment?

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Unfortunately, a huge number of people the world over think that their governments should restrict immigration. Huge numbers of people try to immigrate to poor countries (from poorer neighbors). For instance, people from Bangladesh and Nepal walk across the border to get jobs in India. People in a famine-hit area in Africa get up and move across the border to a neighboring country. In almost all cases, when the number of immigrants is significant, the local population starts to complain: about a loss of jobs, a fall in pay, an erosion of the local culture.

The U.S. is probably the most "open" about immigration (followed perhaps by Australia and Canada). Part of the "openness" of the U.S. is because of its immigration laws. However, a large part of the U.S.'s openness is the result of not applying the existing law. This is not a desirable situation. The laws need changing. The problem is: there is no constituency of voters who would support such a thing (except the potential constituency of would-be "legals").

After 9/11, immigration authorities have started applying some of the laws more rigourously. They still do not go around trying to round up "illegals" except as an occasional "raid" (watch 'Mr. Anti-Immigrant' -- Lou Dobbs -- for stories). However, if an illegal is caught for an unrelated offence (as in the story to which you linked) the government is far more likely to deport him.

The recent activism by the "minutemen" indicates that there is a fair amount of support for keeping the lid on immigration, so -- in the short term -- I do not see too many changes for the better. Indeed, as a response to the "minutemen" the immigration service has been talking about taking on citizen-volunteers.

In the longer term, most other countries are opening up their economies and (other than Africa) a point will probably come a few decades from now, when people will not want to immigrate to the U.S. [For instance, study the immigration trend from Ireland to the US.] If Mexico can get its act together, that will be enough to lower the numbers; otherwise people will continue to come across and chances are that the laws will continue to get tighter.

Finally, Bush spoke of an amnesty: so there is at least a spark of hope in the existing political morass.

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But Omar isn't just an immigrant-- he's a citizen now.
Not according to the article you provided. It said "he legalized his residency when he married an American citizen" (emphasis mine). This means that he went from "illegal alien" to "legal, permanently resident alien". Since he did that in 1990, he might be eligible for citizenship. "Deportation" would not be the term use if he were a U.S. citizen; he must surely be an alien :lol: .

Edited to add: It is possible (but not mentioned in the article) that he lied during some part of the immigration and naturalization process (e.g. to the question: "have you ever been convicted of a crime?"). This would allow the government to strip him of his residency. There may be equivalent rules allowing the government to show that citizenship was gained through fraud, and thus to strip him of it; I do not know.

Edited by softwareNerd
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But Omar isn't just an immigrant-- he's a citizen now.
Do you have other information that indicates this? If he's a citizen, then first they have to revoke his citizenship, which can only be done for e.g. lying on his application (for example, lying about his conviction).
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Not according to the article you provided. It said "he legalized his residency when he married an American citizen" (emphasis mine). This means that he went from "illegal alien" to "legal, permanently resident alien". Since he did that in 1990, he might be eligible for citizenship. "Deportation" would not be the term use if he were a U.S. citizen; he must surely be an alienĀ  :lol: .

Edited to add: It is possible (but not mentioned in the article) that he lied during some part of the immigration and naturalization process (e.g. to the question: "have you ever been convicted of a crime?"). This would allow the government to strip him of his residency. There may be equivalent rules allowing the government to show that citizenship was gained through fraud, and thus to strip him of it; I do not know.

Oh my fault. I was under the impression for one reason or another that if an immigrant married an american citizen, they automatically became an american citizen themselves. I don't think he ever obtained citizenship then--not that I can see from reading the articles--it just says he made his residency legal by marriage.

I still think it's sad, but Omar should have applied for citizenship after he was married.

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