The title above is the title of a New York Times article published today. You can read it here.
The gist of the article is simple. The immigrant in question was not an illegal immigrant. He came to the USA from China (not Taiwan, but China) on a tourist visa and applied for political asylum in 1992. It takes years nowadays for decisions to be made. In 2001 an order to appear at an immigration hearing was sent to a wrong address. The government made the mistake on the address, not the immigrant. Since he did not show up, the judge ordered him deported.
However, by then the immigrant had finished high school, college, had gotten married, had children and was working. His wife had applied for his citizenship as married to an USA citizen. But, after 2001, many of our native xenophobes used the attack against us to pass draconian laws against anyone not born here. When he went to a green card hearing, in 2007, he was arrested by immigration agents on the pending deportation order and taken to jail, even though the government had made the original mistake, and even though he was following all the rules to get his green card, and even though the government knew his correct address throughout all those years since the mistaken 2001 notice. He was no flight risk, he had proven that time and again.
Now he is dead. He died of a fractured back and untreated cancer. You will, perhaps, say to me that this is an exception and that some bad apples spoil the barrel. Except . . . except . . . he is not the first death of untreated cancer this year in an immigration detention center. And the other death was in another center. In fact, those two are not even the only cases of unnecessary death or untreated medical illnesses in immigrant detention this year alone.
Sadly, he is not even the only person detained who was following all the rules, but got caught in an arcane system of post-2001 rules designed not for speed or efficiency, but to delay and postpone. The Constitution says that we need only live here 5 years to become a citizen. However, the application process, which cannot begin until you comply with that directive can take an additional 10 years. When I became a citizen, it took 5 years, and that was back in the 1970’s. As it was, if I had not been drafted, it would have taken longer. Nowadays, 5 years is a short time. And, I was LEGAL with a green card safely in place. The immigrant in question managed to be here 15 years, following the correct rules and had not even made it to a green card. By ways of bureaucratic regulations, we have managed to subvert the Constitution and tripled the time that our Constitution says it should take to be able to become a citizen. When I was young, we had only doubled it.
So, ask yourself, do you think we are still the greatest country on earth? Do you think that we are the home of the brave and the land of the free? As you watch court ruling after court ruling against the Guantanamo system, as you read stories about how we treat those not born here, do you still think that the world looks up to us for our stellar legal system?
A judge had to finally order that the immigrant get a medical examination. He went a whole year in immigrant detention without a full examination. He died 5 days after the examination. On a parallel case, Bin Laden’s driver was recently tried, after winning two Supreme Court rulings in his favor. He was found guilty on lesser charges, and then, in a surprise move, the military jury and judge sentenced him to only 5 years with credit for time served. This means that he could be out in 6 more months. The Bush administration, however, has responded by saying that even after he serves his time, we have the right to continue to hold him as an enemy combatant. He is willing to do by executive fiat what even the supposedly safe military judges were unwilling to do.
Sadly, this is common in the USA. There are immigrants in jail right now that have been held for years past the end of their sentence on the ground that they are now in deportation hearings (even those with a green card). This means that you can be sentenced to less than a year, but spend close to a decade in jail while your case is processed by immigration. Again, these are the draconian laws passed after 2001. Even if the immigrant wins the case and is allowed to stay in the USA, several years of their life are gone. And, did I mention that the article points out that you will be put under severe psychological (and medical) pressure to give up the fight, accept deportation, and never come back?
So, on this day, I must sadly say that the title of greatest country on earth has, sadly, slipped from our grasp. In fact, we are rapidly on our way to making the list of countries who routinely violate the human rights of a portion of our population.
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