Nick News Presents I'm American! They're Not!

Sunday, March 16, at 9:00 P.M. (ET/PT) on Nickelodeon

There are more than three million American-born kids of undocumented immigrants living in the United States. The kids are Americans citizens, but their parents are not. The Emmy award-winning series Nick News with Linda Ellerbee delves into the lives of Mexican-American kids trapped in a political situation they didn't cause and can't fix - in I'm American! They're Not!, premiering Sunday, Mar. 16, at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT on Nickelodeon.

Click here for the full story

Sister and Brother, One Undocumented, One Legal

Click here for the Story

This is the story of Julia and Gustavo who came here at age 11 for her and at age 18 for him. Gustavo is a legal immigrant now after marrying his wife who was an American citizen. (just like our ex-undocumented Australian and Irish American Idol contestants). Like many immigrants that overstay their visas, they come from a well educated family that fled instability and violence in their native country.

Since getting his green card, Gustavo likes to make jokes. Bad ones. He'll say something like, "What are we gonna do with all these illegals?" and smile.

Though they came to the United States on the same flight, Julia and Gustavo have adapted to the caprices of immigration policy and undocumented life in starkly different ways: she, by working hard in school and trying to attend college; he, by marrying an American citizen.

Julia is not rewarded

And while Gustavo can laugh about it, Julia is looking for someone to blame. "I know other kids, American kids, they've been here all their life," she says. "They could care less about going to college. But I can't go to school. I can't work. I can't do pretty much anything."

I also like how this article discusses marriage, undocumented students, and the reason why they came to the U.S. Many people have no choice but to flee their native countries. Also, too many people think it's as easy as marrying an American citizen. Julia is 18 and has never had a boyfriend. Think back and try to remember who you were dating at the age of 18. Think if you married that person. shudders. For most of us, it's a scary thought. 18 is too young to get married and Gustavo being married at the age of 21 was too young as well but forced into it by his situation. It's no surprise it didn't last. An undocumented student once told a reporter that her boyfriend asked her to marry her after a few weeks of dating in an effort to help her become legal. She wouldn't do it because she considered it form of prostitution. To many people especially immigrants, marriage still means something.

Plus, not everyone can simply become legal by marrying a citizen. Immigration laws are complicated and depend on the situation. Click here and here of examples of spouses not being able to adjust to legal status.

Mixed Status Families

I found this interesting thread over at the DREAM Act Portal. It's a great window into the lives of undocumented immigrants. 28 out of 37 immigrants brought here as children are part of a "mixed status" family, which just means there are both documented and undocumented individuals all in one family. It explores the variety of odd yet heartbreaking situations created by our immigration laws.

Click here for the thread

The pictures are all of mixed status families, click on the images to view their stories.

Oklahoma's 1804 Law - Targeting American Citizens

"They've made me into a criminal for being married to my wife," Victor Algarin says about life in Oklahoma. "The law states that if I'm harboring an illegal immigrant, I'm breaking the law. What am I supposed to do? Kick my wife out of the house?"

Here is a link to a post describing how Oklahoma's new anti-immigration climate has hurt other American citizens, including contributing to the death of an innocent baby.

Vigil for Sarjina Emy

Sarjina Emy is a 19 year old teenager who has been detained at the Broward Transitional Center for over seven months. Sarjina came to this country when she was four years old. Her parents have already been deported. The family's lawyer Dr. Petia Knowles has a case pending in Federal Court to keep Sarjina and her brothers here, but is asking ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) to release them to their friends and family while their cases are pending. This vigil is to ensure that ICE knows how much Florida cares about Sarjina's family.

Before all this happened to me I had a good life, good people around me,and a good family, We never did anything to hurt anyone. But now I feel we have lost everything. My family is torn apart. I haven’t seen my mom in 7 months, since the day they took us and split us up. I can only see my brothers for an hour and a half every week, even though they are in the same facility. I spent my birthday and every holiday in jail (Broward Transitional Center).

Date:	Friday, February 22, 2008
Time:	12:00pm - 5:00pm
Location:	In front of Broward Transitional Center
Street:	3900 N. Powerline Rd.
City/Town:	Deerfield Beach, FL

Sarjina did nothing wrong yet she is being jailed for over 7 months for something she unwittingly did as a four year old. If Florida residents have any sense of justice, they will come out and support her.

If you would like to learn more about the conditions in detention facilities click here and here.

Her brothers Sam and Rumy were also brought here as children. Since their detention, Rumy is expecting his first child with his wife Solange, a US Citizen. Sam's wife, Munmun, a Legal Resident soon to become a citizen, has lost her home because she could no longer afford to live there due to her husband's detention.

Here is a statement from Sam's wife.

"All that I can say is I really want my family back. I have no support here. I didn't work before. My husband was the one that supported me. Since my husband has been detained I have been really sad and depressed. I can't sleep. I wake up in the middle of the night with bad panic attacks. I even had to go to the hospital and even saw a psychiatrist. I have to take sleeping pills to sleep. I work every day to support myself. Last month, we lost our home because we couldn't afford it. I feel like we have been left with nothing. I really hope my husband can come back home. I really wish we can all be a family again. "

Click here for a news story on Sarjina.

Widow Gets to Stay - For Now

The former Corina de Chalup’s immigration journey began in 1990, when her fiance came to the United States with his Croatian band. While in New Jersey, he was hit by a car driven by a speeding teen and badly hurt, according to Colbert. Emergency room doctors didn’t notice a broken vertebra, though, and because of the error, Maro ended up a quadriplegic.

When told her fiance was hurt, Turcinovic (Corina) obtained a “visa waiver” to enter the country and be at his side. Under the waiver, a foreign national may stay 90 days and then must leave to apply for a visa.
“She came here with no intention of ever staying,” Bill May explained. But it became clear Maro couldn’t be moved in 90 days. Rather than leave the country — and Maro, who had no relatives here —Turcinovic stayed and married Maro, Colbert said.

He died in 2004 — before he could become a U.S. citizen. If Maro Turcinovic had become a citizen, it would have given his wife a better chance of getting a green card. Immigration officials bungled Maro’s naturalization process. Maro had filled out all of the paperwork and submitted a waiver stating he could not travel to take the oath as a citizen, nor could he travel to submit fingerprints because he was paralyzed from the neck down. Immigration officials told Maro an agent would be sent to his home to take his fingerprints. But that never happened. Instead, Maro got a notice that his application had been canceled for lack of fingerprints.

And on Dec. 28, police officers came knocking at her door and arrested her.
“I saw the police, and I opened with a big smile, because I thought they were looking for a bad guy,” Turcinovic told the Sun-Times earlier this month. “It turned out I was the bad guy.”

Click here for the Full Article

She has a temporary stay of deportation thanks in part to congressman Lipinski but she is not out in the clear yet.

Tearing a Family Apart

The bathroom situation in the village was worse than Mike Brown imagined. No running water to flush the toilet. Heating water on the stove to bathe. And the flimsy curtain over the doorway provided little privacy.

But he was determined to make the best of it. He had no choice.

It was the Christmas holidays. Brown was visiting his wife, Virginia Carrillo, and son, Bryan.

Their separation began in September the day the family applied for legal status for Carrillo, Brown's illegal-immigrant wife. They hoped Carrillo would qualify for a green card based on her marriage and child to Brown. Instead, Carrillo was barred from returning to the U.S. for 10 years.

Now, the family is forced to live separately on opposite sides of the U.S.-Mexican border.
Brown, 44, lives in Mesa. Carrillo, 29, lives in Mexico. She is raising their son Bryan, a U.S. citizen who turned 3 in December.
Click here for the full story

No time in American History have immigrant family members of U.S. citizens been treated so poorly. Bryan could easily grow up to be senator Pete Domenici who is himself the child of a U.S. citizen father and undocumented immigrant mother. The only difference, back then immigration laws were more compassionate and allowed Senator Domenici's mother to adjust into a legal immigrant instead of being separated from her family.

To see more instances of families being torn apart by immigration, click here , here, and here

Oklahoma's Anti-immigration Climate

Oklahoma used to have a positive view of migrants. They even allowed children who grew up in Oklahoma but did not have legal status to pay in-state tuition. Last year that all changed and the new climate in Oklahoma made it possible for a harsh new law regrading migrants known as bill number number 1804. However, some of the harshest consequences of this new climate have been felt by innocent US Citizens.

Recently a 2 month old baby died as result of the hostile climate put forth by measures such as 1804.

Edgar Castorena was sick and his undocumented parents had nowhere to turn. If they took him to the hospital, they could be taken in and deported. So they waited, when Edgar did not become better his parents made a difficult choice and took him in anyways knowing they would be deported and Edgar would be either be destined to a life of extreme poverty in Mexico with them or as an orphan in the U.S. foster care system. Sadly, Edgar would not live to face either fate. It was too late and he passed away soon after being taken to a medical facility. If his parents had been able to take him to a hospital at the first sign of illness like most other parents without fear of losing their son or giving him a future in extreme poverty Edgar would have lived.


Last year we heard about a U.S. citizen who was arrested on felony charges under 1804 for giving her boyfriend who happened to be an undocumented immigrant a ride.
Here is the definition of a felony if you don't know: A serious crime usually punishable by a prison term of more than one year.

Prison time for giving your boyfriend a ride and death for being born to undocumented parents. What happened to people's sense of justice?

Tearing Families Apart

Click here for the full story

Now Zekri "Zack" Paputchi, owner of The Old Mill Run Pizzeria in Sciota, is frantically fighting to stop the federal immigration officials from deporting his wife, Rukie, who, like Zack, is a native Bulgarian.

After nearly 16 years in this country, including 11 in Monroe County, she's under arrest, lodged in Pike County Jail and facing deportation. And after many years serving pizzas here, after the birth of two children in the United States and despite an unblemished record here.

After 16 years the government wants to uproot this woman and send her to a hostile nation. What is the point of this? This family owns a successful business and are raising 2 U.S. citizen children. What does the government have to benefit by tearing this family apart?

This reminds me of another case where the government went after a doctor and his wife after 20 years of building a life here. Click here for their story

Senator Pete Domenici

Click here for the full story

"During the heated immigration debate on Capitol Hill, some Republicans have portrayed immigrants as invaders, criminals and burdens to society. But for Senator Pete V. Domenici, Republican of New Mexico, the image that comes to mind is that of his mother and the day the authorities took her away.

It was 1943, World War II was raging, and federal agents were sweeping through Albuquerque hunting for Italian sympathizers. They found Mr. Domenici's mother, Alda V. Domenici, a curly-haired mother of four and a local PTA president who also happened to be an illegal immigrant from Italy. Mr. Domenici, who said he was 9 or 10 years old then, wept when his mother vanished with the agents in their big black car.

Now 73, Mr. Domenici surprised many of his colleagues when he stood up on the Senate floor last week and shared the story, which he has kept mostly to himself for much of his life."

His mother was brought to the US as a child and had this been the situation today she would have been eligible (provided she completed at least 2 years of college or joined the military) for the DREAM Act.

The sad irony is Pete Domenici voted against the DREAM Act only a couple months ago. I wonder if Pete let any of the hate mail labeling him an "anchor baby" contribute to such a blatant disregard of his heritage.

Click here for Sen. Domenici's orginal speech regarding his mother

Deporting a Doctor and His Wife After 20yrs

Full Story
"Immigrants Pedro and Salvacion Servano have been model U.S. residents since arriving from the Philippines in the 1980s.

Pedro Servano, 54, is a prominent family doctor in an underserved area of central Pennsylvania. His 51-year-old wife runs a grocery store and bakery.

But a change in their marital status during their visa application process more than two decades ago has come back to haunt them, and now they are facing possible deportation back to the Philippines."

Letters of support to the government have poured in from local dignitaries, Servano's patients and even someone from the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE.

"I fervently believe in the ICE mission. However, the Servanos did not sneak into this country illegally, they have broken no laws, and they have not been a burden to the economy. They pose no threat," DHS counterterrorism operative Bill Schweigart wrote in a letter obtained by The Daily Item of Sunbury. "I cannot fathom how deporting the Servanos fulfills any portion of the ICE mission. In fact, I would argue the action runs counter to it."

They have to leave at the end of the year.

This is so depressing.