The Clipboard: Woman deported from U.S. spends night back in Venezuela at park

From an article¹:

Silmi is barred from returning to the United States for 10 years for failing to obey a 2001 order to leave, according to Greg Palmore, spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement under Homeland Security.

Silmi arrived at Caracas' international airport on March 31, lugging her belongings in a trash bag. With some of the several hundred dollars given to her by charities, she took a cab to the central city of San Felipe, where she thought people she once knew might live.

She got lost and spent the night in a park. The next day, she traveled to the industrial city of Valencia, where a family took her in. They somehow knew her parents, but to her they are strangers — poor people who can't put her up for long.

Born in Venezuela to Palestinian parents, Silmi moved to New York with her family in 1990. She was 21 at the time and had a temporary visitor's visa.

A few months later she married a legal immigrant but the marriage lasted less than a year. When it ended, so did her right to stay in the country.

Six months pregnant with her first child, she moved in with her parents. She soon married again, this time to another immigrant she met during visit to the sister in Cleveland.

She had two more children, including Belal, who is autistic and needs special care that his mother says he would probably not get in Venezuela.

In 2000, her life began to unravel. During a family vacation to Niagara Falls, her husband took a wrong turn and ended up in Canada.

That's when U.S. immigration officials learned of Silmi's status. She says it was also the first time she learned her husband had two felony convictions that could cost him his green card.

Silmi decided to get her own green card and leave her husband. She secretly took high school equivalency classes and got her degree in 2003. But just as she started taking control of her life, her hopes for residency crumbled.

In December, her husband was deported Ramallah, West Bank, after being convicted of trafficking in food stamps before their marriage. Immigration officials ordered Silmi to surrender on Feb. 4.

Her lawyers tried to delay her deportation so she could apply for a visa under the Violence Against Women Act. Supporters say the law protects women like Silmi, who says her husbands were abusive and prevented her from fully understanding her rights. (link)

I've been following this story for awhile because of Kucinich's involvement in it. What great threat was this woman that she had to be deported and barred from re-entering the country for 10 years? As far as I can tell, her only crime was marrying a man who had committed one. Now she's back in a country she hardly knows, with few contacts and little money, separated from her children. And what about all the people who don't get the attention Silmi is? Where is the concern for the actual human beings whose lives are altered by these policies?

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Complete text of the article, Woman deported from U.S. spends night back in Venezuela at park, by Alexandra Olson


For lack of anywhere else to go, Amina Silmi spent her first night in Venezuela in a park, worried sick about the three children she left behind in the United States.

Last week Silmi, 35, was deported to this South American nation after 13 years as an illegal resident in the United States. Her case has outraged the Muslim community in Cleveland, the city she considers her home.

"I'm so depressed right now," she told The Associated Press in a weekend interview, squeezing a crumpled napkin she used to wipe her tearstained face. "I don't know when I'll see my kids again. I can't think. I can't do anything."

The thin, raven-haired woman said she has no friends or family in a country she hasn't seen in more than a decade. She has no idea where to look for a job or a home.

In Ohio, a sister is looking after her children: Haiat Awad, 12; Fida Salti, 6; and Belal Salti, 5. They are U.S. citizens. Silmi let them stay because she didn't want to drag them into destitution with her.

Silmi's supporters, including Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich, had lobbied U.S. Department of Homeland Security Chief Tom Ridge, arguing that a "zealous interpretation" of immigration laws was breaking a family apart.

Silmi is barred from returning to the United States for 10 years for failing to obey a 2001 order to leave, according to Greg Palmore, spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement under Homeland Security.

Silmi arrived at Caracas' international airport on March 31, lugging her belongings in a trash bag. With some of the several hundred dollars given to her by charities, she took a cab to the central city of San Felipe, where she thought people she once knew might live.

She got lost and spent the night in a park. The next day, she traveled to the industrial city of Valencia, where a family took her in. They somehow knew her parents, but to her they are strangers — poor people who can't put her up for long.

Born in Venezuela to Palestinian parents, Silmi moved to New York with her family in 1990. She was 21 at the time and had a temporary visitor's visa.

A few months later she married a legal immigrant but the marriage lasted less than a year. When it ended, so did her right to stay in the country.

Six months pregnant with her first child, she moved in with her parents. She soon married again, this time to another immigrant she met during visit to the sister in Cleveland.

She had two more children, including Belal, who is autistic and needs special care that his mother says he would probably not get in Venezuela.

In 2000, her life began to unravel. During a family vacation to Niagara Falls, her husband took a wrong turn and ended up in Canada.

That's when U.S. immigration officials learned of Silmi's status. She says it was also the first time she learned her husband had two felony convictions that could cost him his green card.

Silmi decided to get her own green card and leave her husband. She secretly took high school equivalency classes and got her degree in 2003. But just as she started taking control of her life, her hopes for residency crumbled.

In December, her husband was deported Ramallah, West Bank, after being convicted of trafficking in food stamps before their marriage. Immigration officials ordered Silmi to surrender on Feb. 4.

Her lawyers tried to delay her deportation so she could apply for a visa under the Violence Against Women Act. Supporters say the law protects women like Silmi, who says her husbands were abusive and prevented her from fully understanding her rights.

"Often, the abuser holds their status over head. They say, 'If you report me, I'm going to report you to immigration.' It's another tool of power and control," said Julia Shearson, director of the Cleveland offices of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

Her lawyers won a temporary stay, and she spent the next two months in prisons in several U.S. cities. One of her worst memories was being put in shackles while a reporter interviewed her in Atlanta.

"It was so humiliating. I begged them not to put them on," she said.

She lost her appeal March 18. She was jailed in Beaumont, Texas, before she was deported.

"This woman was in the country illegally for almost 14 years. She exhausted every sort of appeals possible," Carl Rusnok, a spokesman for the immigration service, said Monday.

In a Valencia coffee shop, Silmi stared glumly at her orange juice. Her immediate plan was to beg the family to let her stay for another night. Then she didn't know.

"I don't want to eat. I don't even want to live," she said.

reference=http://www.dentonrc.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D81P8EF80.html