A Tale of Two Deportations

Is Justice Blind?

Yesterday, a federal immigration judge in Boston said President Obama’s aunt, who has stayed in the United States illegally for years, would be allowed to remain in this country until at least next year. “Praise God,” Zeituni Onyango, 56, said softly, holding her head high as she left the Boston courthouse.

Meanwhile in California, Shirley Tan, a 43-year-old native of the Philippines, is set for deportation tomorrow, this despite the fact that she’s is in a registered same-sex domestic partnership with her American citizen life mate of 23 years, and is the mother to twin 12-year-old boys. “I hope that I can stay here, because I don’t want to be apart from my kids … they are my life, and really we are a solid family, and I love them so much that I don’t want to be separated from them,” Tan tearfully said yesterday to the East Bay Area Reporter.

The woman the President calls “Auntie Zeituni” first visited the United States in 1975 and traveled back and forth between the U.S. and Kenya a number of times, according to her lawyer Margaret Wang.

In 2002, Onyango applied for public housing in Boston and also requested political asylum citing violence in Kenya. However, Onyango was ordered deported in 2004, and has remained in this country illegally since.

Obama said he had been unaware “Auntie Zeituni” was living in the country illegally… and that White House will not get involved in the case…

But, referring to earlier statements made by the president that relevant laws should be applied to Onyango, William Gheen, who heads Americans for Legal Immigration, said, “If the rule of law were applied in this case, Zeituni Onyango should have been deported a long time ago.

According to documents related to Tans case, in 1979, when Tan was 14, a cousin shot Tan in the head and murdered her mother and sister because he wanted a larger share of a family estate.

The cousin spent at least 10 years in jail and has since been released.

Tan, who has applied for a real-estate license to help pay for the home the couple owns , first came to the United States as a visitor in 1986, stayed for about six months, then returned to the Philippines. She returned to the United States in 1989 and has stayed in this country since then failing to leave the United States as her visa required.

In 1995, Tan applied for asylum based on past persecution and fear of future persecution from her cousin, but her case was denied. Tan fought that decision but in May 2002, the Board of Immigration Appeals gave her 30 days to leave the country voluntarily or be deported.

Tan claims that she didn’t know about that decision until it was far too late.

Her recent motion to the Board of Immigration Appeals to reopen proceedings and stay her deportation while her motion is pending states that the notice had gone to an old address for Norma Molinar, the attorney representing her at the time.

A public reproval was filed against Molinar with the State Bar of California in December 2006 based on claims that she’d also failed to inform previous clients that appeals related to their immigration cases had been denied. The attorney’s law license was placed on two years probation because of those cases.

In December, a judge agreed to suspend Onyango deportation order and reopen her asylum case. Onyango, who volunteers as a health advocate for people in her housing complex, reportedly attended inauguration events for her nephew on January 20th accompanied by her lawyer.

In California, according to Tan, on January 28th two officers of the Immigrations and Custom Enforcement Service (ICE) came to the her door around 6:30 am, placed Tan in handcuffs and took her to the immigration office in San Francisco, where she was placed in a cell. After which Tan was fitted with an electronic monitoring device and required to report to the office three times a week.

Onyango wears no such device, has no such requirements and has never been placed in a jail cell.

Jay Mercado, Tans life partner, is a naturalized citizen and if she and Tan were a hetro-couple, Mercado would be able to sponsor Tan as her spouse for residency purposes and there would be no problem for Tan. However, since they are a same-sex couple, and are not related to the President of the United States, under the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) for Tan this right does not exist.

President Obama promised during his election campaign to end to DOMA… but to date no action has been taken by the Administration to do this…
http://immigrationequality.org/blog/?p=836#comments
http://www.ebar.com/news/article.php?sec=news&article=3830

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/03/31/EDB216Q4D8.DTL

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