Just A Little Humanity, Please
About two dozen relatives (wives, husbands, children) of people who died in the 9/11 attack have had to live anonymously since that day, not able to openly attend memorial services or even to mention to neighbors that loved ones were lost in the attacks on the World Trade Center. Why the secrecy? They are illegal immigrants fearful of being subject to extortion and (even worse) deportation. An article in today's NY Times announced that these people have been given some hope from an unlikely source, the Department of Homeland Security.
Federal officials on Thursday opened a path to temporary legal status for illegal immigrants whose spouses or parents died on 9/11, a step the families’ supporters called a breakthrough in the effort to allow them to remain permanently in the United States.
Lawyers for the immigrants said a concession by Homeland Security officials would help to bring the family members out of the shadows. They also said the measure should help clear a political logjam that has stalled bills in Congress that would grant the immigrants permanent legal status.
The reason for the congressional logjam is absolutely chilling: some members of Congress didn't want to extend the privilege of continued residence in the country to criminals and terrorists. That meant that the surviving families had two choices: one, come out to the immigration authorities, establish that they were neither criminals nor terrorists, and hope for mercy; or, two, keep hiding behind anonymity and hope for the best. It's not hard to understand why these families chose the second option.
Fortunately, many of them had lawyers, and one of those lawyers, Debra Brown Steinberg, contacted the DHS to see if something could be done in such a fashion to open up the process without the threat of deportation hanging around on the fringes. She finally got the answer she and her clients could live with.
Stewart A. Baker, an assistant secretary in the Department of Homeland Security, said in a letter to Ms. Steinberg that under the new procedure the illegal immigrants could provide biographical information and immigration history to the authorities without revealing their names, with the assurance that the information would not be used to deport them.
Homeland Security officials will use the information to decide whether to give the immigrants a temporary humanitarian parole to allow them to live and work legally in the United States, Mr. Baker wrote. The parole would not be granted to immigrants with criminal records, ties to terrorism or formal orders of deportation, he said.
Now, there. Was that so hard? Just a little humanitarian gesture that is going to be the source of some hope for people who lost as much as anyone else on 9/11. It took over six years, but the government has finally done what governments are supposed to do: provide some protection and some help to those who need it.
Federal officials on Thursday opened a path to temporary legal status for illegal immigrants whose spouses or parents died on 9/11, a step the families’ supporters called a breakthrough in the effort to allow them to remain permanently in the United States.
Lawyers for the immigrants said a concession by Homeland Security officials would help to bring the family members out of the shadows. They also said the measure should help clear a political logjam that has stalled bills in Congress that would grant the immigrants permanent legal status.
The reason for the congressional logjam is absolutely chilling: some members of Congress didn't want to extend the privilege of continued residence in the country to criminals and terrorists. That meant that the surviving families had two choices: one, come out to the immigration authorities, establish that they were neither criminals nor terrorists, and hope for mercy; or, two, keep hiding behind anonymity and hope for the best. It's not hard to understand why these families chose the second option.
Fortunately, many of them had lawyers, and one of those lawyers, Debra Brown Steinberg, contacted the DHS to see if something could be done in such a fashion to open up the process without the threat of deportation hanging around on the fringes. She finally got the answer she and her clients could live with.
Stewart A. Baker, an assistant secretary in the Department of Homeland Security, said in a letter to Ms. Steinberg that under the new procedure the illegal immigrants could provide biographical information and immigration history to the authorities without revealing their names, with the assurance that the information would not be used to deport them.
Homeland Security officials will use the information to decide whether to give the immigrants a temporary humanitarian parole to allow them to live and work legally in the United States, Mr. Baker wrote. The parole would not be granted to immigrants with criminal records, ties to terrorism or formal orders of deportation, he said.
Now, there. Was that so hard? Just a little humanitarian gesture that is going to be the source of some hope for people who lost as much as anyone else on 9/11. It took over six years, but the government has finally done what governments are supposed to do: provide some protection and some help to those who need it.
Labels: 9/11, DHS, Immigration
posted by Diane at 8:47 AM
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