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...Vietnamese people live by hope. When a Marine dies for his Country, it seems little enough to ask that a mother be allowed to visit her son's grave. Please post this link on other forums you visit. Please write your Congressional representatives.
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I'm pissed. But I'm glad the Corps got involved, it sounds like something they would do, taking care of their family.
Posts: 1156 | Registered: Jan 2004
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I'm wondering if the INS has discretion in this case. Regardless, the proper outcome is for her to receive residency. I'm amazed this took more than a week to get through Congress as a private bill.
Posts: 26071 | Registered: Oct 2003
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I didn't know that non-citizens could enlist in the US military. Or rather, I thought that they could, but that they'd be awarded citizenship a bit sooner than after their death. The article doesn't say, but I'm guessing that the Marine was a permanent resident?
Posts: 952 | Registered: Jun 2005
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This does upset me, but it is a choice that he/we have made. The gift of sacrifice for a cause that we believe in (even if you may not).
Yes, non-citizens can enlist in the US military. However, they can not get the high security type jobs such as mine. They still get all the other benefits though. When I went through Boot Camp about 7 years ago there was a guy from Venezuela going through with us.
I hope INS overturns their decision on her wanting to stay, but I do partially understand their supposed reasoning. That doesn't mean I like it.
Posts: 2208 | Registered: Feb 2004
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My operational superviser is a PO2, and our NCOIC is a Senior Chief, and our Division Boss guy is a Navy Leuitenant. Being owned by the Navy is cool. A couple of my friends retrained into what I do, and talked about "the fleet" all the time. You guys do a bunch of weird stuff to commemorate weird stuff. They all seemed to miss it a little.
And you people promote faster than, well, anything. A bunch of m y friends that I went to tech school with got PO2 in two and a half years. I hit E-4 six months ago, did it six months early, and still can't hit E-5 till mid 2007. Is putting on E-5 that early normal?
Posts: 1156 | Registered: Jan 2004
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No, but it is getting more common. Some rates offer up an incentive package. Like my program (Nukes). At two years, you can re-enlist for two years get a bonus and you advance to E-5. Some other rates out there don't have the bonus so much as they have the "push button" E-4.
Hey, I don't want to derail this thread too much. You can e-mail me whenever or if you have a myspace account you can go here.
A few of us will actually do our research before answering the important questions. But they are still merely suggestions or inputs. Never really certainties.
Anyway, Nell Gwyn: He was more or less a permanent resident. From the age of 8 to his death he went home only a few times. However, he recieved citizenship after his death.
[ February 10, 2006, 08:38 PM: Message edited by: Stan the man ]
Posts: 2208 | Registered: Feb 2004
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posted
Wow. That's . . . huh. That's one of the beautiful sad stories you wish you could help or simply understand. I mean . . . huh.
Posts: 1735 | Registered: Oct 2004
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quote:Teresa's harrowing story began when she was born in the bush, where everyone from her town had fled to escape rampaging rebel forces threatening to kill them. Her birth mother died giving birth to her. Without a second thought, Momara scooped up the infant and from that moment on considered Teresa her own. She, Teresa and her other young children went to a refugee camp and remained there until the rebel forces struck again, robbing the refugees and stabbing Momara. Somehow the family made its way to Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, but they were still not safe. Rebels beheaded Momara's husband before their eyes, gang-raped and beat Momara, and stabbed her sons. Miraculously, they escaped and, without husband and father, fled to Guinea. With our legal representation Momara received asylum in 2004. She now lives with her grown son in Queens. An uneducated woman with few personal belongings, she has great dignity and endless hope for her future in the United States. Yet her worries have not ended, because she has not yet been reunited with all her children. The law permits immediate relatives of refugees -- spouses and biological and adopted children -- to come to the United States. Momara's three biological children were recently granted derivative asylum and are waiting for visas. But Teresa is another story. Since she is not Momara's biological child, she can qualify for a visa only with proof that she is adopted. The Department of Homeland Security denied her application because she does not have an "official adoption decree" from Sierra Leone.
The article also illustrates how quickly Congress can act in such situations for ice skaters.
I'm not opposed to requiring the executive agency to follow pretty rigid rules when deciding immigration issues, but there needs to be a politically accountable official - the president or an appointed official - who can apply compassionate standards in particular cases.
Posts: 26071 | Registered: Oct 2003
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I agree with you Dag, but it's a little unfair to say that the ice skating incident was done quickly - Tanith Belbin had applied for citizenship years ago, and the decision Congress made didn't just affect her but every other person who had applied for citizenship and been caught up in that loophole. They had been working on getting her citizenship status settled for years, and it's really a shame it took Congress as long as they did to fix the situation.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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Belle, I'm speaking only of the time Congress takes to act. Levin introduced the amendment sometime in November, I believe. Bush signed the law Dec. 30. That's less than 60 days.
The bill for this mother was introduced in February of last year.
In addition, there was no danger of Belbin being deported. She simply was not eligible (under the laws that existed when she entered - not a loophole) for citizenship until the same waiting period pretty much everyone else had to endure was passed.
Posts: 26071 | Registered: Oct 2003
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I'm not sure how I feel about this. On the one hand, yes, her son died in service of this country and the sentiment of allowing her to stay would be nice. But.
He wouldn't have been in the country if the government hadn't accepted the "story" of his adoption. So either he was adopted and was here legally and his birth mother isn't entitled to the same perks, or he wasn't adopted and was here illegally, and she wouldn't be eligible for the perks.
Posts: 9871 | Registered: Aug 2001
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The gov't doesn't have to give any perks really in any way regardless of her son's adoption. Besides, it was most likely a legal adoption or at least he wasn't here illegally.
Posts: 2208 | Registered: Feb 2004
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quote:He wouldn't have been in the country if the government hadn't accepted the "story" of his adoption. So either he was adopted and was here legally and his birth mother isn't entitled to the same perks, or he wasn't adopted and was here illegally, and she wouldn't be eligible for the perks.
I don't think we should pretend that she didn't give him up for adoption. This is why that I don't have a problem with the INS not letting her in (depending on the amount of discretion they have).
Regardless of the rule, though, we should let this woman and her husband into this country simply because of the sacrifice her son made.
Posts: 26071 | Registered: Oct 2003
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She has no connections in America, it says she wants to be here to be near her son. Her son who is dead, and who was raised after the age of 7 by others. I guess I don't find that a very healthy reason to move here. Plus her new husband is still in Vietnam.
I guess I can't argue too much with the decision.
Posts: 1014 | Registered: Jul 2005
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First, she's been staying with friends in Springfield since the funeral. She has some connections.
Second, there is an announced policy allowing parents of soldiers killed in combat to become permanent residents. This is a policy informed by compassion and gratitude, neither of which I find to be less called for because she allowed her son to come to America when he was 7.
Posts: 26071 | Registered: Oct 2003
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The article doesn't say, but I'm guessing that the Marine was a permanent resident?
