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  1. #1
    Administrator ALIPAC's Avatar
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    ALIPAC: Visa 'overstays' don't fit stereotype

    Visa 'overstays' don't fit stereotype

    Published: Dec 10, 2006 07:55 AM
    Modified: Dec 10, 2006 07:55 AM


    By Patrick Winn, Staff Writer

    CARRBORO -- The illegal immigration debate inevitably conjures Hispanics creeping across a desert.
    But Sima Fallahi, an Iranian-born Carrboro mom now facing deportation, arrived the way roughly one-third of America's estimated 11 million illegal immigrants do: She entered legally and didn't leave when she was supposed to.

    Fallahi, 48, is one of 3.6 million estimated "overstays," according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

    They're unlike typical border crossers. This group tends to have more money, better schooling and comes from nearly every nation, said James Johnson, a UNC-Chapel Hill immigration expert.

    "They don't fit the stereotype of an illegal immigrant," said Johnson, president of the Urban Investment Strategies Center. "They're diverse. They look more like America. They're more likely to blend into society."

    More than just fitting in, Fallahi became a Carrboro fixture. A single mom, she joined the PTA at Carrboro Elementary, where her 10-year-old American-born daughter is in fifth grade. She even had her artwork displayed in Town Hall.

    Mayor Mark Chilton, state Sen. Ellie Kinnaird and a handful of locals have rallied to keep Fallahi in Carrboro. On Tuesday, the town's Board of Aldermen discussed drafting a resolution supporting her.

    Fallahi is now in the Mecklenburg County Jail. U.S. Rep. David Price, a Chapel Hill Democrat, has asked Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to keep Fallahi there so that her daughter can easily visit.

    Any trial would likely take place in Atlanta. "We're keeping close tabs on the situation," said Paul Cox, a spokesman for Price.

    Overstays arrive on tourist, business or, as in Fallahi's case, student visas. The terms are clear: applicants are expected to return home after a certain period.

    Homeland Security, acknowledging more than 160,000 annual visa violations, announced earlier this year it would do more to find and deport overstays.

    Immigration and Customs Enforcement wants to expand a call center in Vermont that offers local police 24-hour access to offender information.

    That's how police caught Fallahi, who never renewed a student visa issued in 1985.

    After applying for a business permit at the Chapel Hill Police Department to sell art, a routine background check turned up her "final order of deportation" status.

    Last year, more than 6,000 visa violators were arrested, according to Homeland Security.

    But flaunting visa terms is still far too easy, said William Gheen, president of the Raleigh-based Americans for Legal Immigration Political Action Committee.

    "If there's a terrorist in the world who hasn't exploited the lack of immigration enforcement yet, they're probably too stupid for us to worry about," Gheen said.

    "The 'go home' aspect of immigration is something we have to work on," he said. "People around the planet know there's a fire sale in America."


    Of the six Sept. 11 hijackers who actually flew the planes or were apparent leaders, two had overstayed visas, and one secured a student visa but never showed up at school, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

    Acquiring visas has become more difficult since the attacks, Johnson said, but U.S. policy has yet to find the right balance between security and a need for talent.

    According to the nonprofit Institute for International Education, student visas are a huge part of the solution.

    "We always benefit from having access to the world's best brains," said Allan Goodman, the institute's president. "The Arabs invented algebra, astronomy. Who's to say the next Egyptian we enroll doesn't discover the vaccine for HIV/AIDS?"

    Last school year, nearly 565,000 foreign students attended American colleges, according to the institute.

    Fallahi originally planned to return to Iran, according to a 1998 application for asylum.

    "I was hoping that while I was getting an education in the United States, the government might change," she wrote. "Then I would return to my country to be a productive citizen."

    Now, having had a child out of wedlock and having converted to the Unitarian faith, she fears she will be jailed or even killed if she is deported to the fundamentalist nation.

    http://www.chapelhillnews.com/106/story/4138.html
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  2. #2
    Senior Member loservillelabor's Avatar
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    "We always benefit from having access to the world's best brains," said Allan Goodman, the institute's president. "The Arabs invented algebra, astronomy. Who's to say the next Egyptian we enroll doesn't discover the vaccine for HIV/AIDS?"
    If you're gonna play that song, who did we lose in 9/11? Who do we lose each day to murders and drunken driving by illegal aliens? What might they have done for our country? No we don't always benefit.
    Go sit down Allan Goodman.
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    Senior Member Dixie's Avatar
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    Mayor Mark Chilton, state Sen. Ellie Kinnaird and a handful of locals have rallied to keep Fallahi in Carrboro. On Tuesday, the town's Board of Aldermen discussed drafting a resolution supporting her.
    These elected officials take oaths to uphold the law. There are some fellows that don't need to be re-elected.

    She is a criminal and she knew what she was doing, when she continued to stay in the US despite being out of status. She knew when she got the visa how long she was allowed to stay and she didn't abide by the laws. I don't pity her. Just like other criminals that knowingly commit crimes.

    Bye bye and take your child with you.

    Dixie
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    Senior Member Richard's Avatar
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    Under the current administration in Iran for an Islamic to have a conversion to Christianity is to commit apostasy and is considered a capital offense. It would not be a good idea to leave unless she can find a third country.
    I support enforcement and see its lack as bad for the 3rd World as well. Remittances are now mostly spent on consumption not production assets. Join our efforts to Secure America's Borders and End Illegal Immigration by Joining ALIPAC's E-Mail Alerts network (CLICK HERE)

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    Dixie, we're talking about the west end of Chapel Hill, the most liberal town in NC. Folks there now are taking up money for her legal defense.

    I remember another deportation about 10 years ago. The town council members had their panties in a wad about that one, too. Sorry to say I don't remember what ever became of that guy.
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    Senior Member Lone_Patriot's Avatar
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    let's face it, sometimes it's hard to follow the rules, but we aren't talking 'no playing on the grass on recess'. to break a major LAW of a sovereign nation, 'i forgot if i stay i'm a felon' doesn't cut it. i guess with the right spin doctors any felon could look lilly white.

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    MW
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    IMHO, if Rep. David Price (D-NC) had his way - all illegal immigrants residing in his stomping grounds would be safe from the threat of deportation. Geez, how shameful of me to lie! Please give me a chance to rectify my statement. Second attempt: If Rep. David Price (D-NC) had his way - illegal immigrants residing throughout the United States would be safe from deporation! There, that's much better.

    "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing" ** Edmund Burke**

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    Administrator ALIPAC's Avatar
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    added to the homepage.

    http://www.alipac.us/modules.php?name=N ... e&sid=1754

    I had been waiting to use that quote in a newspaper article. I have used it on several radio shows and hope that it makes rounds.

    "If there's a terrorist in the world who hasn't exploited the lack of immigration enforcement yet, they're probably too stupid for us to worry about," Gheen said.
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  9. #9
    Senior Member JohnB2012's Avatar
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    http://www.newsobserver.com/102/story/520918.html

    Towns differ on illegal aliens

    Carrboro wouldn't act on deportation

    Patrick Winn, Staff Writer
    CARRBORO - Mayor Mark Chilton said an illegal immigrant from Iran would not have been detained by police in his town.
    In the wake of the arrest of Sima Fallahi, a Carrboro mother, two weeks ago in Chapel Hill, Chilton affirmed his town's hands-off policy.

    "We would not have detained her," he said. "We're not doing [the Immigration and Customs Enforcement's] job for them."

    Carrboro's policy instructs police and town staff to ignore deportation orders on immigrants who are here illegally but not wanted for other crimes.

    But even the town's police chief concedes that some officers are uncomfortable with that approach, which an immigration agent said could be considered obstruction.

    Fallahi, who never renewed her 1985 student visa, is in the Mecklenburg County jail. Two weeks ago, she entered the Chapel Hill Police Department and applied for a permit needed to sell art in public.

    The permit, which allows door-to-door sales, requires a criminal record check. Her driver's license number turned up Fallahi's "final order of deportation" status.

    The Chapel Hill Police Department, like Carrboro's, has distanced itself from immigration enforcement, said Chief Gregg Jarvies.

    "We were the first in the Triangle, even before Carrboro, to say we would not enforce immigration rules," he said.

    But while Chapel Hill officers don't ask about immigration status, they won't ignore detainment orders they come across on routine background checks such as Fallahi's.

    Chapel Hill Mayor Kevin Foy backed that practice Tuesday.

    "When we ask other law enforcement agencies for help, they could say, 'We're ignoring your warrants because you're ignoring ours,' " Foy said. Nevertheless, he said he expects the Town Council to review its policy because of the Fallahi case.

    Carrboro Police Chief Carolyn Hutchison sides with her town's approach.

    "As a citizen," she said, "I'm dismayed that we would take a person -- in this case a mother of a fifth-grade child -- away when the only thing she's done is fail to keep her immigration status recent."

    Not all officers agree, she said.

    "They want to uphold the law, and they're uncomfortable ... with not cooperating with other law enforcement," she said.

    Hutchison emphasized that neither she nor her officers would look away from a person who posed a clear threat to public safety.

    Still, Carrboro's approach seems to "verge on obstruction," said Tom O'Connell, resident agent-in-charge at a Cary Immigration and Customs Enforcement office.

    "Law enforcement has an obligation to carry out the warrants of other agencies, state, local and federal," he said. "You can't just ignore them."

    Like Chapel Hill, the Durham and Raleigh police departments don't seek out immigration offenders or ask crime victims about their status.

    "There's a federal agency responsible for that, and we let them do their job," said spokesman Jim Sughrue of the Raleigh Police Department. Still, officers act on outstanding immigration warrants just like any other agency's warrants, he said.

    Carrboro town officials have backed Fallahi's release. In the past five years, she has been a downtown fixture, an artist with work hung in town hall and a PTA mom at Carrboro Elementary School.

    U.S. Rep. David Price, at the urging of Chilton and state Sen. Ellie Kinnaird, has asked that Fallahi receive a full hearing.

  10. #10
    Senior Member JohnB2012's Avatar
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    Carrboro's policy instructs police and town staff to ignore deportation orders on immigrants who are here illegally but not wanted for other crimes.
    Wow. A don't ask policy is one thing but to knowingly ignore a deportation order sounds to be a bit much.

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