Former Fairhaven resident pays the price for visa violationBy DON CUDDY
Standard-Times staff writer
December 03, 2007 6:00 AM

http://www.southcoasttoday.com
Concerned about the porous nature of the border with Canada, U.S. immigration agents set up an unusual roadblock near Peacham, Vt., about 100 miles from the border on Oct. 3, 2004.

It did not take long before they apprehended their first violator.

The 53-year-old woman had entered the country legally, but a computer check revealed she had overstayed her visa by two weeks.

She was immediately taken into custody. Although she did not have a prior criminal record, she was handcuffed and shackled.

She was strip-searched and fingerprinted and, in the ensuing weeks, shuttled through a series of grungy jails. Bail was never an option; she was denied access to a lawyer, did not appear before a judge. Finally, on Oct. 29, 2004, she found herself aboard a plane at Logan Airport.

From there, she was shipped to her country of origin without the opportunity to revisit her house, settle her affairs or retrieve any of her possessions.

Unlike the raid at the Michael Bianco factory in New Bedford last March, the case of Meg Roberts, a British citizen living in Fairhaven at the time of her arrest and deportation, did not gain any media exposure.

But it serves to underscore how the U.S. government deals with those who flout immigration laws.

"You give up your rights when you do something wrong," Ms. Roberts said, speaking from her present home in Italy, "but it was a terrifying, traumatic and humiliating experience. I had never been in trouble before, never been in a jail. I never even had a speeding ticket."

Ms. Roberts, who had been in America for 17 years, was in Vermont that fateful day with a friend who was visiting from South Africa.

While admiring the foliage, they missed their intended exit and chanced upon the roadblock.

After Ms. Robert's arrest, her friend Colleen was allowed to continue on in Ms. Roberts' car.

"Colleen was in total shock. Even though she had Meg's cell phone, she never called. She drove all the way here," said Jilly Jarvis, Ms. Roberts' sister, who lives in Mattapoisett and is co-owner of the Great Scapes nursery.

An artist who became well-known in SouthCoast for her faux finish and trompe l'oeil artwork, Ms. Roberts first came to the area in 1987 with her two young children to live with her sister after separating from her husband in South Africa.

Building a reputation as a successful artist, she opened a showroom on Route 6 in Mattapoisett in the 1990s.

Since an entry visa was not required of British citizens, Ms. Roberts crossed the border freely, often going overseas to do commissions. Gradually, she came to consider America as her home.

While her sister, Jilly, became a citizen, Ms. Roberts admits that she took a more cavalier approach to her own immigration status, despite taking pains to legalize her own daughter.

"I thought I would sort it out in time, but after 9/11 it had gotten a lot more complicated," she said.

That faulty assumption has proven to be a harsh lesson and keeps her from returning to the United States.

According to John Gallini, an attorney representing Ms. Roberts here, she is subject to a 10-year re-entry ban.

"When you get a visa waiver, you also waive your rights," he explained.

"That's why she was 'summarily removed,' as they term it, without a deportation hearing. She ended up in this women's prison in Niantic, Connecticut. I really don't know why they have to go to these extremes," he said.

While the pain of her incarceration has begun to recede, the plight of those she saw while in prison continues to trouble her, she said.

"I met Haitian women and Jamaican women who had nobody to help them, and didn't even know how long they would be there."

But while in some ways she has adjusted to her new life, the pangs of separation from her family are a daily occurrence, Ms. Roberts said.

"I missed my daughter's wedding last September," she said. Her daughter, Jenny, and her husband live in Fairhaven.

"I can't visit my sister, who is my only close relative," Ms. Roberts said. "I've paid a big price for my mistake. I know it was my fault. I broke the law, but I am not a criminal. I feel that there should be some kind of separation. I brought two kids up on my own, and one of the benefits of that should be that you are able to see your grandchildren."

With the help of friends here and in Europe, Ms. Roberts is currently pleading her case with U.S. officials in Italy, hoping she at least will be allowed to visit her family here.

"It would take a presidential pardon to let me to live in America now, but I would just like to come and see my family."

A visit to the U.S. embassy in Florence last week provided her with a glimmer of hope, she says.

"They kept me there the entire day, and I saw four different people. They were very thorough. In the end they sent a favorable recommendation but it must be approved by the Department of Homeland Security."

Meanwhile, a letter-writing campaign begun by friends in the United States is asking Rep. Barney Frank and Sen. John Kerry to intervene. Such support has almost overwhelmed her, Ms. Roberts said.

"I didn't know how many people cared," she said. "I was always a private person with that stiff-upper-lip British attitude. I am so grateful."