Dad seeks asylum for kids, saying they were abused
BY DAVE MARCUS | dave.marcus@newsday.com
July 23, 2008
A Brentwood contractor from Honduras wants a federal immigration judge to use his three children to establish a new reason for asylum - sexual abuse.

Margarito Mejia says his children should be allowed to stay in the United States because they were abused by a relative in Honduras.

Mejia lives in the United States legally, under a rule that granted Hondurans work permits after a 1998 hurricane. U.S. Immigration agents caught his son, now 11, and two daughters - now 14 and 13 - sneaking across the Rio Grande into Texas in 2005. The children were detained for two days before they were released to await a hearing.

Under immigration law, refugees are eligible for asylum if they have been persecuted because of race, religion, national origin, political opinion or membership in a particular social group. The law does not mention sexual abuse.



Judge Gabriel Videla in Manhattan postponed his decision until Oct. 10 after questioning the family as well as two lawyers for Immigration Customs Enforcement, which wants to deport the children.

"If my children have to go, I will have no choice but to leave - I cannot be separated from them," their father said as he left the court.

If the judge allows the children to stay, that could help set a precedent for similar cases, legal experts say.

"They deserve asylum because of the persecution they received in their home country, sexually and physically," said Mejia's lawyer, David Sperling of Huntington.

Some disagree. "It's a complete distortion of the intent of the law," said Steven Camarota, research director at the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington, D.C., think tank that calls for tougher immigration rules.



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