Results 1 to 7 of 7

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

  1. #1
    Senior Member Brian503a's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2005
    Location
    California or ground zero of the invasion
    Posts
    16,029

    'Operation Return to Sender' stumbles

    http://www.rawstory.com

    'Operation Return to Sender' stumbles

    Jennifer Van Bergen
    Published: Thursday September 28, 2006

    Questions are being raised about the arrest, detention, and treatment of a long-term Ukrainian legal resident alien in Florida.

    Bella Maryanovsky, a thirty-year legal resident of the United States, was arrested last week on Tuesday, September 19, when she entered immigration offices for a routine update of her green card papers. It appears she was arrested under a new immigration program called “Operation Return to Sender.”

    According to Michael Chertoff in a June 2006 press release, “Operation Return to Sender is another example of a new and tough interior enforcement strategy that seeks to catch and deport criminal aliens, increase worksite enforcement, and crack down hard on the criminal infrastructure that perpetuates illegal immigration.”

    “The fugitives captured in this operation,” claimed Chertoff, “threatened public safety in hundreds of neighborhoods and communities around the country. This department has no tolerance for their criminal behavior.”

    However, Maryanovsky, according to her family and friends, has long been an upstanding member of society. She is currently employed placing engineers in jobs nationwide with salaries ranging from $75,000 to $250,000.

    Gino Sedikov, Maryanovsky’s attorney, explained in a Monday conversation that he has yet to determine the charges on which Maryanovsky is being held. She was not provided with a “notice to appear” or given any indication that her immigration file had been flagged or that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) intended to arrest her. Sedikov believes this is part of the new policy in the ICE office.

    Michael Keegan, a spokesman for ICE in Washington, D.C. told RAW STORY in a phone conversation on Wednesday, “It is not our job to create the law. It is not our job to interpret the law. Our job is to enforce the law.” According to Keegan, “the posture of law enforcement agencies has completely changed since 9/11.”

    The most likely reason Maryanovksy’s file was flagged is that in 1989 she was convicted – wrongfully, according to her family – of committing a crime that at the time was not a deportable offense. Laws passed in the 1990’s that applied retroactively, according to Keegan, would have made her offense a deportable one.

    However, according to immigration expert Mark Levey, who has practiced immigration law in Washington, D.C. for twenty years, only crimes that were aggravated felonies at the time of commission were swept in under the retroactive rule. Thus, Levey believes that Maryanovsky’s immigration file was probably flagged incorrectly.

    "Because Maryanovsky's crime precedes the 1990's laws," Levey explains, "although she is still deportable, she is nonetheless eligible for bond and for relief from removal based on her good character."

    Why was Maryanovsky arrested now, almost twenty years after her conviction? Keegan contends, “It’s because we’re such a good agency,” implying that ICE does a better job than its predecessor, Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS).

    According to Sedikov, thousands of immigrants are sitting in jails and detentions centers without any hope of what is called "relief from removal" – that is, cancellation of a charge that would otherwise result in deportation.

    The present immigration system, reformulated under the Department of Homeland Security after the passage of the Homeland Security Act of 2002, was divided into two parts: an enforcement agency (Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or “ICE,” ironically referred to by immigration attorneys as the “ICEmen”) and a separate service agency for getting a green card.

    ICE is further divided into an investigative unit, a deportation/removal unit, and a detection/arrest unit. Because of these divisions, “the wheels of justice move slowly,” says Sedikov. A detainee’s file is supposed to follow them from unit to unit, but sometimes – as in Maryanovsky’s case – the file is lost. The detainee may then wait in detention for months until the file is found. Even when a file is accounted for, detainees may still spend weeks in jail, since detention centers are overfull.

    In the meantime, explains Sedikov, if the detainee is not held near an immigration court there is no mechanism by which they can be brought before an immigration judge to challenge their detention. The individual must simply wait until the right official in the right department of ICE decides it is time to bring them to court. Immigration courts do not have sheriffs who can bring detainees in, so judges will not entertain an attorney’s request for a bond hearing unless the detainee is accessible. Thus, an individual put into detention falls into a sort of black hole. According to Sedikov, “ICE has no duty to respect [the attorney’s] requests.”

    Sedikov claims he has left 70 messages on the Maryanovsky case in five days, and has received no return call from ICE officials. His current aim is to have her transferred to a location that would allow her to be brought before a judge.

    Maryanovsky claims that she is currently being held in a jail cell with an accused murderer. Last week she was in a cell with five other people and only two beds, so she slept on a “urine-laden cement floor.”

    To make matters more disheartening, Maryanovsky takes medication for heart arrhythmia and high blood pressure. She confided to her family and friends that prison personnel mockingly refused to give her medication, telling her, “When you have a heart attack, then we’ll help you.”

    One friend, Lauren, who wished to keep her last name private, said that she has visited Maryanovsky twice, and her ankles and extremities are swelling. “[She] can go into heart failure,” Lauren told RAW STORY. According to family members, her blood pressure hit 220/110, and the family obtained a doctor’s letter to present to immigration authorities, but she was still apparently not being given her medication.

    Maryanovsky is scheduled soon to be transferred to Krome Detention Center, outside Miami, according to Sedikov. Two years ago, Krome garnered much press attention when an 81-year old Haitian Baptist minister, Joseph Dantica, died while being detained there after seeking asylum. He fell ill during his hearing, after, like Maryanovsky, requesting medication for high blood pressure. Officials contend that he died of pancreatitis and deny responsibility for his death.

    Ray Del Papa of the South Florida Peace and Justice Network – a coalition that includes representatives from such groups as the Quakers, Pax Christi, Buddhist Peace Fellowship, Jewish Arab Defense Association, Haiti Solidarity, and many others – told RAW STORY that he sees an incongruity in the arrest and detention of such persons as Maryanovsky or Dantica while known terrorists, such as Luis Possada Carriles, Orlando Bosch, and Virgilio Paz Romero, are allowed to remain free in the U.S., despite their criminal records.

    Sedikov claims that the arresting officer told him, “We got orders to arrest everybody.”

    That officer, Keith Bradley, refused to confirm or deny anything about the case to RAW STORY, saying “I still have a mortgage and bills to pay.”

    Some have speculated that Maryanovsky’s sudden arrest and detention may have a political motive. Levey disagrees, as does RAW STORY managing news editor Larisa Alexandrovna, who was raised together with Maryanovsky since their arrival in the United States. But Alexandrovna, who did not contribute to the writing or editing of this piece, says she believes readers should “view this as a typical day.”

    “Sure, I find it odd that in Southern Florida – where immigration targets are usually Cuban, South American, and Haitian – suddenly a Ukrainian Jew is arrested, held without charge, and her file goes missing,” says Alexandrovna. “But I also find it odd that thousands of people are being swept up in these raids, we don’t know their actual citizenship status, they are disappeared and held in detention facilities, and no one notices. It is all odd,” added Alexandrovna in a Wednesday evening email.

    Jennifer Van Bergen is a free-lance journalist who holds a law degree. Her book The Twilight of Democracy: The Bush Plan for America has been called a “primer for citizenship.” She can be reached at jvbxyz@earthlink.net.
    Support our FIGHT AGAINST illegal immigration & Amnesty by joining our E-mail Alerts at http://eepurl.com/cktGTn

  2. #2
    Senior Member Judy's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2005
    Posts
    55,883
    Get these people OUT OUT OUT OUT OUT!!

    Do not detain them. Do not take responsibility for their housing and medical care.

    Return them to their countries of origin... immediately. What is so hard about that? Just get them out of the United States. Do you expect the American People to believe that you, the US Government Know It All Wind Bags can't do that? We do not believe it. You are a bunch of incompetent pond scum wasting our time, our money, and ruining our nation and it's reputation.

    Now..tell that Wackident to march his butt up to a microphone and tell the world that if you sneak into the United States it is entirely possible that you will be detained as a possible security threat; your whereabouts concealed from your family; you will have no legal representation; you will have to sleep on "urine laden cement floors"; eat e.coli contaminated spinach; be penned with people hazardous to your health; and be denied medical care.

    In other words, it is no longer in your best interest to sneak into our country in violation of US Immigration Law and if you don't like that potential outcome which could include Death in a detention facility .... then you better stay put in your country. Hit the streets in your country to protest whatever it is there that makes you unhappy and causes you to come here. Do a coup; start a revolution; form a union; whatever you need to do to change your country to make a better life there.

    Because you need to get this through your thick skulls ... there is no picnic awaiting you here. There is no welcome wagon or bundt cake with your name on it. Shortly there will be no handouts; no free medical; no food stamps; no low cost fill 'em to the brim housing; no driver's licenses; no jobs... all that awaits you is something far worse than where you are.

    Being an Illegale in the United States today is to be almost worst than the bottom of a shoe in an Arab country.

    The Joy Ride Is Over.

    Get It?

    A Nation Without Borders Is Not A Nation - Ronald Reagan
    Save America, Deport Congress! - Judy

    Support our FIGHT AGAINST illegal immigration & Amnesty by joining our E-mail Alerts at https://eepurl.com/cktGTn

  3. #3
    JAK
    JAK is offline
    Senior Member JAK's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Posts
    5,226
    LOL...Judy, I like your style!
    Please help save America for our children and grandchildren... they are counting on us. THEY DESERVE the goodness of AMERICA not to be given to those who are stealing our children's future! ... and a congress who works for THEM!
    Join our efforts to Secure America's Borders and End Illegal Immigration by Joining ALIPAC's E-Mail Alerts network (CLICK HERE)

  4. #4
    Senior Member Dixie's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2006
    Location
    Texas - Occupied State - The Front Line
    Posts
    35,070
    Laws passed in the 1990’s that applied retroactively, according to Keegan, would have made her offense a deportable one.
    1990 immigration law amendments barring relief from deportation for persons convicted of aggravated felonies. I know sex crimes are retroactively deportable too. This lady probably ain't sweet and innocent.

    She was not provided with a “notice to appear” or given any indication that her immigration file had been flagged or that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) intended to arrest her.
    DUH!

    Dixie
    Join our efforts to Secure America's Borders and End Illegal Immigration by Joining ALIPAC's E-Mail Alerts network (CLICK HERE)

  5. #5
    Senior Member Judy's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2005
    Posts
    55,883
    Thanks Jak!

    A Nation Without Borders Is Not A Nation - Ronald Reagan
    Save America, Deport Congress! - Judy

    Support our FIGHT AGAINST illegal immigration & Amnesty by joining our E-mail Alerts at https://eepurl.com/cktGTn

  6. #6
    Preachingtothechoir's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Posts
    169
    Preach it Judy . . .

  7. #7
    Senior Member nittygritty's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2006
    Location
    Oklahoma
    Posts
    3,251
    We have to hang tough, we cannot start making allowances for this one and for that one or we will be back where we started, no enforcement at all!
    Build the dam fence post haste!

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •