http://www.newsobserver.com/579/story/469988.html

Editorial: Published: Aug 12, 2006 12:30 AM
Modified: Aug 12, 2006 06:33 AM

Reasons to stay

Granted, Noellie Nouanounou of Fuquay-Varina lied on U.S. immigration papers. And the Republic of Congo native does not have legal permission to live in the United States. But as recounted in an N&O story this week, deporting her would fragment a healthy family. A rational government policy on immigration ought to take factors such as that into account.

Immigration enforcement understandably has been toughened in the face of the terrorist threat, but Nouanounou clearly isn't a terrorist. She arrived here legally in 1995, accompanying her grandmother on a trip to Cary. In her hometown, she had been assaulted by militiamen.

She disclosed that incident to U.S. authorities when she sought permanent status. They denied her request, saying the assault was random, not because of political or ethnic ties, and therefore she was not entitled to asylum.

In desperation, out of legitimately perceived fear of returning home or simply because she wanted so badly to stay here, Nouanounou altered medical records to indicate that the assault had been worse than it was.

But she didn't go underground, and in fact she later formally reapplied for legal status. That was when her past caught up with her, including the altered reports. She now is in an Alabama jail awaiting deportation.

Nouanounou naturally doesn't want to be separated from three children, ages 5, 4 and 1, born in the United States and thus American citizens, and her Congo-born husband who is in the U.S. legally. She could, of course, take her family back to Congo with her, but like nearly all foreigners who elbow their way into the U.S. by any means necessary, Nouanounou seeks a better life, for her children and herself. Her native land is poor and dangerous.

The immigration agency is on a push to deport more illegal residents, a reasonable policy in light of terrorist plots and also the number of illegal immigrants from Mexico.

Yet the campaign is complicated by the 3.2 million children who were born in the U.S. with at least one parent who is an illegal immigrant, according to a 2005 estimate by the Pew Hispanic Center.

Those Americans can end up being unfairly punished. Enlightened laws ought to have a modest amount of flexibility so that people like Nouanounou -- who aren't violent criminals, who have stable homes, and whose children are American citizens -- aren't just automatically shipped back where they came from while children suffer.

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