Are they laying the groundwork for refugee status?

chicagonow.com
Chicanísima: Latino politics, news and culture
By Teresa Puente, today at 9:36 am

A recent Gawker post made fun of a U.S. State Department warning about travel to Mexico.


But it's not so funny when you consider almost 50,000 people have been killed in that country's drug war. The Mexican government, with funding from the U.S. government, has gone after the drug lords sparking more murders impacting civil society.


This also is a drug war where some politicians profit, at least according to a court filing this week by the Drug Enforcement Agency. It accused the former governor of Tamaulipas, Tomas Yarrington, of receiving millions from drug lords when he was governor of the border state from 1999 to 2004. Other politicians including Yarrington, who is part of the PRI, Institutional Revolutionary Party, also are implicated.


The U.S. government should not deport people back to regions of Mexico that it deems unsafe for tourists and regions ruled by corrupt politicians and police.


Immigration policy is so broken that it puts immigrants and their families - some who are U.S. citizens - at risk.


Take the case of U.S. citizen, Jake Reyes-Neal, who tried to sponsor his undocumented wife, and was killed while waiting with her in Mexico, according to a CNN report.


The wife had a right to a green card. But immigration law required her to return to Mexico to get it because she was undocumented. But then another law kicked in barring her from returning. The only way back was to file a hardship waiver that can take many months to be granted.


So Reyes-Neal, who didn't want to be apart from his wife and their U.S. citizen son, moved to Mexico to wait with his wife for her paperwork to be processed. He was gunned down in what appeared to be a robbery attempt at their home in Ciudad Juarez.


The drug war has led to an increase in lawlessness in Mexico. By following immigration laws - going back and getting in line for a visa - an American citizen was murdered.


U.S. immigration laws are broken when they require people to risk their lives to follow the law.


The Obama Administration has proposed changes to speed up the waiver process. But it is too late for Reyes-Neal's family. A spouse or relative who is eligible for a green card should not be forced to return to the home country in the first place.


If we continue to send immigrants back, more of them may way up dead.


So much for the American Dream.

If Mexico is too dangerous for tourists, why deport immigrants? | Chicanísima: Latino politics, news and culture