Thread: Jailed: Couple struggle with separation

Jailed: Couple struggle with separation
Months in a Kentucky lockup anguish a Liberian woman and her family.
Monday, September 3, 2007 3:33 AM
By Todd Jones

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

http://www.columbusdispatch.com/live/co ... ml?sid=101

After 24 years in America, a Columbus woman faces possible deportation to her native Liberia. As the case of Bernice Bryant shows, complex immigration laws can cause confusion and heartache.

Their peaceful life together had split into a heartache-filled chasm divided by a quarter-inch-thick pane of glass.

Bernice Bryant paused, wiped tears from her eyes and put her left hand to her black headband.

"Please be strong," said her husband, Sunny, choking up on the other side of the window. "I don't want you to break down, or I will break down."

He held one of the black telephones that visitors use to speak with inmates at the Boone County Jail in Burlington, Ky., about 23 miles southwest of Cincinnati.

This brief visit in early July came during Bernice's 78th day behind bars in legal limbo. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers had arrested her in Columbus because of a 1985 order to leave the country.

The Far East Side couple, natives of Liberia, thought Bernice would interview to have her status adjusted to permanent resident when they met with immigration officials in April.

Instead, she was arrested as one of the country's 12 million illegals, bused to Kentucky and locked up.

Her window to the world now looked over a jail's visiting room -- for 15 minutes, twice a week.

"Hang in there," said Sunny, a U.S. citizen. "Only God and friends can help us right now. I love you, honey. I miss you."

Tears fell from the puffy eyes of Inmate 616.

Bernice's story is black and white in immigration law: The U.S. government ordered her to leave the country, and she ignored the deportation warrant for 21 years.

"Our job in Immigration and Customs is to enforce, to carry out the judge's order," agency spokesman Greg Palmore said. "In this case, we're responsible for removing this person from the United States."

Bernice's story is gray from her perspective.

Although ordered to leave in 1985, Bernice subsequently received a Social Security card and numerous work permits as Liberia deteriorated during civil war. She and Sunny believed those documents gave her temporary legal status, and attorneys assured them that Bernice was covered under his status as a U.S. citizen.

"A fugitive is running away from the law," Sunny said. "She's been running to the law."

Her pursuit crashed in ironic fashion.

Bernice went to the Columbus immigration office in September 2006 because she wanted to visit Liberia to see her mother. She filed paperwork seeking permanent legal status so it would be easier to return to the United States from Africa.

"That's what triggered this mess," said Martin Midian, a Columbus immigration lawyer representing Bernice.

Her outstanding deportation order, overlooked for more than two decades, popped onto the radar of immigration officials.

The federal immigration detention and field office in Detroit, which covers Michigan and Ohio, deports 2,500 people a year to 140 countries. About half are considered fugitive aliens such as Bernice -- immigrants who ignore an order to leave.

Bernice, 43, was sent to the Boone County Jail in Kentucky for lack of local jail space for immigration cases.

Immigration law allows fugitive aliens such as Bernice to be held for 90 days without bond.

None of this made sense to Sunny in early July as his wife sat behind bars.

"I'm just helpless," he said. "We've been living in this country with no criminal record, paying taxes every year. It's like a nightmare you can't wake up from."

As the days of July dripped by, Bernice often looked up at the tiny, long window near the ceiling of her jail cell and longed to leave.

Every time a guard called her name, she feared it meant deportation.

Seven other women in her cell, which she estimated to be 15 feet by 15 feet, walked back and forth to pass the time. They watched a small black-and-white TV or talked, often through the night.

Sometimes fights broke out. Bernice buried her head under her covers to block out the noise.

She struggled to sleep, took medicine for high blood pressure and read her Bible for comfort.

"Sitting in one place, looking at the same people and doing nothing -- nothing -- is torture," Bernice said on the telephone in the visitors room.

Her attorney asked an immigration court in Detroit to reopen Bernice's deportation case from 1985.

"I'm trying to get a hearing date," Midian said. "If I can get in front of an immigration judge, then we've got a shot. (Immigration officials) are bogged down. They have so many cases."

Since Bernice has been in jail, Sunny has lost 25 pounds, down to 115 on his 5-foot-4 frame. He's had pain in his stomach and legs.

Sunny, 44, was hospitalized in the Cleveland Clinic for three weeks in 2006 because of kidney and liver problems. Bernice slept in a chair by his side every night.

"He's very sickly," said friend George Bolley. "His wife's situation worries him a lot. We don't want to go to his house one day and find him dead."

Sunny continued working seven days a week at Sunny's Driving Academy, a business that he and Bernice own and run. He struggled, however, to concentrate in front of the students.

"I need my wife," he said during a break from one class. "I'm doing my best, but I'm an actor. It's a facade."

At home, dishes and laundry piled up. His sister Cleo Bryant tried to help by having Sunny and his son Winston, 11, stay at her Columbus home on weekends.

"My brother is grieving so much," Cleo said. "Sometimes he comes here and he's very depressed."

The feeling was shared in the local Liberian community of about 2,000, many of whom view Bernice and Sunny as parental figures.

"We're praying for her," said Macdonald Goodridge. "When she gets out, by God's grace, there's going to be a great celebration in the community, trust me. We'll walk in the streets."

Gloom hovered in Sunny's split-level house -- the one with the Christmas lights still in the front window -- on Aug. 2. He took a day off work because of intense pain in his legs and feet. His doctor suggested he visit a neurologist.

Sunny sat in a darkened den and lamented how life had deteriorated without Bernice and how their future together looked uncertain.

The phone rang. It was Bernice calling from jail, depressed and suffering from a headache and chest pains.

"This is too much for us to take," she said. "Our whole life is going down the drain."

Coming Tuesday: Will Bernice come home to Columbus or be deported to Liberia?

tjones@dispatch.com

This article tells very little about the actual case. Like how she came here to begin with.

Originally Posted by NoIllegalsAllowed

This article tells very little about the actual case. Like how she came here to begin with.

But it's odd that ICE is able to lock up someone like her, yet illegal mexicans constantly get arrested and are almost immune to immigration law enforcement.

Her case really isn't too clear by this article though.

there is more I ll see if I cant find where i posted it this is the third part

Sorry...bottom line is that she CHOOSE to ignore our laws....and then has a kid....She probably will get to stay because the husband is sick....
she had 21 more years here because she ignored the law.... go to show.. being law abiding is not the way to go....I can't believe it took them 21 years!!!!!!!!!

Originally Posted by grandmasmad

Sorry...bottom line is that she CHOOSE to ignore our laws....and then has a kid....She probably will get to stay because the husband is sick....
she had 21 more years here because she ignored the law.... go to show.. being law abiding is not the way to go....I can't believe it took them 21 years!!!!!!!!!

grandmasmad dont every saysorry those idiots knew what might happen when they came here.
I agree it a sad day when someone wants a pitty party when they know the broke the law.

Agreed. But there are some that have been here illegally more than 25 or 30 years and still barely speak English. At the end of the day, the sob stories anger me. You know that you are here illegally, and if you are un certain then you should have not allowed 21 years to pass to "test the waters". It's like receiving your credit report in the mail opened (which has happened to me) and assuming that nobody has stolen your identity (in this day and age of illegal alien thieves) and then going to buy a big ticket item without reviewing your credit report. Hello . . . .It's called VERIFICATION AND TAKING PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY for your personal well being.

If she was here for as long as she says she was, wouldn't she have gotten amnesty in 86? And how the hell did she get here to begin with? And what are these "work permits" she had?

Originally Posted by WhatMattersMost

Agreed. But there are some that have been here illegally more than 25 or 30 years and still barely speak English. At the end of the day, the sob stories anger me. You know that you are here illegally, and if you are un certain then you should have not allowed 21 years to pass to "test the waters". It's like receiving your credit report in the mail opened (which has happened to me) and assuming that nobody has stolen your identity (in this day and age of illegal alien thieves) and then going to buy a big ticket item without reviewing your credit report. Hello . . . .It's called VERIFICATION AND TAKING PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY.

THANK YOU !!!
VERIFICATION AND TAKING PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY

Hello !!!


Establishing a Self Imposed No Whining Policy

Originally Posted by NoIllegalsAllowed

If she was here for as long as she says she was, wouldn't she have gotten amnesty in 86? And how the hell did she get here to begin with? And what are these "work permits" she had?

Many of them had criminal records in their own countries and were afraid that they would be rejected for citizenship in the US and promptly deported. So they never applied for amnesty and assumed that it was no big deal. After all these are lawless idiots from lawless, corrupt cesspools who have no problem being repeat offenders, until they get caught like this one.

ETA: You're Welcome Greg!!

This brief visit in early July came during Bernice's 78th day behind bars in legal limbo. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers had arrested her in Columbus because of a 1985 order to leave the country.

1985?! What the heck is she STILL doing here? She not only broke the law, but she continued to ignore our laws for over 22 years. Why do these people always think that their situation is so unique, and that they should be given "special" exceptions to our laws?