Sunday, December 22, 2002

Lovely.


There's no place on earth that Amina Budri would rather be than America.

Against the altered political landscapes of her Afghan homeland and that of her chosen land – and despite the uniform welcome that the rest of her family received here – federal immigration authorities in North Texas are poised to banish the 29-year-old to a nation long foreign to her and a culture hostile to solitary women.

Ms. Budri, alone among nine siblings in failing to secure political asylum in the United States or Canada, was granted a temporary delay Thursday from immediate deportation.

She remains under order to return to Afghanistan, however, unless she wins a new review of her case, including evidence of her family's Afghan political ties that apparently was never considered by an immigration court.


If someone sees the follow up to this, make sure you bring it to my attention please.

(via Alas, a Blog)

Where I used to live there were a large number of immigrants - legal - from Cape Verde. A problem was that some of the younger ones - who had been in the U.S. since they were small children and were now young adults - were being deported back to Cape Verde after committing minor crimes. Many of them spoke no Portugese.