First, the story in our local news which touches on some very critical issues affecting our lives today. Second, since at the end of this story a request for feedback is made, I have posted my sentiments following. And, for the sake of length, I shall leave the copy attributed to Mr. Driscoll of the TNT the regular width on the page.
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Legal Procedures Questioned (excerpt from TNT by Matt Driscoll 1/17/2019)
Last week at this time, in the TNT as attentive readers might recall, Bonilla Gomez was an undocumented immigrant facing the very real prospect of being deported to Guatemala, a country he left more than a decade ago. He had been locked up at the Northwest Detention Center since late October when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials pounced on him in the parking lot of his children’s dentist office. Being forced to leave the United States would mean relocating his family to a country his wife and children had never known, or worse, separating them.
Last week at this time, in the TNT as attentive readers might recall, Bonilla Gomez was an undocumented immigrant facing the very real prospect of being deported to Guatemala, a country he left more than a decade ago. He had been locked up at the Northwest Detention Center since late October when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials pounced on him in the parking lot of his children’s dentist office. Being forced to leave the United States would mean relocating his family to a country his wife and children had never known, or worse, separating them.
Thankfully — at least for those sympathetic to Bonilla Gomez’s
story, and his family’s supporters —
those fears never materialized. While immigration cases across the country have been put on
hold because of the government shutdown, cases
continue to be heard inside the NWDC, and late last week a judge presiding over
Bonilla Gomez’s case ruled in the family’s favor.
Bonilla Gomez will be allowed to stay in the United States as a
lawful permanent resident, the judge decided.
Soon, a green card will provide the security Bonilla Gomez has
not known in this country, serving as documented proof of his right to be here.
The judge’s decision — which Bonilla Gomez’s attorney shared with
The News Tribune with his client’s permission — means no more fear, no more
uncertainty and no more hiding.
“This opportunity was the best that I could have hoped for in my
life,” Bonilla Gomez said. “I can come out from under the shadow where I had been
living as an undocumented person. I can now give my children, my family a
better life. … We can see things differently now.”
Officials with ICE couldn’t be immediately reached for comment,
likely a result of the ongoing government shutdown.
When I spoke to her last week, Maria Bonilla, Leobel’s wife,
said the possibility of her husband’s deportation wasn’t something she was
allowing herself to think about. The stakes were too high, the emotions too
raw, she said.
Still, it had clearly crossed her mind. The couple has five
children — three from a previous relationship Maria had with a man who drowned
in 2010, and twins, 3-year-old Joshua and Samantha, who were born prematurely
and deal with developmental issues.
In Guatemala or Mexico, she feared, her young children wouldn’t
have access to the medical care they depend on. Maria’s older children,
meanwhile, likely wouldn’t be able to pursue their dreams. Her 16-year-old
daughter, Guadalupe, is looking forward to college and dreams of studying
medicine, or perhaps the law.
Admittedly, as a columnist and outside observer, the likelihood
of Bonilla Gomez’s deportation crossed my mind as well.
That’s because his attorney, Diego Aranda Teixeira, explained
the case he would need to make on behalf of Bonilla Gomez. He said it would
involve demonstrating the “exceptional and extremely unusual” hardship the
family would endure if Bonilla Gomez was removed from the country and
convincing the judge of his client’s “good moral character.”
The first part, at least, seemed straightforward. Given the size
and needs of Bonilla Gomez’s family, removing him from the country and
potentially forcing his wife and children to follow appeared to have a decent
chance of meeting the high threshold of the court.
The second part was complicated — which is why I was drawn to
Bonilla Gomez’s story.
Bonilla Gomez is a family man and a hardworking breadwinner.
He’s also a flawed human being, like most of us. He has a history of alcohol
abuse that has led to two DUIs and a dismissed domestic violence charge marring
his record.
Would an immigration judge — even when presented with Bonilla
Gomez’s contrition, the acknowledgment of his alcohol problem and evidence of
the steps he’s taken to get and stay sober, which date back more than a year —
be convinced he was a good candidate to stay?
Would readers be able to appreciate the humanity of Bonilla
Gomez’s story, aware of the incredibly high standards we require of others to
enjoy the freedoms and opportunities we often take for granted.
The chances seemed precarious at best, and at worst, hopeless.
Then, last Friday arrived, and with it the news I can now say I
wasn’t expecting. Rarely have I been so pleased to be wrong.
I asked Aranda Teixeira if the judge’s decision represented a win
not just for his client but for society?
“Absolutely,” he said without hesitation, noting that his client
will have to avoid a long list of serious criminal offenses to take advantage
of his second chance, and one mistake could see it all taken away.
More importantly, the attorney said that while people often
search for model citizens, “nuclear scientists or geniuses” to make the case
for what immigration adds to this country, there’s potentially just as much
weight in what a story like Bonilla Gomez’s can teach us.
“There’s a value in regret, and there’s a value in turning one’s
life around, because that’s facing obstacles and then proving one’s self,”
Aranda Teixeira said. “In this case, we have a family that now gets to stay
together.”
Yes, we do. And while arguments will undoubtedly be made to the
contrary, it’s hard for me to see how that’s a bad thing.
As to what that family does next, Bonilla Gomez, who sobbed
tears of relief when the judge’s decision was rendered, was once again
succinct.
“Our family can now live our American dream,” he said.
The
editor of the American would like the opinions of the readership on the
legality of this action.
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I have mixed feelings & reactions to the article about Bonilla Gomez's story. I'm a bit conflicted between my sense of compassion - I grew up in a family who sponsored a Mexican family from Tijuana - and my sense of right and wrong; the upholding of law and order and justice.
Those on the left will focus on the compassion of the judge's decision. It aligns with their ideology regarding immigration. I say this because it's obvious to me that liberals - as my personal experience taught me during my teaching career - are very skilled at persuading those less grounded in their principles and values to side, or align, with their ways of viewing how society should be structured and operate.This is their means by which they bring more civic participants into the electoral process; whether legally, or illegally through voter fraud, as many circumstances have revealed in past elections. As for punishment of the commission of crimes, their compassion dominates their sense of justice and the rule of law. One does not want to offend those in your ranks who help grow your voter base. The bigger the bureaucracy, the more efficient and effective everything will be is their perspective on how to improve society.
Those who identify with the conservative ideology will focus on how they developed their principles and values of personal liberty and independence, respect of law and order to maintain civility, entrepreneurship, giving as their abilities allow, maneuvering and overcoming hardships despite the obstacle encountered, and a disgust for double standards, etc. which holds that those who disregard the law and ultimately use the "system of social services" without having contributed to it, are frustrated that their productive contribution to society's social net is being abused and ruined for those in society who've honestly and through no fault of their own, have fallen on hard times. Conservatives see the experience which teaches the principles and values of self-reliance - the "school of hard knocks", or hardships along the journey of life - being eroded away by programs which make it easier to develop dependency on the growing bureaucracy of the left.
Therefore, while I understand the personal impacts Bonilla's circumstance would generate, which no one would wish on anyone, and I would hope that Bonilla would become a legal citizen through the established process, the judge's decision to confer legality despite his flagrant disregard for respecting our laws by living a life "in the shadows", reveals that our legal system no longer adheres to a conservative view of upholding the nation's principles and values we once maintained. Such a shift is causing greater and greater divisions among among us because civility and decency are being gradually eroded away over generations. It seems societies inevitably cycle through periods of greatness, then eventually tear themselves apart and collapse. (Ancient Greece, the Roman Empire, and the United Kingdom; to name the more well known examples.)
Exactly what the end result will be is uncertain. Yet, many ignore the lessons which history has demonstrated to everyone in past similar circumstances. If we ignore them much longer, we may well be doomed to repeat it ourselves.
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