Dayton Daily News
Staff Writer
Many local families are applauding a proposed change in immigration law that could save hundreds of thousands of American citizens from lengthy separations from their spouses or children.
Nicole Xique of Kettering said the new regulation would have prevented her three-year separation from her husband, Braulio, when he was deported to Mexico. Their daughter Isabel, now 3, was born during his exile. He heard her newborn cry over his cellphone.
Braulio obtained his green card last June. “I truly feel that this proposed law would benefit a lot of families that are currently in hiding,” Xique said. “There are a lot of couples that want to get their spouses legalized, but they are afraid of that separation time.”
The streamlined procedure, proposed Jan. 6 by Obama administration officials, would allow undocumented immigrants to remain in the United States while waiting to be approved for a waiver that shows an American citizen would suffer “extreme hardship” from their absence.
Julie Arias of Dayton knows what that’s like. She endured a long and painful separation from her husband, Juan, of Ecuador. Like Xique, she returned home to the United States after learning she was pregnant with their first child. The anxiety caused her to have suicidal thoughts, and she began to take antidepressants. “This is so important because it protects the basic family unit,” she said. “Families can turn to mush when they are separated like this.”
Tina Hamdi of Englewood, 19, now has hope that she can remain in the only country she has ever known. She was raised in Ohio since she was 1 year old, but was in the final stages of deportation to her native Morocco.
Now, as a newlywed who is married to a U.S. citizen, she can begin the long journey to a green card.
The first step in that path will be significantly easier when the new regulation is in place, probably by the end of this year. In essence, officials at the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) are proposing that immigrants can apply for a waiver in the United States rather than in their native country. It’s a solution to what many have described as a Catch-22 for undocumented immigrants who are married to American citizens or whose parents are citizens.
Once immigrants leave the United States, they are barred from returning for at least three years — and sometimes as long as 10 years — unless they can obtain a waiver by proving their absence would present an “extreme hardship” to a U.S. citizen. Obtaining the waiver, however, can take many months. “If you’re very fortunate, you get the approval of the waiver in three months,” said Dayton immigration attorney David Larson. “That’s still three months when you’re not with your family or at your job, and a lot of people figure they can’t afford that, especially since there’s no guarantee that you’ll be approved.”
Under the new rule, immigrants could obtain a provisional waiver in the United States before leaving for their countries to pick up their visas. Nothing else will change about the process of getting an immigrant visa, according to USCIS press secretary Christopher Bentley. He said that 23,000 waivers were applied for last year, of which 17,000 were approved. “The hope is it will greatly lessen the amount of time that U.S. families are separated,” he said.
Dayton-area immigration attorney Shahrzad Allen, a native of Iran, said it’s “a small step, but it will help hundreds of thousands of individuals who are married to U.S. citizens.” Allen believes that many undocumented immigrants will step forward and begin the process of obtaining a green card. “Some people choose not to pursue legal status because of the risks involved,” she said. “There’s a fear of being separated from their families if the waiver isn’t granted. Now a lot more will be willing to come to an attorney and take that first step.”
Dayton immigration attorney David Larson concurred that “it’s definitely a bright spot on the horizon,” but cautioned that it could easily be reversed if there’s a new president-elect next year.
Noted Larson, a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, “It’s an astute political move. It puts the undocumented immigrant population on notice that a change in president could be disastrous. They can’t vote, but they have friends and family who can.”
Jamie Longazel, assistant sociology professor at the University of Dayton, said that President Obama “has been hesitant to make any moves in the area of immigration. He is making a small, politically cautious move to court Latino voters, while avoiding too much backlash or the appearance of giving amnesty.”
Although it’s a small step, Longazel said, it will close a loophole in the U.S. immigration policy: “You put a human face on it and see real families who are living out these political battles.”
Some local residents opposed the measure, likening it to amnesty. “No doubt about it, it would hurt Americans,” said Harriet Allread of Dayton. “What part of illegal does our president not understand? If I go into a store and shoplift, that is illegal. Their coming over here is illegal. It’s just a shame that another Democrat that is against amnesty did not run against him because that person would have gotten my vote,” she said.
Denise Hamdi of Englewood is happy that her niece Tina can now take the first step toward applying for a green card, but the new regulation wouldn’t help Tina’s mother, Fatiha Elgharib, whose story has been covered extensively by the Dayton Daily News. “This speeds up the process, but the process itself needs to change,” she said.
Elgharib is the mother of four children; the two youngest are American citizens, including 9-year-old Sami, who has Down syndrome. Sami stopped talking and regressed in many other ways after his mother was imprisoned for five months in 2007. Immigration authorities seized Elgharib when she failed to appear for a court deportation hearing; the notice was sent to her old address. She was released on humanitarian grounds in December 2007, but that one missed court date set the deportation process in motion. Elgharib and oldest daughter Sara, 21 — who grew up in the United States — are awaiting legal appeals but remain in the final stages of the deportation process.
“I’m disappointed that this doesn’t go far enough,” Hamdi said. “Children can’t apply for a waiver on behalf of their parents.”
Arias has formed a local support group, Families Across Borders, designed to help other families in their situation. “We know what it feels like to wonder every day. ‘Is my spouse going to come home this evening?’ ”
The prolonged separations and protracted legal fees put tremendous stress on marriages, Arias said. Her family racked up more than $7,000 in legal fees alone.
Her husband, Juan, is now a permanent legal resident studying to be an airplane mechanic at Sinclair Community College.
The new regulation, she believes, will help other families in their situation. “The separation is the biggest factor in all of this,” Arias said. “It’s like forcing a U.S. citizen to choose between their country and their marriage.”
For more about Families Without Borders, write jarias927.
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