Maria’s Story
This post was submitted by a visitor to WeAreAmericaStories.org.
Maria Cardon is worried about being deported back to Mexico. Is it because she is here illegally? No, she already has her Green Card. Is it because she committed a crime? No, she has a clean record. So what is going on?
Apparently, an over-zealous USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) noticed a slight discrepancy in her paperwork: she listed coming back into the US, but not leaving (the day previous to her entry, when she went to go visit her parents who are still in Mexico).
A simple mistake, right? That is what she and her husband, Ben Cardon, thought.
Still, receiving a letter from USCIS titled “INTENT TO RECIND” (apparently the government can’t spell rescind) had them worried. So they met with their lawyer, who informed them that this is something pretty serious, and that they had a very limited amount of time to respond to the letter (30 days from when it was sent out). Their lawyer immediately set up an appointment with a Social Worker psychologist for Ben, and got Maria writing an apology letter, as well as having friends and family write notarized letters. What are all these letters and the psychologist for? To try and prove to a USCIS Judge that if Maria were to be deported, it would be detrimental to Ben. It doesn’t matter whether or not it would be detrimental to Maria-she isn’t a US Citizen.
Just up to this point, you can imagine how difficult it would be. Now let’s explain things a little further. Ben and Maria have to travel 50 miles each way every time they need to meet with their lawyer. To even respond to the letter they received, they have to pay a fee of $585. That appointment with the psychologist? Add on another $200. And we can’t forget the lawyer fees, another $400. That is part of the financial aspect.
Oh, one other thing I forget to mention: Ben and Maria have a son, Scott. Scott is a cute little 8 month old baby with quite the personality. Unfortunately, when Scott was born, there were a couple of issues. He has an umbilical hernia that needs surgery soon, and he has Vesicoureteral Reflux (reflux from the bladder back to the kidneys), for which he takes antibiotics daily, and may need surgery. If Maria is deported, they have to decide what they are going to do with Scott (and with Ben, for that matter). Does Scott go with Maria to Mexico while Ben stays behind to finish his last year of school? Does Scott stay with Ben? If so, how does Ben go to school and work? If Scott is in Mexico, where and when do they do the surgery? How do they get his antibiotics? What about insurance? If Ben does drop out of school and moves to Mexico, how does he get a job? He is still working on learning Spanish, doesn’t have a work visa, and doesn’t know the market. This is just the tip of the iceberg, but you get the picture. Can you imagine the emotional and psychological strain this is putting on all of them?
So what happens now? Ben and Maria are working with their lawyer to get everything ready to submit to USCIS. Within about a month, they should receive a response from USCIS (can you imagine how fun a month that will be?). If the appeal is approved, everything should be okay (as long as they don’t get another similar letter). If it is not approved, however, things get really fun. Maria will receive a letter informing her that her green card is no longer valid and that she has to leave the country. Once she has left, she and Ben can pay another application fee of $585 to allow them to go through the green card process all over again – a process which has its own fee of $1,490, not to mention lawyer fees, medical fees, and everything else. Only once that application is approved (again), which can take anywhere from 3 months to over a year, can she return back to America.
So what can you do about it? A couple of things. Immigration laws in this country are in need of change-they are outdated and no longer applicable. We need laws that give people like Maria the help they need to stay with their families, improve their lives, etc, while also working towards targeting those immigrants who are breaking the real laws (drug traffickers, murders, etc). Laws like those that were recently passed in Arizona and Alabama are racial profiling, and hurt, more than anyone else, people like Maria who only improve the great nation that we are.
