WASHINGTON: We recently learned that US immigration policy is, in fact, capable of fast action and flexibility. It just depends on who the immigrant is.
In December Congress speedily passed special immigration legislation to benefit just one person: an ice dancer. As a Canadian, she couldn’t join the 2006 US Olympics team. But a law was written that lasted exactly two days, long enough for her to be fast-tracked for citizenship and sent to compete for the United States.
Around the same time, we at the Safe Harbor Project at Brooklyn Law School received notice that the US immigration system had denied entry to Teresa, a 14-year-old African girl who has been stranded as a refugee in Guinea almost all her life. She is trying to join her adoptive mother, Momara (no real names are used here, as is generally practiced with asylum), a refugee from Sierra Leone who was granted asylum in the United States. But in this girl’s case, there is no fast track, only the rigid application of a procedural rule.
Teresa’s harrowing story began when she was born in the bush, where everyone from her town had fled to escape rampaging rebel forces threatening to kill them. Her mother died giving birth to her. Without a second thought, Momara scooped up the infant and from that moment on considered Teresa her own. She, Teresa and her other young children went to a refugee camp and remained there until the rebel forces struck again, robbing the refugees and stabbing Momara.
The family made its way to Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, but they were still not safe. Rebels beheaded Momara’s husband before their eyes, gang-raped and beat Momara, and stabbed her sons. Miraculously, they escaped and fled to Guinea.
With our legal representation Momara received asylum in 2004. She now lives with her grown son in Queens. An uneducated woman with few personal belongings, she has great dignity and endless hope for her future in the United States. Yet her worries have not ended, because she has not yet been reunited with all her children. The law permits immediate relatives of refugees — spouses and biological and adopted children — to come to the United States. Momara’s three biological children were recently granted derivative asylum and await visas. But Teresa can qualify for a visa only with proof that she is adopted. The Department of Homeland Security denied her application because she does not have an “official adoption decree” from Sierra Leone.
As Momara’s lawyers, we explained to the DHS that Sierra Leone was devastated by a 10-year civil war, which has orphaned many children. It is customary for other families to raise them, albeit without official papers - the country has no functioning government, much less a formalized adoption procedure.
Momara is pleading to be reunited with all of her children and to know they are finally out of harm’s way. But the DHS stated in its denial of Teresa’s visa application that “since there are no formal adoption decrees in Sierra Leone then you are unable to provide a copy of the final adoption decree ... which has been registered with the proper civil authorities.” This is a new version of Catch-22: We know it’s impossible for you to get the proof we request; nevertheless, we will withhold the relief you seek because you cannot obtain the proof. This flat denial shows an inflexibility in the administration of US immigration policy and frustrates one of its most fundamental stated goals: family unification. —Dawn/Washington Post News Service