My Husband's Father was Deported Yesterday

[Cin&Anil 0]

Your story brought tears to me.. I am so sorry.

God bless you!

[Nasturtium 500]

Also any lawyer worth $10 should know to check and see if his rights were violated under US law. There is a misconception that non-citizens or legal residents have no rights under the law-- but that's not true. Our constitution guarantees rights to all peoples (although we can only enforce them here ) and so it is possible to violate the "self evident" truths amongst other things. There was an issue about this earlier this year here where they locked and FORGOT about a woman who is illegally here, in a holding cell, and left/forgot about her for 3+ days-- no food or water, etc. The amazing part is the officer who did this was just suspended, not fired. Point being, there was a lot of talk about how illegal or not, she still was guaranteed various rights and could sue-- although she chose to not do it.

[S and S 12]

Also any lawyer worth $10 should know to check and see if his rights were violated under US law. There is a misconception that non-citizens or legal residents have no rights under the law-- but that's not true. Our constitution guarantees rights to all peoples (although we can only enforce them here ) and so it is possible to violate the "self evident" truths amongst other things. There was an issue about this earlier this year here where they locked and FORGOT about a woman who is illegally here, in a holding cell, and left/forgot about her for 3+ days-- no food or water, etc. The amazing part is the officer who did this was just suspended, not fired. Point being, there was a lot of talk about how illegal or not, she still was guaranteed various rights and could sue-- although she chose to not do it.

That is horrible what they did to that woman. How do you forget to feed and give water to a prisoner? Legal or illegal, it is not right. God, in some states people can go to jail for not feeding or giving water to animals. One would think a human could expect at least the same rights as an animal.

[Krissy! 0]

allousa, my heart goes out to you and your family/in-laws. I am devastated the treatment your in-laws had endured, it leaves a bad taste in all our mouths. They did have legal rights which were not honored. I understand it's stressful, but I hope getting to the bottom of the legal matters gets reached. My consolations.

[Nasturtium 500]

That is horrible what they did to that woman. How do you forget to feed and give water to a prisoner? Legal or illegal, it is not right. God, in some states people can go to jail for not feeding or giving water to animals. One would think a human could expect at least the same rights as an animal.

She actually left for 4 days, I'm sorry.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/12/us/12jai...nyt&emc=rss

Animals don't have much in the way of enforced rights here either. I know they were saying it was because she is hispanic, but I am inclined to disagree-- I really think that it has to do with the total disregard for people, in general, held by many people in authority-- which is getting back to Allousa's case. Alexandra gave her story and she's from Sweden-- not even on the radar of "browner than us" countries (said tongue in cheek of course), but was treated in that manner as well. it wasn't about country, it is about abuse of power and disregard for human life. I'm not a hand-holding person-- someone does something wrong, then yeah they should totally get the boot and it doesn't need to be a frilly experience. This is different though. I sometimes think race, religion, etc can make it easier to self-justify or justify to others about your choices, but it comes down to a basic lack of respect and total abuse of power.

[Brad and Vika 129]

How terrible!!! TG They at least are at home safe now. I am sorry this happened to your family.

[nu7015 0]

I am so sorry this happened to you and your family. I read this earlier and have been speechless. This seems more like a movie scene than something that could really happen in real life. I can't imagine how it felt to actually have gone through it all. It just doesn't make sense. What the hell were they thinking?????? How is a 70 year old man going to cause the US harm????????? God bless your FIL for saying he was a friend of the US (that's the part in the movie where everyone stands up and cheers).

It just makes me sick to think about how horrific for your FIL to be with these azzholes not being able to communicate with them or to know or understand what the hell was going on. Let alone all of you not knowing what was going on. I don't know if I could have held myself together the way you did and not ended up in jail myself. I'm afraid I would have gone off the deep end.

And for them to say it was a misunderstanding??????? WTH??????????? I would have ended up in jail.

This makes me sick that those people are representing and 'protecting' our country.

I'd call everyone possible; attorneys, police, FBI, all congressmen, every news station, radio station, newspaper, even picket the airport. I hope you have the names of these people or the ability to get them. These people are the LAST people that should have any authority over anyone or anything. If I were closer, I'd go pay them a visit and speak my mind. It's probably a good thing I don't live closer...

[jundp 191]

I'm with the rest of you, in that I keep thinking about this and I'm still so angry.

Alexandra, thank you for sharing your story too. I suppose this happens more than we'd like to think.

[SaadBell 0]

I am a friend of America" is just heartbreaking.

Bless his heart, I want somebody to pay for this outrage, ####### is wrong with people, especially Americans who are representing our country. I am just speechless reading this nightmare of an experience, you get you a big time lawyer, call ACLU, call anyone and anybody who is in the public eye, where this story can get told. That poor old man, how can they treat an elderly man in this manner is beyond my scope of thinking. Oh I ammmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm sooooooooooooooooooooooooo pissssssssssssed off and in a way it is a good thing I wasn’t there, they would have thrown my ### right in jail, cause I would have melted down hard. The baby, #######, are they freaking blind, girl, you sue them and sue them hard and for tons of money. To think that poor man spent the night in jail, wonderful, just freaking brilliant, what a welcome to America. You tell your FIL and MIL that there are some people here in America that is absolutely disgusted with this treatment. Just all that flying is not good for their health, omg, I am soooooooooooooo ###### mad right now. SUE AND SUE BIG TIME.

[rebeccajo 14]

Wow.

[sandinista! 1,816]

i'm very, very sorry to hear this too. this is one of the most deplorable, hideous things i've ever read.

[Ta Ta 1]

I have no words to express my sorrow and disgust.

[allousa 1]

UPDATE!!!

My husband was finally able to speak to his parents this evening after they got home and told him what happened after he got on the plane. He said that many people on the plane kept looking at them and acted afraid like he was a tiger or something. Since the officers escorted them on the plane, I'm sure they knew they were being deported. And the packet that the officers told us had the documentation of why he was being deported....it was never given to my FIL, but to the pilot to hand over to the German officials. So we STILL do not know why he was deported.

They made his parents wait until very last to get off the plane. He said that everyone looked at them as they were leaving the plane. The officals were waiting for them and took them straight to the Customs in Germany. My FIL said that they were actually surprised that he was sent back since his Visa seemed to be in order, but they did not give him an explanation either. They made them stay in Customs and escorted them to their plane leaving for Morocco. We assume because they had orders to make sure they boarded the plane back to Morocco. My husband and I actually said this may have been a good thing that they had help to get them to the gate. They did say that the German officals were polite and didn't give them any problems at all.

We will have to pursue legal means to find out why this happened and trust me we will. This is far from over. I will post updates as they happen.

We are all so thankful that they are home and done with this horrible nightmare.

Thank you ALL for your kind words and support. It would have been an AWESOME spectacle to have had so many people standing behinds us enforce in the Customs office. I really and honestly hope that this NEVER happens to anyone you know or love.

[sarahaziz 0]

I'm pretty sure if everyone lived near we'd kick their asses especially people who only know how to communicate like animals instead of politely speaking.

[nu7015 0]

How frustrating that everything is kept so secretive. How awful to have to travel that far with people staring at you like you're some kind of criminal.

Interesting that the Germans even seemed confused as to why they deported him. You'd think they could of at least given him a reason or even a hint as to why he was deported.

I'm so frustrated for you!!!!!!!!!!