Illogical Deportations

Community vigil in Selinsgrove, PA for the Servano family




A doctor is working in an under-served area in Pennsylvania. He has not broken any laws - has been in the United States - legally for decades - he applies for citizenship and is handed an order for deportation. See post: "More Deportations," November 17, 2007.

His deportation order has been postponed. Senator Arlen Spector is helping the Servano family stay in the U.S. The Servano's have the support of their community. Why in the world would ICE want to deport someone like Dr. Servano?

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April 12, 2008

Perfectly Legal Immigrants, Until They Applied for Citizenship

By JULIA PRESTON

SELINSGROVE, Pa. — Dr. Pedro Servano always believed that his journey from his native Philippines to the life of a community doctor in Pennsylvania would lead to American citizenship.

But the doctor, who has tended to patients here in the Susquehanna Valley for more than a decade, is instead battling a deportation order along with his wife.

The Servanos are among a growing group of legal immigrants who reach for the prize and permanence of citizenship, only to run afoul of highly technical immigration statutes that carry the severe penalty of expulsion from the country. For the Servanos, the problem has been a legal hitch involving their marital status when they came from the Philippines some 25 years ago.

Largely overlooked in the charged debate over illegal immigration, many of these are long-term legal immigrants in the United States who were confident of success when they applied for naturalization, and would have continued to live here legally had they not sought to become citizens.

As applications for naturalization have surged, overburdened federal examiners, under pressure to make quick decisions and also weed out any security risks, prefer to err on the side of rejection, immigration lawyers and independent researchers said. In 2007, 89,683 applications for naturalization were denied, about 12 percent of those presented.

In the last 12 years, denial rates have been consistently higher than at any time since the 1920s.

Though precise figures are not available, an increasing number of these denials involve immigrants who believed they were in good legal standing, according to lawyers and researchers. Under the law, a number of grounds for naturalization denial can lead to an order of deportation, and appeals are more limited than in criminal cases.

“It’s no wonder there are so many illegal immigrants,” said Brad Darnell, an electrical engineer from Canada living in California who applied for citizenship but is also now fighting deportation. “The legal method is so intolerant and confusing.”

A legal immigrant since 1991, Mr. Darnell is married to an American and has two American-born sons. But after he presented his naturalization application last year, Mr. Darnell discovered that a 10-year-old conviction for domestic violence involving a former girlfriend, even though it had been reduced to a misdemeanor and erased from his public record, made him ineligible to become a citizen — or even to continue living in the United States...

for link to complete NYT article click the title of this post

More Deportations

November 17, 2007
Longtime US Residents Fight Deportation
NYTimes

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 4:12 a.m. ET

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) -- Immigrants Pedro and Salvacion Servano have been model U.S. residents since arriving from the Philippines in the 1980s. Pedro Servano, 54, is a prominent family doctor in an underserved area of central Pennsylvania. His 51-year-old wife runs a grocery store and bakery.

But apparent misstatements they made about their marital status 17 years ago have come back to haunt them, and now they are facing possible deportation back to the Philippines.

The couple have been told to report to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement office the day after Thanksgiving for the start of deportation proceedings, agency spokesman Michael Gilhooly said Friday.

Their attorney, Gregg Cotler, is devising a flurry of last-ditch legal and political appeals to allow them to remain in Selinsgrove, about 100 miles northwest of Philadelphia.

''We love this country and this is our American dream to be here,'' Salvacion Servano said in a telephone interview. ''We've been here for 25 years. This is our home.''

Their difficulties can be traced back to 1978 when, while both were single, their mothers applied for visas for them to come to the United States.

The couple married in the Philippines in 1980, and two years later, Salvacion Servano's visa was granted and she left the country. Pedro Servano followed in 1984 after getting his visa, and the couple moved to Philadelphia.

The Servanos applied for U.S. citizenship while living in San Diego in 1990, but an immigration official noticed during an interview that their visa application listed them as single. They were accused of lying and misrepresenting their marital status, and the deportation process began, Cotler said.

''I guess it's an honest mistake,'' Salvacion Servano said. ''It's not premeditated.''

The Servanos went about their lives as they filed appeals. They moved back to Philadelphia in 1992 before settling in Selinsgrove three years later. Pedro Servano works at Geisinger Medical Group in Selinsgrove, where he has about 2,000 patients.

Two of their four children graduated from Temple University, while one is in high school and another is in middle school.

Several years ago, the Servanos bought and renovated two properties in nearby Sunbury. Salvacion Servano recently opened a small grocery store there, selling Asian goods and baked items.

''They had an error on their visas when they first came here,'' said Terry Specht, Sunbury's city clerk, who frequents the store. ''It's ridiculous to think they would lie about that.''

But their appeals have been unsuccessful and appear to have run their course.

The Servanos turned to Cotler after receiving notice earlier this month that they had to report to the immigration enforcement office.

''It was a surprise to us,'' Pedro Servano said. ''After that, it was as if a ton of bricks had fallen on our family.''

Gilhooly declined to discuss the specifics of the case, citing ICE policy.

''They have had their due process through the U.S. immigration court system,'' he said. ''They have exhausted their appeals.''

Cotler hopes otherwise. His legal team is considering emergency appeals in court and directly to the U.S. attorney general's office.

The family has lobbied for help from politicians. Friends scheduled a prayer vigil in Sunbury for Saturday night.

Letters of support to the government have poured in from local dignitaries, Servano's patients and even someone from the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE.

''I fervently believe in the ICE mission. However, the Servanos did not sneak into this country illegally, they have broken no laws, and they have not been a burden to the economy. They pose no threat,'' DHS counterterrorism operative Bill Schweigart wrote in a letter obtained by The Daily Item of Sunbury. ''I cannot fathom how deporting the Servanos fulfills any portion of the ICE mission. In fact, I would argue the action runs counter to it.''

Cotler said the couple understands the government's position, but would simply like another chance to tell their story.

''You would not find two nicer people, two more unassuming people,'' Specht said. ''It's a shame that these two are caught up in all this.''


http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Doctor-Immigration-Appeal.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print