U.S. Deports Teacher

AP | Monday, Jan. 26, 2004

[RussianConservative]

OAKLAND, California (AP) -- An immigration judge has ordered the deportation of a Russian piano teacher, despite pleas by her husband, a U.S. citizen, that she be allowed to stay with him and their 20-month-old son.

Yana Slobodova, 30, has been in an Oakland jail since meeting with immigration officials earlier this month, and was ordered back to Russia when the judge on Thursday denied her request for permanent residency.

Slobodova admits she misrepresented herself when she entered the United States in 1996, but her husband, a U.S. citizen, says she was swindled by unscrupulous immigration consultants and has been trying to cooperate with authorities.

[RussianConservative]

Pick on Russian, give away visa to Arab and leagalize Mexican...hmmm... maybe husband and baby son soon migrate to Russia?

[Onelifetogive]

Slobodova admits she misrepresented herself when she entered the United States in 1996...

She made ONE big mistake....

When they asked if she was here illegally, she answered "da" instead of "si"...

[VaBthang4]

"Slobodova admits she misrepresented herself when she entered the United States"

End Of Discussion.

[BSunday]

End Of Discussion.

Oh Brother. Another zero tolerance ignore all context all who disagree can go to hell legalist.

[lilylangtree]

Yep! Now the judges need to start on those answer with a "Si".

[Blood of Tyrants]

Her main crime was not having the right surname/skin color/ethnic culture. If her name was Gonzalez or if she weren't white or if she had been Muslim, they would have bent over backwards to break any and all rules necessary to keep her here.

[Blood of Tyrants]

Do you think that they would have been as eager to deport her if she have been named Ramirez?

[angkor]

More details:

Piano instructor faces deportation

By Joshua L. Kwan
SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS


Mountain View's Community School of Music and Arts canceled a piano recital for 18 students last week, after immigration officials jailed their 30-year-old teacher and prepared to deport her back to her native Russia.

Yana Slobodova admits she misrepresented herself when she entered the United States in 1996. But her husband, a U.S. citizen, says she was swindled by unscrupulous immigration consultants and has been trying to cooperate with authorities so she can stay in the Bay Area with her husband and their 20-month-old son, Nikita.

"I couldn't imagine that something like this could possibly happen to my wife," her husband, Alexander Makarchuk, said Friday. "She is the sweetest person I've ever known."

Slobodova has been detained in an Oakland jail since meeting Jan. 8 with immigration officials, said Makarchuk, who has taken Nikita to see his mother twice.

The popular piano teacher was ordered back to Russia on Thursday after an immigration judge denied her request for permanent residency. As the wife of a U.S. citizen, Slobodova was allowed to seek permanent residency. But her petition was denied, according to her lawyers.

A spokeswoman for the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services declined to comment on Slobodova's case, citing federal privacy laws.

In 1996, Slobodova tried entering the United States with improper papers. Her boyfriend at the time persuaded her to pay $10,000 to men in New York and Russia, who told her they could help her gain permanent residency based on her extraordinary musical talents, Makarchuk said.

When Slobodova examined the paperwork the men later gave her, she realized the documents were for a wife of a U.S. citizen, said Makarchuk, who met her years later.

Slobodova decided to fly to New York anyway and was apprehended by immigration officials but was allowed to stay in the country while she sought asylum as a Russian Jew, Makarchuk said. Her appeals have been denied.

One of her attorneys, Marc Van Der Hout, filed a request Friday that would give Slobodova 30 days to go to her home in San Francisco and say goodbye to her parents, who received refugee status and later permanent citizenship, and to her husband and son.

[navyblue]

Maybe somebody should ask President Bush if this comes under the headings of "family values" and "family unification?"

Somehow, I don't think this case is going to make the shape-up! Ya think this husband and father is going to vote for Bush this time?

There should never, ever be the slightest thought to granting any kind of legal status to illegal aliens for any reason as long as there are family members of American citizens still waiting their turn to come here.

That might not be as good for business as the Bush proposal, but it sure is good old fashioned Americanism!

[Righty1]

Karl Roves hispandering condemns the white race on this continent to the same fate as those in africa. It is just a matter of time.

[ought-six]

"Karl Roves hispandering condemns the white race on this continent to the same fate as those in africa. It is just a matter of time."

Interesting perspective. Unfortunately, you may be right.

[angkor]

There should never, ever be the slightest thought to granting any kind of legal status to illegal aliens for any reason as long as there are family members of American citizens still waiting their turn to come here.

The INS does this stuff all the time, you can find it on the Usenet newsgroups pertaining to marital visas. And having been through the system, I believe they get a particular sadistic pleasure from messing with the spouses of American citizens.

Watch to see what happens to native American citizens and their immigrant spouses once the "work visa" is initiated. It's guaranteed that legal applicants will go to the back of the line (behind 12 million illegal aliens), and family separations will extend into eternity.

[oceanview]

well, that "white race" currently has a birth rate of 1.8: "no fate but what we make".

[angkor]

Karl Roves hispandering condemns the white race on this continent to the same fate as those in africa.

I don't want to go too far down this road, but once you enter the INS system as a native American with a foreign spouse, you're treated no differently than any uneducated third-world mango farmer.

With the exception that you can sweet-talk (or plead with) your Senator, Congressman, and other officials in English, and you can get a savvy immigration lawyer to navigate the problem areas (which means you'll have a lawyer on retainer for several years).

[fire_eye]

So, what does this mean - it's OK to just jump the border and run in here, as long as you don't "Misrepresent" yourself?

I.e., if you try to obtain legal documentation and have problems, we'll throw you out, but if you just swim the Rio Grande and stay out of sight, well, that's OK, we'll offer you amnesty?

Bush is headed for more trouble with this "amnesty" than he thinks (frankly, I don't think it will make it through Clowngress).

Also, and by the way... if the INS and the courts and etc. have the resources to reach their long bony arm out and pick up this woman, why are they whining about the 8 million Mexicans we've got in here - can't they just pick them up one at a time the way they did with this woman? (Just a little confused, here...)

[RussianConservative]

She make it easy, she try to fix things and come into office and get arrested.