Posted on 11/07/2006 7:10:27 AM PST by kerryusama04
Dick's American husband, Brady, and son, Zachary, joined her in Mexico.
"We don't know what to do," Myrna Dick said.
"You feel like, 'We're stuck here,'" Brady Dick said.
KMBC's Donna Pitman traveled to Mexico with Brady Dick's aunt and uncle, Bob and Julie Zoller, of Paola, Kan.
Myrna Dick and her family now live in Playa de Tijuana.
"I just pray every day God will give me the strength to survive here," Myrna Dick said.
"This is ... this is not a very nice place. You've got rotting garbage all over. Sewage is pumped directly into the ocean," Brady Dick said. "It breaks my heart seeing kids, Zachary's age. They have nothing. They don't know when their next meal is going to come."
The Dicks told Pitman that they are also concerned about safety.
"Down here it seems like there's really no law. It's really out of control and really uncivilized," Brady Dick said. "Thursday, we had a police officer shot just down the street from us. He was killed."
Pitman reported that the Dicks live in a sparse apartment behind a restaurant. Myrna Dick and her son spend most of their time at home. Brady Dick commutes to a job in San Diego.
"It takes me 45 minutes to two-and-half hours, depending on traffic, just to get across the border," Brady Dick said.
Myrna Dick told Pitman that even though she lives less than 200 yards from a wall that separates Mexico from the United States, she feels that she is a world away from home. Myrna Dick moved to the United States as a young girl.
"You know, I don't know very much about Mexico," Myrna Dick said. "It's just so hard to think I'm a couple of steps from the United States."
"Our mission is to get this family back; we're going to do it," said Bob Zoller.
"A lot of people in Kansas City who see this probably think she's had her day in court. Well, she hasn't," Julie Zoller said.
Myrna Dick hoped to prove to a circuit court judge that she did not lie about her identity. But the U.S. Supreme Court said no to that request in October.
"I'm learning you come to the point you need some help. Everybody needs a little help sometimes. We need a lot of help right now," Brady Dick said.
The Dicks said they hope people will push so they can get their day in court. They want to hear from the officer who said Myrna Dick lied at the border.
"We haven't been able to bring her accuser to court to examine and cross-examine. Could there have possibly been a miscommunication?" Bob Zoller said.
"It's unbelievable if you think about our little boy, what his choices are ... to be able to be in a good environment in his country or to be able to hug his mom," Brady Dick said.
Pitman reported that Myrna Dick faces a new problem in Mexico. She has been unable to get a Mexican identification card. The government told her she needs two years proof of residency.
"If I'm in Mexico and home, why can't I even get an ID to start a new life here?" Myrna Dick said.
Without a Mexican ID, Myrna Dick can't move to any other country, Pitman reported.
"People in Kansas and Missouri, if it is in your heart, call your congressmen and senators. Keep calling them," Brady Dick said.
"I just want them to give us the opportunity to demonstrate, one more time, we deserve to be in America," Myrna Dick said.
I would agree. SHE is fine and welcome here. Her PARENTS should be deported, but not her. She grew up here and clearly doesn't love Mexico.
I disagree with you. She is an American.
I am not a bleeding heart.
My point IS: the fools in dc have plenty of opportunity to get rid of REAL problem people. Like the fxxxs that burglerized my place. But instead they go for the soft targets, and leave the gang bangers here.
Now what the f... is going on with that?
Hmmm??????????
I feel for this women, Mexico is a toilet. But there are a lot more people in much worse shape that I'll spend my sympathy on.
Why was this woman deported? The article bounces ever so briefly off the fact that she "came to the U.S. as a young girl." Was she adopted by U.S. citizens? Immigrated legally with family? Smuggled across the border by a coyote? Where are her parents or other family? Are they in the U.S.? Legally?
The article also hints that the reason she was deported was that she allegedly lied to a border guard. Was she entering or leaving the U.S. at the time? What was the lie? "Yes, I'm a U.S. citizen"? "My name is Myrna Dick"? "No, that's not ten kilos of cocaine in my trunk"? What does she claim she actually said that is different from what the border guard says she said?
Finally, my knowledge on immigration laws is incomplete (gee, you'd think a comprehensive, well-written news article on such a topic might fill in those blanks). But I was under the impression that an alien would automatically qualify for U.S. residency if he or she were legitimately married to a U.S. citizen. Is her husband a citizen? If so, why did that fact not qualify her for residency? Why did he and their son move to Mexico while the legalities are being worked out?
Obviously, the purpose of this "article" is to inflame passions and encourage people to call or write their officials in support of this woman, rather than to present the relevant facts of the story. But I cannot stand reading an article that presents so little useful information on the subject being covered that it leaves the reader more confused than before he was aware of the story.
The law is a blunt instrument; the enforcement of any law will in some unjust results because it cannot address every case. What happened to this woman is one of those unjust results, but that doesn't mean the law itself is either unjust, or that it shouldn't be enforced uniformly.
The answer, IMHO, is a private bill.
Does it matter? She said she didn't know much about Mexico so she was prob very young which in case IT WASN'T HER CHOICE. For all intents and purposes this looks likes the only country she's ever known and it was wrong and immoral to send her back, to make her pay for her parents mistakes.
So what is the cutoff age for deportation? Maybe there should be one, I don't know. You both seem to know, so what is the cutoff? 19, 20, 35?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1149324/posts
Background on the total case
Sorry, but I am always skeptical of any article that only presents info from one side. Everyone quoted is from her side, no detailing of the actual facts (there is a link, but that is simply an attempt to bury the other side, since many skimming the article won't take the time to go to the link.)
I'd guess that there is more to the story than what is being reported.
This 'reporting' is so bereft of why Dick is stuck in Mexico it raises more suspicions than sympathy.
It is a sordid affair. If I recall corectly, she came as a yute for some medical procedures, got permission to stay, but someone neglected to file a paper or something. She knew she was illegal for many years before being found out. It is very confusing.
They polute in MEX? Naw! Only the U.S. Polutes!
No. I am sorry to all for posting and running, but I gotta go vote! Hasta Luego :)
She is stupid for staying in Tijuana. Until this is straightened out, she should find a place in Ensenada, her husband should rent a studio apartment near work, and they should get together on the weekend.
Yes, she didn't participate in the amnesty for some ridiculous reason. The rest of her family did. This one is bizare, but the law is the law.
Thanks for the reasoned reply and info kerryusama.
Tiajuana Beach is a nice place compared to most of TJ - it is where the wealthy Mexicans live. You can see numerous fancy houses with satellite dishes there. It has a bullring, numerous medical offices that cater to Americans, a supermarket, large Catholic church, American fast food restaurants as well as a great Mexican restaurant next to the bullring, a great view of the sea, and an ocean breeze. In short, it has San Diego weather.
I wouldn't worry about this woman's whining - she speaks good English and can get a job as a receptionist or nurse in a local medical clinic for alternative medicine and the rent is cheap there compared to San Diego.
There is a lot of stuff that is not too clear in this article. Myrna Dick supposedly had a work permit to work in the US, but when she went to renew the permit they said that she had lied to border guards and told them she was a US citizen when re-entering the states after a trip out of the country. If she had a legal work permit, why would she lie?
I think this case is different from your normal illegal alien case. She had taken responsible measure to be registered to be in this country. She wasn't running around hiding from the government. She is married to an American citizen and they had applied for her citizenship and were waiting for it to go through.
BTTT
So they can get sympathetic liberal editors to send young and gullible reporters to interview them and publish their typical story of what happens to all the fine people kicked out of the U.S. by an evil government at the hands of hard-hearted bureaucrats?
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