Can anyone help our Israeli post-doc with INS today!?

3/16/02 | self

[dennisw]

terrible

[FreePaul]

Is this person a US citizen? If so why are they detained. If not why should they get special treatment? Why are they here? It should be a privilege to enter the US, not a right.

[dennisw]

I thank you for all your efforts

[VOA]

Two attorney we called said they couldn't even slow this process down. Wow.
This whole thing is amazing to me.

Same here. But keep the faith, even if the INS can't be swayed just to keep her
here for another 24 hours.

Sounds like your post-doc would get more due process if she'd walked across the border from Mexico.

Maybe the INS is smarting from the recent Atta & Friend student visa flap and is
ready to show America it's now "Johnny on the spot".

Bureaucratic nimrods. (and please don't quote me on that!)

[Alouette]

Unbelievable. Why wasn't Rabih Haddad deported so expeditiously? Why is he still in the country?

[Sabertooth]

Our Israeli post-doc is being detained in a holding cell by INS at LAX apparently due to some complication with the VISA requirements.

Tell her to promise never to do it again...

In Spanish.

[VOA]

It should be a privilege to enter the US, not a right.

Don't know if you read any of the detailed accounts of the number of times our
"servants" in the INS should have kicked the derrieres of The Talented Mr. Atta and
some of his cohorts out of the country.
But, some INS agents have said that the agency has been operated on basis of
"our interviewees are our cuustomer...and the customer is always right".

This Israeli post-doc is likely an innocuous visitor...but caught up in
an effort by the INS to show they are real men...now that the average American can see that
their incompetence helped facilitate 9-11.

[Registered]

...find a Jewish one who will take pity and do it for not so much money

Let me know if you find one. My family is full of Jewish lawyers and they would charge ME an arm and a leg ;-)

[womanvet]

maybe she should go visit Mexico or Canada for a few days while her husband gets help. She might be able to fix the visa problem in Vancouver...

Try calling on the east coast, Sabbath is over here.

[lsee]

Okay, last suggestion. Here is a site that mentions pro bono immigration lawyers Department of Justice pro bono immigration

also, here is a phone number for: L Kovensky Oceanside , CA (760) 433-6960. This may be the right Leonard Kovensky who is deputy director of INS Los Angeles District office....District director is Thomas J. Schiltgen and information might have his number. Los Angeles District office Asylum office director in Los Angeles is Robert V. Looney. Deputy director John Lafferty. Might have home number listed with directory assistance. Los Angeles Asylum office

Good luck. What a mess!

[VOA]

bump for exposure...even as the time for deportation draws nigh....

[VOA]

My last cynical thoughts (and sympathy for this imbroglio)...
I can't believe the office of Senator Diane Feinstein can't help you.

Surely we'd expect that such an enlghtented Democrat should stand ready
to defend/assist a female of any national/ethnic origin.
Unfortunately, post-docs just don't have the publicity factor to merit their intervention.
Probably no good photo-ops.

At at my most cynical, too bad you don't have time to get famed feminist attorney
Gloria Allred on the job.

Again...hope you find some way to stop this thing from going down. What a mess...
only a real bureacracy can screw things up like this.

[womanvet]

just out of curiosity...if she stays illegally, she could claim to be an arab and get away with it, right? INS cannot trace arabs or mexicans who are here without visas.

Not that I am suggesting she do anything like that, of course.

I thought there was an appeals process that stops deportation -- or is that only for maids and enemies?

[kezekiel]

Surely we'd expect that such an enlghtented Democrat should stand ready to defend/assist a female of any national/ethnic origin.

Wait a minute...

HAAAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!!!!!

(Whew...) Ok. Sorry. That was a good one, VOA.

[Lessismore]

I agree, it's totally insane that they make you go to an embassy abroad. If they are continuing to be so uncooperative with your friend, pehaps she can fly somewhere nearby, like Mexico City, and get a stamp at the US consulate there.

I've also heard of Montreal being used as a stop to get papers straightened out at a "US consulate abroad". By Indians IIRC.