Latest illegal alien sob story at Richmond Times-Dispatch

I found a story carried on WTOP News Radio originally published in the Richmond Times-Dispatch that is simply beyond belief in its attempt to ignore the obvious and paint illegals as victims. Written by Time-Dispatch reporter Juan Antonio Lizama, the story is about how deportation of illegal aliens hurts the families left here in the United States. This, ladies & gentlemen, is agenda journalism (or advocacy journalism, your choice of terms) at its most glaringly obvious. The story starts off, literally, with the scene of a 2-year-old boy who constantly wants to know if Daddy’s coming home. But no, he’s told, Daddy’s not. And all because those vicious, mean, fascist bastards of the US government hauled him away and deported him back to the clearly hellish realm of El Salvador.

You have to read down a couple of paragraphs to find out that the reason Victor Orellana was deported was because he “was in the U.S. illegally”. The story brushes quickly past that to focus on how his wife and child “are living the consequences of her husband’s deportation” and how she’s not alone in this regard.

No, Mr. Lizama (and editors of the RTD), she’s not living the consequences of the deportation. She’s living the consequences of her husband deciding to break US immigration laws. She is still here because she came here legally. Note the difference in how they are treated by the government of the United States. Mr. Lizama never seems to get around to making note of this obvious fact. While we’re on the subject of using the wording to make a lie of the truth, Mr. Orellana wasn’t “in the U.S. illegally”. That makes it sound as though he just woke up one day and found that the nation’s borders had moved around him. He wasn’t just “in the U.S.,” he made the decision to come here in violation of our laws. That is why he was deported, ultimately. Ah, but there’s even more to the story, you just have to read down past the parts where Lizama describes the plight the wives of men like Orellana are facing.

You see, Victor Orellana came across the border, illegally, six years ago. Following the then-standard procedure of the INS (called “catch-and-release“) he was let go and told that he needed to show up at an immigrations hearing. Read that again, just to be sure: he was caught illegally entering the country and then released under the condition that he show up at a court hearing. Like the vast majority of such releases, Orellana simply didn’t show up at the hearing. Due to that, an order of deportation was issued, an order that his wife makes a point of saying (and Lizama of reporting) that Orellana never knew about. One wonders exactly what Orellana thought was going to happen when he ignored an order to appear in front of a judge. Lizama leaves you hanging as to whether or not the issuance of such an order is automatic. It is, and it was also standard procedure to say that to the illegal so captured.

Even better, Orellana applied for a temporary protected status at the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) and it was granted, in spite of the deportation order for failure to appear at the hearing. That order didn’t come up during the application process so, according to Lizama’s report, Orellana felt safe. One might pause and briefly ask, safe from what – considering that he supposedly didn’t know about the deportation order to begin with. What was he supposedly feeling safe from?

Orellan’s “temporary protected status” was continually renewed for 4 years and then CIS denied it. Last year. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents showed up at Orellana’s door on 23 August of this year and took him into custody. He was processed and deported 45 days later.

Orellana’s wife insists he didn’t receive a deportation order after the permit was denied last year. That is completely immaterial. Orellana knew he had to show at that hearing and decided not to. That was his chance and he intentionally blew it. And what good would it have done for CIS or ICE to send such an order. Orellana knew it was illegal to enter the US in violation of immigrations laws. He knew he was supposed to show at that court hearing. He knew all these things and broke the law anyway. So someone was supposed to expect he’d voluntarily leave if he got a deportation order in the mail? Oh, please.

Lizama then goes to pile on about Orellana’s wife’s legal difficulties in which, it appears, some shyster lawyer scammed her out of money with promises he could do something for Orellana. If true, then the lawyer should be looking for a new line of work. She can report him and have him brought up on charges. Lizama then details how hard their lives are and how much rent is and on and on.

I feel for her situation. I feel for the situation all single moms find themselves in. But this situation was not caused by the fair application of properly passed laws. It was caused when her husband decided to break our laws and then ignore the consequences when he was caught.

The comments section in the WTOP News story are, with 1 exception, totally in support of what the law enforcement agents did in enforcing the deportation. That’s good to hear, because the open-borders contingent of the liberal press would have you believe the majority of Americans don’t care. We do. It would be nice if our Congress would take that seriously and step up the efforts to secure the border. That way fewer families get “separated.” I’m sure reporters like Lizama can get behind that.

Strange definition of ‘truce’

Seems that Hamas/Fatah ‘truce’ they just announced yesterday doesn’t actually include not shooting at each other.