There is just one problem with this SOB STORY—the guy had no right to be in the US in the first place!
In typical fashion for the Leftwing media (see CBS rape story too), the New York Times left out a key fact in its bash Virginia story. This is how the reporter sets up the reader (get out your box of tissues):
FALLS CHURCH, Va. — When Mohamed Mejri, a Tunisian immigrant with a limousine business here, first learned that the State Department of Motor Vehicles had refused to issue him a new driver’s license, he thought it was a mistake. After all, he had been a licensed driver in Virginia for years.
But last fall, the department stopped accepting his federally issued work permit, a document that was his main proof that he was in the country legally, because he does not have a green card.
Now, five months later, his business is collapsing, and bill collectors are calling. [Are you crying yet?]
Remember the story where the drunk illegal alien killed a nun in Virginia (I posted it here), well, Virginia changed its policy (good for them) to make it harder for those in deportation proceedings to use a work permit as proof of address to get a drivers license.
Back to the NYT:
Virginia changed its policy in September after an illegal immigrant from Bolivia was charged with hitting and killing a nun while driving drunk in Prince William County.
Her death hardened what was already a strong anti-immigrant mood in the state. Virginia’s governor, Bob McDonnell, announced that work permits would no longer be accepted as proof of legal residence because they could be held by people who, like the Bolivian immigrant, are in deportation proceedings. The governor said other documents would still be accepted.
The permit, called the employment authorization document, allows foreign nationals to work in the United States. Asylum seekers, refugees and students are among those who have one.
Here is Mr. Mejri’s story as reported by the New York Times (emphasis mine). Hey, NYT, is this the best story you could find?
For Mr. Mejri, who is 54, the permit is all he has. He fled Tunisia in 1992, and after living in Canada, where he had been granted political asylum, he came to the United States in 2000. American immigration authorities rejected his application for asylum, over an unpaid fine in Canada. By the time it was paid and processed, several years had passed, [sounds fishy to me–ed] and he received notice that it was too late to reapply. He then received an administrative order to leave the country, but a federal judge ruled in his favor that he not be deported [so why wasn’t his deportation order rescinded?–ed]. Now he is in limbo, in the country legally but without any path to citizenship.
You should be wailing for Mohamed by now!
But, here is the kicker!
You can’t be granted asylum in Canada and then just hop on over to the US and stay! Heck, a Canadian citizen can’t just decide he wants to leave Canada and be an American citizen! Asylum law requires that you ask (and hopefully receive) asylum in the first country in which you land. Having been granted asylum in Canada doesn’t grant you the right to then go shopping for a better country!
Get ready Marylanders! What has Mohamed done? He set up a temporary residence in Maryland!
A month ago, Mr. Mejri rented a room in Rockville, Md., and got a driver’s license in that state. But his monthly insurance payments have tripled, and for now, he has put his business aside.
The way I see it, the worst thing that will happen to Mr. Mejri is he will be sent back to that horrible (LOL!) country Canada. (I bet there is more to the story about the “fine” in Canada, he was probably going to be deported from Canada.) But, most likely none of that will happen now that the New York Times has christened him a poster boy for Virginia’s “anti-immigrant mood.”
One last thing. We don’t deport anyone to a country that has an unstable government and the recent revolution (oops democracy movement) in Tunisia will likely be his American lawyer’s ace in a hole.