I’ve reported previously that immigration lawyers are working overtime in the US trying to figure out all the new angles to use for illegal aliens entering the US and asking for asylum.
Here is the definition of asylum I posted late last month in a post about “narco-refugees:”
Refugee status or asylum may be granted to people who have been persecuted or fear they will be persecuted on account of race, religion, nationality, and/or membership in a particular social group or political opinion. [I don’t see listed here people who are afraid of crime in their home country.—ed]
US asylum was never intended for those just wanting to run away from a crime-ridden country where the government doesn’t protect its people adequately, or for people looking for economic benefits in the United States. (I used to say looking for work, but now I mean taxpayer supplied benefits).
So here (from Southern California Public Radio) are some excerpts from the story about a poor kid who claims he was going to be killed by gangs (Why? Are they just killing random kids or was he into something he shouldn’t have been?).
Death threats from the maras – or gangs – in his native Guatemala are the reason Ronald Aldana says he left.
Go read the article about how he got across the border with the help of his illegal alien sister who had crossed years earlier. It will really steam you!
Lots of kids on the way and the Office of Refugee Resettlement is helping them (I’m sure the kids have heard about Obama’s Dream Act and how they can go to college in Maryland on the taxpayers dime!). The numbers of “unaccompanied” youths is skyrocketing. (See my post last month)
Meanwhile, KIND [Kids in Need of Defense*] worked with the federal Department of Homeland Security and the Office of Refugee Resettlement to fact-check Aldana’s story and represent him in court. Eventually, the U.S. government granted him asylum because he was a minor who fled organized violence in his native country.
KIND’s director Wendy Young says Aldana represents a big surge in kids who’ve arrived alone in this country during the last couple of years. Only a lucky few, she says, gain asylum.
They have been doing this for decades for various reasons—gangs are only the latest ploy. If amnesty goes through Congress during the new Obama Administration all of these people will be allowed to stay, get their stuff, and VOTE.
The founder of Homies Unidos, Alex Sanchez, is a former gang member from El Salvador who gained asylum from violence in his homeland during the 1990s. He explains that young people throughout Central America have left their countries for decades now, fleeing war, seeking opportunities for their families or escaping natural disasters. But according to him, these days, the main push factor is a dramatic rise in gang violence.
The “kid” featured in this story is now shacking up with his girlfriend and her family, working part-time and dreaming of bringing the whole clan up from Guatemala. Oh, and you know, if he was doing any work “part-time” that was steady work, the reporter would have mentioned it.
More than three years after he crossed the border, Ronald Aldana is now 20 years old. He lives in the Hancock Park section of Los Angeles in a small apartment with his girlfriend, her parents, and her siblings. He left his sister’s cramped apartment because he didn’t want to burden her, he says, but she still helps him out with money.
Aldana recognizes he’s lucky to have gotten asylum. It allows him to work part-time, and soon, he’ll be able to apply for a green card, too.
When that comes through, he says, he’ll look for a way to move his parents and five siblings out of their native country and into the US. But that won’t be easy: First he’ll need to prove that he has the financial means to support them all.
And, the beat goes on (and on, and on)!
P.S. Don’t forget those Guatemalans are working another angle too—Temporary Protected Status!
* Kids in Need of Defense is a Washington DC legal ‘business’ run by former Ted (don’t bring them to Hyannis) Kennedy staffer Wendy Young. The organization took in $4 million in its most recent year reported to the IRS, here. $1.2 million came directly from you as government grants (p. 9). I don’t have time to do more on this, but I bet there is lots of juicy information that could be unearthed about this outfit.