Unwitting woman votes, faces deportation

[willy4pres]

Hmmmmm, she sounds like a good pick up. Maybe we can trade her for 3 naturally born American morons and a southerner to be named later.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/LAW/06/24/co....ap/index.html

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- All of her life, Zoila Meyer believed she was an American. She even won election to the City Council of Adelanto.

But now she is facing a threat of deportation for illegally voting, because she never became a citizen after being brought to this country from Cuba when she was 1 year old.

"To be honest with you, I'm scared. How can they just pluck me out of my family, my kids?" the 40-year-old mother of four said in a telephone interview Friday.

"If they can do this to me, they can do it to anybody," she said.

After Meyer was elected to the council in Adelanto in 2004, someone told officials that she was born in Cuba, prompting an investigation.

Eventually, "the police came to me and said, 'Zoila, you're not a citizen. You're a legal resident but you're not a citizen,"' said Meyer, who now lives in the San Bernardino County desert town of Apple Valley, near Adelanto.

She resigned after 10 weeks in office in Adelanto, a town of about 23,000.

Meyer, whose story was first reported in the Victorville Daily Press, applied to become a naturalized citizen and continued with her life: raising her children and attending two local colleges to earn degrees toward her goal of working in the justice system as a forensic nurse.

However, because she was not a citizen, Meyer faced a felony charge of illegally voting in the 2004 election.

In April 2006, she pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of fraudulent voting and was placed on probation, fined and ordered to pay restitution.

What Meyer didn't realize is that fraudulently voting is a deportable offense.

On June 18, Meyer said, immigration officials showed up at her home and told her to appear at their San Bernardino office.

Her husband drove her to the office on Tuesday, "and they handcuffed me," Meyer said. "They put me in jail and they frisked me and processed me."

"I said 'You're doing this because I voted?"'

The case is unusual but immigration officials were just doing their job when they arrested Meyer, said Lori Haley, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

"People are arrested on immigration charges from all walks of life," she said. "She can plead her case before an immigration judge, if she feels that she has reason to seek release for removal. ... Everybody has due process when they're arrested."

Meyer was released pending a July 18 appearance before an immigration judge who will determine whether she will be deported to Canada, the last point of entry into the U.S. recorded in her immigration record.

Meyer said she and her parents had visited Canada and she had gone many times to Mexico without anyone ever asking her to prove her citizenship.

Meyer said she does not support illegal immigration but she thinks immigration procedures should be changed to prevent misunderstandings.

"It makes me feel like we're all just numbers," she said of her case. "I see people writing 'this is my country.' It really isn't. It belongs to the government and they decide who stays and who goes ... you think you're free; you're really not."

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

[darthadv]

She sounds like a productive contributor to the community and certainly not a threat to the country as some of the immigration laws are shaped to deal with... hope she doesn't get deported. Given that she's been in the country for 40 years, I have known people who were here for less time who were given the opportunity to stay after the fact. I think this will get resolved because she's not a blatant troublemaker.

[billy007]

Last thing I knew, you had to be registered to vote, so unless she gave fraudulent information, I think the people that allowed her to register should be somewhat to blame.

But they definitely need to not be so harsh on her - especially if there is no attempt to fraud.

[chefcraig]

This is insipid. Anyone living in the Unites States for 40 years surely has paid income tax. That alone would be proof of not being a subversive. Then again, attempting to vote would be as well, and that's why she was arrested in the first place.

Reminds one of the fuck-brained police officer that felt the situation warranted his handcuffing and arresting a six year old girl here locally a few years ago. Do those in authority even bother thinking before applying the fullest, worst interpretation of the letter of the law today?

[Viking]

Wow, that sucks! Drug dealers get better treatment. Sometimes I wonder what in the fuck is wrong with this country. And please, no blaming Chimpy or whatever President Bush gets called around here these days. This country was going to shit long before he came into office, or Al Gore invented the internet for that matter.

[billy007]

Wow, that sucks! Drug dealers get better treatment. Sometimes I wonder what in the fuck is wrong with this country. And please, no blaming Chimpy or whatever President Bush gets called around here these days. This country was going to shit long before he came into office, or Al Gore invented the internet for that matter.

Just the continued degrading of common sense and common decency.

[joey-tromollo]

I think she is a rare case,and should be able to stay...But if you come to this country or any country illegally ..you are breaking the law and must be deported..Think about this??? the other night on tv there was an illegal alien
complaining that if he gets deported who will watch his kids and family...HELLO !!! You broke the law...If joe shmo broke the law and had to go to prison will he tell the judge " I cant go to jail who will watch my kids and family" What crap !! The middle class in this country is taking it in the ass
its time to stop this bs ...

[MikeL]

The middle class in this country is taking it in the ass its time to stop this bs ...

Damn straight. There was a time when a middle class man could be a short order cook in a shitty diner, or wipe the shit off of the toilets at the mall and make a good solid five dollars an hour. It's those damn dirty immigrants that have forced us all into jobs that require "education" and "skills." Fuck that shit!

It must be damn nice to be an idiot.

How could this woman not know her citizenship status? Her situation is unfortunate, but who is to blame for it? Nobody but her or her family. It'll get straightened out. Meanwhile, it's just another thing for all of us to run our mouths about.

[track 5]

This is insipid. Anyone living in the Unites States for 40 years surely has paid income tax.

Sweet word(insipid) by the way. Your line about anyone living in the US for 40 years has surely paid income tax is a little off. I know off wets that have worked on ranches and farms for that amount of time that didn't pay shit. But I do think that this is a bit harsh in this case. She's not out stealing or breaking the laws or the likes. Anyway, just a thought. LOL. Out.

[LLFHS]

"wets"?

[muffdiver]

What about the "drys"....?

[willy4pres]

Sweet word(insipid) by the way. Your line about anyone living in the US for 40 years has surely paid income tax is a little off. I know off wets that have worked on ranches and farms for that amount of time that didn't pay shit. But I do think that this is a bit harsh in this case. She's not out stealing or breaking the laws or the likes. Anyway, just a thought. LOL. Out.

track, come on man, that was a little borderline brother.

[track 5]

"wets"?

Stupid edit feature.

[track 5]

"wets"?

Migrant farm workers form Mexico. You've never heard that term before? It's said here on a regular basis. And dude, I'm not trying to start anything at all. Hell, I've worked with some of the best people in the world that aren't US citizens. You dig? Out.

[track 5]

track, come on man, that was a little borderline brother.

What part was borderline? The wet part? I probably shouldn't have used that term, but it's a common term. Like I just said ,my family has spent years and years with some of these hard ass working people for years. But with that being said, if I was out of line with what I typed, I'll take it back. Out.