[Vision2020] Ex-UI Researcher Faces Deportation

Mon Aug 4 12:55:46 PDT 2008

In what category do we have children whose parents crossed over without papers?  They didn't do so volitionally.  And what about those many, many now-undocumented workers who are "in the pipeline" for permanent resident alien documents -- they came here without papers, either as adults or children, sought legal help, save their check stubs and utility bills, try to follow all of the steps, and either the rules change, or 9/11 happens, or their sponsor dies, or . . . I could go on, but many people now considered "illegal aliens" are in situations similar to this woman's.  Not everybody just decided to cross over as an "F-you" to our rule of law, and those who did cross illegally are trying to remedy their situations, hoping for another amnesty such as the one we had in the late 198s, granting hundreds of thousands of former "illegal aliens" an opportunity to apply for citizenship and live out their lives as productive Americans.

And who was the foaming-at-the-mouth crazy liberal bleeding-heart statist who pushed through the amnesty?

None other than Ronald Reagan, whose acolytes seem to forget that when genuflecting at his grave and simultaneously cursing "illegals."

Keely

> From: editor at lataheagle.com
> To: suehovey at moscow.com; vision2020 at moscow.com; thansen at moscow.com
> Date: Mon, 4 Aug 2008 10:02:54 -0700
> Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Ex-UI Researcher Faces Deportation
> 
> This is obviously a royal bureaucratic screw up.
> 
> But tell me Tom, how does it relate to illegal aliens sneaking across our 
> borders? From what I see she came here legally and did what she was advised 
> to do. That's quite the difference from someone who arrives here illegally 
> in the first place.
> 
> Apples and oranges, Tom.
> 
> --------------------------------------------------
> From: "Sue Hovey" <suehovey at moscow.com>
> Sent: Monday, August 04, 2008 12:54 AM
> To: <vision2020 at moscow.com>; "Tom Hansen" <thansen at moscow.com>
> Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Ex-UI Researcher Faces Deportation
> 
> > God.  How awful.  Wonder when this will come out in our local press.  I
> > didn't even see it in the Trib today.
> >
> > Sue H
> > ----- Original Message ----- 
> > From: "Tom Hansen" <thansen at moscow.com>
> > To: <vision2020 at moscow.com>
> > Sent: Sunday, August 03, 2008 1:59 PM
> > Subject: [Vision2020] Ex-UI Researcher Faces Deportation
> >
> >
> >> "'She's a damn good scientist,' said Patricia Hartzell, professor of
> >> biology and biochemistry and former dean of Dziewanowska's
> >> department. 'She's really good.'
> >>
> >> Her husband is studying a toxin found in sheep and cattle that shows
> >> promise in fighting retroviral diseases. Such diseases include AIDS in
> >> humans and a host of diseases in animals, and there is currently no cure
> >> or vaccine for them."
> >>
> >>>From today's (August 3, 2008) Spokesman Review -
> >>
> >> -------------------------------------------------------
> >>
> >> Ex-UI researcher faces deportation
> >> By Shawn Vestal, Staff writer
> >> August 4, 2008
> >>
> >> Katarzyna Dziewanowska grew up in the "gray communist life" of Poland.
> >>
> >> But it was in America where she found a truly nightmarish experience with
> >> a bureaucracy.
> >>
> >> After nearly 14 years as a researcher at the University of Idaho,
> >> Dziewanowska has been denied permanent residency by U.S. immigration
> >> officials, who say she worked without authorization for eight months. She
> >> did that, she and her attorneys say, on the advice of the UI, and she 
> >> quit
> >> working for a time when the university advised her to do so.
> >>
> >> But her appeals have fallen on deaf ears with immigration officials. 
> >> She'd
> >> like to take the case before an immigration judge, but that could take
> >> months or years. In the meantime, she can't work and has no legal
> >> residency status. Because it is a family application, her husband - a UI
> >> researcher studying a promising treatment of retroviruses - can no longer
> >> receive grants. Her son can't apply for a free-tuition program through 
> >> his
> >> employer.
> >>
> >> "She has no legal status," said Michael Cherasia, her former
> >> attorney. "She's not able to legally work. Certainly she can't continue 
> >> to
> >> do her research. (Agents) could come to her door any morning, arrest her,
> >> detain her and ship her out of the country."
> >>
> >> The rejection of her petition is part of a long pattern of bureaucratic
> >> communications straight out of Kafka. Her application for residency
> >> languished for years, status unknown. Frequently, neither Dziewanowska,
> >> her attorneys nor her colleagues could reach officials in person to
> >> discuss the case, they say. Seeking information about her case, she once
> >> called a number she found at an agency Web site; the person who answered
> >> could only provide information from the Web site.
> >>
> >> "They eventually put me in a situation where you start to feel like a
> >> criminal, when you don't have any intention to break the law," said
> >> Dziewanowska, 64.
> >>
> >> Her supporters say that Dziewanowska's brief period of unauthorized work
> >> was a simple error, and that her record as a researcher and visiting
> >> worker should count in her favor. She's been without work since October.
> >>
> >> "This is kind of an 'Alice in Wonderland' experience," said Cherasia, who
> >> specializes in immigration law. "The frustrating thing with this case is
> >> there has been no way to correct a simple, unintentional mistake."
> >> The "sad, sad joke about all this," he says, is that Dziewanowska and her
> >> husband, Witold Ferens, are doing important, possibly breakthrough
> >> research.
> >>
> >> Dziewanowska was recruited to the UI in 1994 because of her research
> >> background, and she's been involved in studying methods of fighting 
> >> agents
> >> of bioterrorism such as the plague.
> >>
> >> She's earned FBI clearance for that research - at one point, she was
> >> granted such clearance while immigration officials were refusing to
> >> approve her authorization to work.
> >>
> >> "She's a damn good scientist," said Patricia Hartzell, professor of
> >> biology and biochemistry and former dean of Dziewanowska's
> >> department. "She's really good."
> >>
> >> Her husband is studying a toxin found in sheep and cattle that shows
> >> promise in fighting retroviral diseases. Such diseases include AIDS in
> >> humans and a host of diseases in animals, and there is currently no cure
> >> or vaccine for them.
> >>
> >> "These are the kind of people you want to kick out of the country?"
> >> Cherasia said. "Somebody isn't thinking. They had the discretion to
> >> approve her petition, and they refused."
> >>
> >> A representative of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said 
> >> she
> >> could not discuss specific cases, but said the agency makes information
> >> available to applicants online and via telephone, and said people can 
> >> make
> >> appointments to discuss their case in person.
> >>
> >> "We make all the information about immigration laws very accessible," 
> >> said
> >> Sharon Rummery, USCIS spokeswoman in San Francisco.
> >>
> >> No answers from the UI
> >>
> >> Top administrators at the UI would not answer questions about
> >> Dziewanowska's case, or about whether university representatives provided
> >> her with faulty advice. The university's media-relations office released 
> >> a
> >> general statement, saying that it has obligations to the government when
> >> accepting foreign students and faculty, but that the ultimate
> >> responsibility lies with the individuals.
> >>
> >> "In instances where an application for permanent residency has been 
> >> filed,
> >> the university must confirm employment and other information," the
> >> statement reads. "However, we do not and cannot make immigration-related
> >> decisions for or on behalf of individuals and their immigration status."
> >>
> >> Under immigration law, if an employer gives incorrect advice to an
> >> employee, the responsibility for following the law still rests with the
> >> worker. But foreign-born employees often rely on universities to help
> >> negotiate the labyrinth of immigration law.
> >>
> >> The UI was involved at virtually every stage of her dealings with
> >> immigration officials, and it filed several applications on her behalf.
> >> Dziewanowska says she simply relied on the university's human-rights
> >> department about when she was approved to work and when she was not.
> >>
> >> Hartzell and others have appealed to members of Congress to intervene on
> >> Dziewanowska's behalf. She's also pressed the university administration 
> >> to
> >> acknowledge its mistake, in an effort to help with Dziewanowska's 
> >> appeals.
> >>
> >> "They've really washed their hands of the case," Hartzell said. "They're
> >> just protecting themselves legally all the time, instead of doing the
> >> right thing."
> >>
> >> 'My big mistake'
> >>
> >> Dziewanowska was born in Warsaw, Poland, in 1943, in the midst of attacks
> >> and occupations by both Germany and the Soviet Union. She grew up under
> >> the communist regime that arose after World War II, and entered academia
> >> after earning her master's at the University of Warsaw in 1966.
> >>
> >> Over the next few decades, she built her research career between 
> >> positions
> >> in Poland, Canada and the U.S. By the early 1990s, she was recruited to
> >> the UI to help with plant-breeding research.
> >>
> >> She came to the Palouse in 1994 - "maybe my big mistake," she said.
> >>
> >> She worked on a visa for a few years, and then applied for status as an
> >> outstanding professor or researcher - a precursor to applying for
> >> permanent residency and a green card. She was granted outstanding
> >> researcher status and, with help from the UI, applied for permanent
> >> residency in 2003.
> >>
> >> While that application was considered, she was required to apply for
> >> annual temporary work permits, known as Employment Authorization
> >> Documents. In the fall of 2004, a problem arose with her second EAD
> >> application.
> >>
> >> Based on new requirements, Dziewanowska's application was rejected twice.
> >> The first one came because she submitted a profile photo instead of a
> >> face-
> >> forward one, because standards had changed after she filed an application
> >> under the previous rules. The second occurred because her second photo
> >> included glare on one lens of her glasses.
> >>
> >> The letter notifying her of the second rejection came in September
> >> 2004. "There is no appeal to this decision," the letter read.
> >>
> >> Meanwhile, her previous EAD had expired, but the UI's human rights office
> >> told Dziewanowska she had a 240-day grace period in which she could
> >> continue to work, according to Dziewanowska, Cherasia and e-mail
> >> communications from the UI.
> >>
> >> Cherasia said university representatives simply mixed up the rules - one
> >> type of work visa does have a grace period after expiration, but EADs do
> >> not.
> >>
> >> "If you have an EAD, and your EAD runs out, you have to quit working,
> >> period," he said. "I think someone got the two mixed up."
> >>
> >> So, as Dziewanowska worked to clear up the problem, she continued her
> >> research at the UI. At this point, she was involved with research on the
> >> plague - a subject of great concern to federal officials concerned about
> >> bioterrorism. Her work was a crucial first step in the process - 
> >> purifying
> >> the proteins from the plague for later research steps.
> >>
> >> She did this work over the next several months. In the meantime, through 
> >> a
> >> convoluted series of communications, she was told that her application 
> >> had
> >> been improperly denied and would be approved. Then she was told that the
> >> original denial would stand. Then, in April 2005, she was told to stop
> >> working by the UI, which said her grace period had expired.
> >>
> >> "So I stopped work on April 10," she said.
> >>
> >> In the meantime, she filed another EAD application - "New photograph, 
> >> with
> >> no glare!" she said - and it was approved.
> >>
> >> But when her application for permanent residency was eventually denied
> >> last June, it was the period of "unauthorized employment" that was cited
> >> as the reason.
> >>
> >> 'No room for mistakes'
> >>
> >> Throughout the process, Dziewanowska had urged UI to retain an 
> >> immigration
> >> lawyer to help with the case and been told it wasn't necessary, she said.
> >> She eventually hired Cherasia on her own, and he filed a motion to have
> >> the case reconsidered. It was rejected in March.
> >>
> >> "It was a real brush-off," he said.
> >>
> >> There was little rationale offered for the decision, he said, though
> >> immigration officials have said that as a university professor,
> >> Dziewanowska should be able to follow the laws. She now has hired Maria
> >> Andrade, a Boise attorney who specializes in "removal" cases, but she's 
> >> in
> >> a nebulous position.
> >>
> >> Once someone's application for residency is rejected, the next step is to
> >> be ordered to court before an immigration judge. But that could take a
> >> long time - perhaps years - and in the meantime, Dziewanowska has no way
> >> to earn a living. She's a year away from retirement, and she and her
> >> husband have a new home in Moscow. She's not sure what she's going to do
> >> now.
> >>
> >> "I never tried to break the law," she said. "I tried to play according to
> >> the rules."
> >>
> >> Her attorney, Andrade, said it's unfortunate that the university hasn't
> >> stepped forward to take more responsibility. But even if it did, the
> >> burden for meeting the laws would still fall to Dziewanowska.
> >>
> >> "On the immigration side, there's no room for good-faith mistakes in the
> >> law, and this is one of them," she said. "It's a sad case. It's a very 
> >> sad
> >> case."
> >>
> >> -------------------------------------------------------
> >>
> >> It really makes you wonder, doesn't it?
> >>
> >> Just another undocumented worker, right guys?
> >>
> >> Seeya round town, Moscow.
> >>
> >> Tom Hansen
> >> Moscow, Idaho
> >>
> >> "We're a town of about 23,000 with 10,000 college students. The college
> >> students are not very active in local elections (thank goodness!)."
> >>
> >> - Dale Courtney (March 28, 2007)
> >>
> >>
> >> ---------------------------------------------
> >> This message was sent by First Step Internet.
> >>           http://www.fsr.com/
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
> > --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> >
> >> =======================================================
> >> List services made available by First Step Internet,
> >> serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.
> >>               http://www.fsr.net
> >>          mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
> >> =======================================================
> >
> > =======================================================
> > List services made available by First Step Internet,
> > serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.
> >               http://www.fsr.net
> >          mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
> > =======================================================
> >
> Kai Eiselein
> Editor, Latah Eagle 
> 
> =======================================================
>  List services made available by First Step Internet, 
>  serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.   
>                http://www.fsr.net                       
>           mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
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