Emily Ruiz, 4-year-old American sent to Guatemala by U.S. immigration, reunited with NY family

Originally found here.

BY Mark Morales AND Erica Pearson
DAILY NEWS WRITERS

Wednesday, March 30th 2011, 1:40 PM

A 4-year-old girl sent to Guatemala by immigration officials even though she's a U.S. citizen has returned to her parents on Long Island.

Emily Ruiz was reunited with her family almost three weeks after she was sent packing with her grandfather while returning to the U.S. from a vacation.

"We have no words to express the joy it brings us to see, hold and kiss our daughter again," her father, Leonel Ruiz, said Wednesday in a statement.

"We are very happy because we were away from her for so long, without being able to see or hold her."
Wearing her little Dora the Explorer backpack, Emily flew back Tuesday after her family's lawyer flew to Guatemala to retrieve her.

"She's a lovely beautiful child. She never gave us a problem," said the lawyer, David Sperling. "Emily was super happy to see her family.

"It's a happy ending."

Emily, who was born in the U.S. to undocumented immigrants, had initially traveled to Guatemala with her grandpa, Luis, to see relatives.

When they came back, officials at Washington's Dulles Airport flagged an illegal entry from the 1990s and detained the grandfather.

By Sperling's account, a border agent gave Emily's dad two choices over the phone: she could be held at juvenile facility in Virginia or go back to Guatemala with her grandfather.

Ruiz maintains he was never told he could come get Emily and was worried she would be given up for adoption, so chose to have her return to Guatemala on March 11.

Customs and Border Protection officials have said that the agency does not deport U.S. citizens and that her parents were told they could pick her up.

Emily's parents ran the risk of being deported themselves if they showed up to get Emily.

Tell I.C.E. Not to Deport U.S. Veteran Who Served in War Zone

Originally found here along with a petition that you can also sign.

For nine long years Trinidadian native Ramdeo Chankar Singh served in the U.S. Army as a nurse with the rank of sergeant. Singh not only served in Germany but also in war-torn Kosovo. In March 2001, the military granted Singh—an undocumented immigrant—an honorary discharge for his service. But when he applied for naturalization a few years later, the federal government denied his application for citizenship, a slap in the face to a man who’s risked life and limb for the United States. The government reportedly rejected his petition for citizenship because Singh did not “meet the requirements” of the Immigration and Nationality Act provision he’d filed under.

Singh has spent the years since 2004 racking up legal bills in hopes of proving that he should be naturalized—but to no avail. The fact that he arrived in the U.S. at the age of 15 lacking a green card or permanent residency status continues to be an obstacle. Now the husband and father of two U.S.-born children faces deportation.

This is not the way veterans should be repaid for their service. Singh made a sacrifice for this country that many citizens never make. Let U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement know that Singh should not be deported.

WWII vet discovers he’s not a U.S. citizen

Originally found here

By Liz Goodwin

Ninety-five-year-old Leeland Davidson discovered recently that he's not considered a U.S. citizen, despite living nearly 100 years in the country and serving in the U.S. Navy during WWII.

Davidson, from Centralia, Washington, told KOMO News that he discovered he wasn't a U.S. citizen when he was turned down for an enhanced driver's license he needed for a trip to Canada to visit relatives.

"We always figured because he was born to U.S. parents he's automatically a U.S. citizen," said Davidson's daughter, Rose Schoolcraft.

Davidson was born in British Columbia in 1916, but his parents didn't register the birth with the U.S. government to ensure they knew he was a citizen. He checked up on his citizenship before joining the Navy and was told by an inspector at the U.S. Department of Labor Immigration and Naturalization Service he had nothing to worry about. Now he worries that he won't be able to prove his citizenship, because his parents were born in Iowa before local governments started keeping records of birth certificates in 1880. "I want it squared away before I pass away," he says.

Schoolcraft says they tried to dissuade him from pursuing the matter. Employees at the local passport office scared them, telling her father "If he pursued it, (he could) possibly be deported or [be] at risk of losing Social Security."

"We keep telling him, leave it alone, leave it alone, and he won't, like a dog with a bone," Schoolcraft told the Centralia Chronicle. But Davidson says: "I want to get it done before I die." He also still wants to visit his friends and family in Canada. Sen Patty Murray's office is helping him with his application.

Note: The link above also includes a video interview.