Welcome to my nightmare

From the Windsor Star we glean another good reason to hope my inlaws don't get sick. Not just because I love them and wish them well, but because going back to care for them could become a major problem.

A Leamington couple who flew to Mexico in June to deal with a personal tragedy have found themselves mired in a new nightmare: the bureaucracy of the Canadian immigration system.

The married couple, Gerhard Wiebe and Maria Eugenia Vazquez Cortes, travelled to Mexico June 1 to arrange family affairs after the death of Cortes' mother in the central Mexican city of Tlaxcala. But when they tried to return to Canada on July 1, Cortes learned she would not be permitted back in.

"They won't let her come back," said Wiebe. "She is stuck down there."

(snippity, snip, snip)

Before they flew to Mexico, Wiebe, 53, said they checked with the immigration ministry to ensure Cortes would be allowed back into Canada.

"They said there's no problem because I have a sponsorship application," Wiebe said. All they would have to do is apply for another visitor's visa from the Canadian embassy in Mexico.

But when they did, it was denied.

Wiebe said the officer at the embassy wasn't convinced that, if Cortes' sponsorship application was rejected in Canada, she would return to her home country.

Now, that application can't even be completed because Cortes isn't on Canadian soil.

Now, I don't know all the exact details of the case, but one would expect that given the couple have been married for a few years already, approval of the application for permanent residence should be a foregone conclusion, assuming the woman doesn't have an extensive criminal record as a drug mule or something.  Apparently, this is not the case. My wife is in the process of applying to become a permanent resident right now and we were told the six month visitor's visa could be renewed repeatedly while the application is being considered (a process that can take longer than a year), so you can see how  this story might make me a bit apprehensive to say the very least.

The question is, given that ministry assured them returning would not be a problem prior to their departure, can the federal immigration service be sued for breach of promise? I doubt it. Immigration officials and Canada Customs officers have a great deal of authority which they can exercise in an arbitrary way and I am not at all confident that the present government is inclined to curb those powers or provide any kind of meaningful oversight. 

My experiences with both services thus far have been terrific and I have no complaints at all. Quite the contrary, the Customs officers who dealt with us and our various baggage and shipped belongings when we moved to Canada this summer were never less than cordial, helpful and efficient. Ditto for the Immigration officer we spoke with at Pearson Airport and the clerk at the citizenship application processing center in Sydney, Nova Scotia, I spoke with on the phone to clarify some detail on my children's applications for proof of Canadian citizenship.

But stories like this one make me nervous and I wonder what can be done for Mr. Wiebe and Ms. Cortes.

(a tip of the toque to CK at Sister Sage's Musings)

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if only we could deport Jason Kenney

Red Tory points us to another kick in the 'nads helping hand for immigrants from Stephen Harper and his merry band of vindictive, mean-spirited arseholes charming do-gooders.

(Pardon the bullshit overstrikes euphemisms, but I live overseas, so I don't want to make them mad, they may decide my passport photo doesn't look like me.)

Tancredo knows what the real problem is

"We need to ensure that the ‘American Dream’ remains within reach of American families – and that means enacting some long overdue safeguards that prevent illegal aliens and their unscrupulous allies in the financial industry from undermining its integrity."

Seriously, someone should take Tom Tancredo and Lou Dobbs, load them in the back of a pick-up truck, give them a liter of Evian and some beef jerky, drive them out to the middle of the Sonoran desert and leave them there.

Because America needs more flabby, middle-aged, wealthy, white, nativist reactionaries in power
What with the writers strike and the need for surefire material their hosts can riff on endlessly, I can only guess that the producers of The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, The Tonight Show and The Late Show are behind this. A movement has begun to draft Lou Dobbs for President of the United States

Welcome to friendly Japan you filthy foreigner criminal terrorists

Maybe it's just as well that we aren't going to be spending Christmas in Canada this year. I don' t need to worry about my wife and kids getting tasered in the airport if they get stroppy and I won't have to explain to my children why daddy has to get in a separate line and be photographed and fingerprinted and prove he isn't a terrorist or dealer of fake telephone cards after arriving back home in Japan.

As of yesterday all non-Japanese arriving in Japan must be photographed and fingerprinted. The only exception are those with special permanent resident status (People of Korean descent who were born usually to parents who were born here. Anywhere else they would be citizens, but the Japanese citizenship of Koreans, who were considered part of the empire before 1945, was revoked no matter where they were born and they cannot become citizens) One of my co-workers has lived in Japan since 1968, now everytime he returns from vacation he has to be fingerprinted and photographed.

Are visitors and foreign residents upset? Depends which "newspaper" you read.

Some papers say there was a large protest outside the Justice ministry, information strangely absent from other publications.

Welcome home
Nine-year-old Canadian Kevin Yourdkhani will soon be coming home to Toronto from the Hutto detention facility where he and Iranian parents have been held by U.S. Immigration authorities after they were found to be carrying false passports when their flight from South America to Canada made an unscheduled stop in the United States due to a medical emergency. The nine-year-old and his parents have been incarcerated for a month, but will soon be free - no thanks to Peter McKay or Stephen Harper who declined to intervene. Way to "Stand Up For Canada" guys.
Immigration Minister Diane Finlay has promised to grant the family a reprieve, which will be sufficient for them to get out of jail in the U.S. and come to Canada to try to get residency status. The parents were deported in 2005 after a ten year struggle to be accepted as refugees. They say they were arrested and tortured immediately after their return to Iran. Their son was born in Canada and is a Canadian citizen.

See, they aren't all wankers

A great big Woodshed thanks to Ralph Isenberg for being a real mensch.

Ralph Isenberg, a Dallas real estate developer whose Chinese-born wife has had her own struggles with immigration authorities, was so touched by Kevin's story he contacted Brouwer to offer help, including covering the family's airfare to Toronto.

"This is my apology to the Canadian people, to say sorry for the insensitivity of our government in taking a 9-year-old boy into custody in a maximum-security prison. Can you imagine what permanent damage it can cause to the child?" Isenberg said.

"Last I heard, Canada is one of our best allies, and this is how we treat our best friend from Canada? God only help you if you're the enemy of the U.S."

Standing up for Canada
Peter McKay is supposed to be hobnobbing with Condi Rice this weekend - do you think this family's case is likely to come up? Or will he be too busy trying to get to first base?

Canadian boy caught in Texas detention

Aircraft's chance landing in U.S. calamitous event for 9-year-old, his Iranian parents

Feb 16, 2007 04:30 AM

Michelle Shephard
Rick Westhead
Toronto Star Staff Reporters

A 9-year-old Canadian boy is in a Texas detention centre after his flight to Toronto made an unscheduled stop and U.S. officials detained his family.

Now the boy's Iranian parents are pleading with Canadian officials to help secure the family's release from the immigration holding facility, which has come under fire for allegedly detaining children in sub-standard conditions.

"All the time he is asking me, `Why am I wearing the uniform? Why I am here?'" the boy's mother said, as she sobbed during a telephone interview from the detention facility yesterday.

"We didn't do nothing. My child is innocent."

The parents, who have no status in Canada, asked that their names not be published out of fear of eventually being returned to Iran, where they say they were previously imprisoned and suffered physical and sexual abuse.