Comments on: Updated:Local Man Faces Deportation Because It’s an Election Year

By: Don

Don — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 17:54:23 +0000

I don’t disagree. I grew up in Miami watching the government allow pretty much any Cuban who could float over to stay and turning away almost every Haitian. Because, of course, the Haitians were "economic refugees" where the Cubans were "political refugees."

Surely the fact that the Haitians reflected less light had NOTHING to do with it, right? Certainly the Cubans were coming here not because their government had screwed the economic pooch and left them with a lower quality of life, but because it was a COMMUNIST quality of life, which is bad.

Unless you’re Chinese. Then it’s okay.

By: Tiffany Bridge

Tiffany Bridge — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 15:23:14 +0000

Since I think the path SHOULD be greased for others in that situation, I’ll go ahead and argue that it’s even worse.

As a nation, we’ve created a complicated-to-the-point-of-impossible process for immigrating legally, unless you happen to have landed yourself a job or a spouse first. We then further complicate matters by refusing to grant asylum applications to immigrants from a particular oppressive regime, lest we piss off said oppressive regime. And then, when some guy spends his whole life trying to be a model citizen without benefit of citizenship, we endanger his life for political expediency. We set desperate people up for failure, and then call them criminals when they do desperate things, despite the fact that they don’t actually harm anyone.

So even if Davis was taking the "slippery slope" argument, I’ll still call it out for what it is- cowardice, lack of principle, and insufficient dedication to the needs of his constituents.

By: Don

Don — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 15:05:55 +0000

I don’t care much for Davis – though I appreciate his support of DC voting rights – but in fairness, is it possible that he or his office meant that putting the screws to ICE over this other family should have accomplished greasing the path for others in a similar situation? Stupid, perhaps, but for all his jackassery I’m not prepared to assume Davis was -that- inept based on a third-hand telling.

By: bhrome

bhrome — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 13:59:55 +0000

His reply stated that he had already done it for one person and that should be enough.

Umm, excuse me? HELLO? Mr. Davis, you sir, are teh suck. You work FOR THE PEOPLE here.

I’m sorry, that attitude just rubs me the wrong way. No wonder I didn’t vote for him.