Inhumanity Set in Stone

By: Daniel Nardini

Lawndale News Chicago's Bilingual Newspaper - CommentaryThis is truly a sad and heart-breaking story. An undocumented immigrant named Fidelmar Merlos-Lopez came to the United States in 1995. Eventually he found his way to Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, and married a U.S. citizen and together they had a boy named Damien Merlos-Lopez who was born in 2002. They later divorced and Fidelmar later married another U.S. citizen named Danielle Lopez. In 2007, Fidelmar ran a red light and was stopped by police. After they did a background check they discovered he was undocumented. They handed him over to U.S. immigration. In exchange for leaving the country voluntarily, Fidelmar said he would try to reenter the United States as a legal resident. Back in Mexico, where he originally came from, Fidelmar worked with U.S. immigration lawyers to return to the United States to become a legal resident. He did what he could to help his wife and son, and both father and son talked with each other on the phone at least twice every week.

Fidelmar was in the final stages of trying to return legally to the United States when tragedy struck. A house fire killed Fidelmar’s son and his cousin, his aunt and half-brother. Fidelmar’s wife escaped. In an instant Damien was gone. As if this was not horrible enough, when Fidelmar went to the U.S.-Mexico border to try to get into the United States temporarily just to attend his son’s funeral, U.S. immigration denied him entry on humanitarian grounds. Even Fidelmar’s lawyers were horrified at this, and are doing everything they can to get him into the United States temporarily for his son’s funeral. We at the Lawndale News hope that Fidelmar will be granted permission to come to the United States to attend his son’s funeral, and we certainly mourn for his loss. What is so sickening is that every year U.S. immigration denies very clear, legitimate cases where family and relatives of those U.S. citizens or U.S. permanent residents want to come to the U.S. on humanitarian grounds. The figure speaks for itself. U.S. immigration grants only 25 percent of the 1,200 applications it gets every year for relatives and family to see loved ones on humanitarian grounds.

This number is appalling, and shows an incredible inhumanity that besmirches the name and reputation of the United States. I am not saying that there are no other governments that would deny temporary entry on humanitarian grounds—there are too many governments out there that would deny the families and relatives of loved ones living in those native lands the chance to see their loved ones here on humanitarian grounds. I would hope that the United States is not among them. But it seems to be. This just points out one more reason why immigration reform is necessary—to make the system work for those who need it to work when a personal or family crisis develops. It happens. What should also happen is that this government should work far, far faster and far, far more humanely in solving cases that need to be resolved quickly. Sadly, like so much of America’s crappy immigration system, there is no consistency in how the immigration system works. The husband of Damien’s aunt, who was also in Mexico, was given permission to attend her funeral.

One of the most tragic things about our current immigration system is that it does not seem to reward those who “play by the rules” anymore than it does for those who broke the rules but who are trying to correct their mistakes. The system certainly is not showing much in the way of humanity. Like the way people are categorized, the system’s inhumanity seems to be set in stone.

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