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[THE DREAM ACT] Congress is asked to let teen stay

#1
04-05-2006, 01:32 PM
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Title: Congress is asked to let teen stay
Author: Rachel Dissell
Publisher: The Plain Dealer
Date Published: April 5, 2006

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Congress is asked to let teen stay
by Rachel Dissell


At one point, Manuel Bartsch thought it would take an act of God to keep him from being deported to his native Germany, a country he hadn't seen since elementary school.

He caught a break in January when a federal immigration official did an about-face on his case and released him from jail, where he had spent the Christmas and New Year's holidays.

Officials said he could stay in Gilboa, the small town in northwest Ohio where he lives, until he graduates from high school. Then he has to go.

Now the 18-year-old high school senior is praying for another act - an act of Congress, to allow him to remain in the United States permanently and attend the University of Northwestern Ohio in the fall.

Two Ohio congressmen - Republicans Sen. Mike DeWine of Cedarville and Rep. Paul Gillmor of Old Fort - introduced bills Tuesday asking that the teen be allowed to stay in the county legally as a permanent resident.
DeWine's office said staffers have been crafting the bill, which has been read twice and was referred to the Senate subcommittee on immigration, border security and citizenship. DeWine sent a letter to Sen. John Cornyn, Texas Republican and chairman of that subcommittee, requesting support to ensure the bill's passage.

"These relief bills are difficult to pass but we are hoping that there is a good chance that this will move forward," DeWine spokeswoman Breann Gonzalez said.

Since 1999, 41 private relief bills, laws that affect only a certain individual or group, have been passed by Congress and signed by the president. Of those, 24 dealt with immigration issues.

Both DeWine and Gillmor worked on Bartsch's behalf after finding out that he was here illegally through no fault of his own. Bartsch, born in Germany, was raised by his grandmother, who died in a car accident, leaving him to live with a stepgrandfather who was a dual German and U.S. citizen.

Bartsch came to Ohio on a 90-day visa waiver with his stepgrandfather, who never completed the necessary paperwork to make Bartsch's stay legal. The teen found out he was not in the country legally after his stepgrandfather returned last year to Germany.

Bartsch immediately filed an application to stay but was denied because he overstayed his welcome when he initially entered the country as a youth.

Bartsch's attorney, David Leopold, said the bill would solve the teen's predicament.

"I've got a bright future," Bartsch said Tuesday. "I'm bound for college. I've just got to sit back and hope for the best."

Gonzalez said the senator also had immigrants like Bartsch in mind when fashioning the Development, Relief and Education of Alien Minors Act, which is part of one of the larger immigration bills being debated in the Senate this week.

The DREAM Act would allow undocumented immigrant students to attend state colleges, pay in-state tuition and apply for financial aid. It also would give them a way to legalize their status.
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#2
04-05-2006, 11:24 PM
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Quote:
He caught a break in January when a federal immigration official did an about-face on his case and released him from jail, where he had spent the Christmas and New Year's holidays.
anyone knows why he was in jail?
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#3
04-06-2006, 10:18 AM
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I am asuming, judging from how the process works and the story, he was pending for deportation.
If you are Mexican and get caught at the border (maybe even somewhere else) they simply send you back to Mexico and thats the end of it. If you are from somewhere else, the process is much more complicated, and it takes up to three months to deport you, all of which you spend in jail. One of the goals of the immigration reform bill is to eliminate that wait.
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