Blow a court date? Get deported
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She's a college graduate. She's a married 29 year old woman. And two weeks, she might be deported.
Hoa Nguyen entered the country legally 10 years ago on a student visa, earning a degree from Luther College and another (a master's) at the University of Minnesota. But after flaking on a deadline to file for a green card, she was arrested, and now faces deportation within the next two weeks, despite the fact that the deportation would separate her from her husband (an American citizen) for 1 to 5 years.
The trouble arose in February of this year, when Nguyen and her husband Dan Hanson attempted to re-enter the country after a trip to Nguyen's home country of Vietnam. She was a Ph.D. student, studying French literature, but was on a break for her marriage proceedings.
Whoopsie--customs refused to recognize her student visa, insisted she file for a green card. And that's where Nguyen slipped. A day after the August deadline passed, immigration agents came knocking.
As you can imagine, the internet is swinging to her possibile rescue. A website has been erected to raise awareness of Nguyen's plight, which has instructions about writing legislators and making donations to her defense fund.
Now, if we can all pause and imagine what might happen to city hall if we raised hell every time THEY fudged some paperwork. Hmm.
16 comment(s) / Post a Comment
This seems like a terrible injustice. Should she have been more diligent about changing her immigrant status? OF COURSE. But to treat the wife of a US citizen like a felon (she's been in jail for nearly 6 weeks) just because of a missed court date is ridiculous. Just goes to prove that xenophobia is still rampant in this country, just as it was when the irish and italians and scandanavians were migrating at the beginning of the last century.
Here is woman who is a great community member, wife, and scholar and we are spending thousands of tax dollars to keep her locked up because she wrote down the wrong date.
Unreal.
Posted On: Monday, Sep. 28 2009 @ 12:25PMFirst of all, why is Uncle Sam so quick to come a knocking at our door when we slip up, but it takes them forever to get back to me about putting in a stupid driveway in at my house?!?!?
Second, a great book on this matter that I read not to long ago...
http://www.amazon.com/Asylum-Denied-Refugees-Struggle-America/dp/0520255100
Asylum denied. Our system is sooo backwards. Those who should be here are getting the boot, and the leeches who shouldn't are getting passed over! It really is a huge mess. Don't know what the answer is but it sure is a problem. God bless us all!
Posted On: Monday, Sep. 28 2009 @ 12:43PMShould have shown up in court on her court date! Or should have consulted an attorney previous to going overseas for the wedding. Status changes are tricky and her Citizen husband could probably have done more to protect her and prevent this situation from happening.
Posted On: Monday, Sep. 28 2009 @ 12:49PMThis makes me SO MAD!!!
I am a Canadian citizen, immigrated to the USA several years ago, after marrying an American.
Due to having a totally incompetent immigration lawyer, we were under the belief that our "conditional Green Card" status was for 1 year longer than it actually was. When I called towards the end of the (believed) period, I was told that my green card had been expired for almost a year! It was the absolute first we'd heard of it - NO letters, no calls, and certainly no agents visiting our door!
I filed for the extension and included my letter of explanation, and that was that.
The entire way through the system was nasty, having to watch all of the xenophobia and outright racism happening all around me. Being treated well and talked to as an actually human being while watching everyone else around you be treated like cattle and talked to like they are shit is one of the most uncomfortable feelings I've ever had to go through... but obviously had to keep my mouth shut.
It blows me away to know that -as a CAUCASIAN CANADIAN - my expired green card was apparently no big deal at all, but that they will go ARRESTING someone else ONE DAY LATE!!! ARGH! Something really needs to be done, the system is very broken.
Dear Mr. Hansen,
Though I sympathize with Ms. Nguyen, she along with her husband should have taken matters relating to immigration a bit more seriously. Just because she has a master's degree does not make her eligible for special consideration. An illegal immigrant is just that, an illegal immigrant. I myself is a naturalized citizen and the process from getting a green card to becoming a citizen was long but simple enough. The fact that Ms. Nguyen did not inform her husband of the court date or what stage her green card process was at, seems absurd. If staying in the USA was that important to her, she should have placed the green card application on top of her priority list. Another curious aspect of this situation is why are people so shocked to hear that she was taken to jail for missing a court date when the same thing can happen if an american citizen is a no show for court summons?
@Meera
"An illegal immigrant is just that, an illegal immigrant. "
Except she isn't, or didn't you read the story?
"Another curious aspect of this situation is why are people so shocked to hear that she was taken to jail for missing a court date when the same thing can happen if an american citizen is a no show for court summons?"
Do you know how many FELONS are guilty of missing a court date are walking around free right now? Here's a hint: it's a lot. That number would include people who are actually dangerous to the members of the general public. But of course it is more important to get another dirty immigrant off the streets rather than a child molester.
Posted On: Monday, Sep. 28 2009 @ 1:48PM@ anon
Please read her whole story at hoadefense.org before stating that she wasn't illegal. First of all, she did not check on her student visa status before leaving the country. Under that circumstance, it was actually really nice for the immigration officer at the the airport to even allow her to enter the country. EVEN IF YOU ARE MARRIED TO AN AMERICAN CITIZEN. You have to wait in your country of origin for your green card or come under a brand new visa, let it be student or tourist. So if she let her visa lapse, she IS residing in the USA ILLEGALLY! Secondly, why are you getting so dramatic? Who's siding with felons missing court dates and walking around free? All I'm saying is if one does miss a court date, lawfully, that person can be arrested. Why should Ms. Nguyen get special treatment when the general public don't? And stop referring to immigrants as dirty. Really unnecessary!
Posted On: Monday, Sep. 28 2009 @ 3:28PM@ anon
And by court appearances, I meant jury duty, case witness, etc.
Posted On: Monday, Sep. 28 2009 @ 3:49PMIt's unfortunate that dates were missed in this case; I am pretty sure that can be agreed upon. However, it seems like a grossly exaggerated response to throw an individual in jail who has been in this country for as long as Hoa (with proper documentation 99% of the time), someone who is part of what the American dream is all about. Where do they think she will run off to? I am confident that someone who is working towards a PhD in French Literature isn't going to jet off in the middle of the night to outrun the U.S. government, or her husband, or her dreams! Why are we spending our tax dollars to keep her in jail? Let her go home, be with her husband, and figure things out from there.
Illegal immigration is a very serious matter. It drains many of our institutions, case in point being our hospitals and health care system. However, nothing in Hoa's case screams "threat to American society". Why did the judge not even give her case another shot? For all the times the American government makes you give up your time to them, it's sad that they can't reciprocate. Minnesota should be advertising to have citizens like Hoa: hard working student, loving wife, productive member of society. Not to mention as Americans we stink at foreign languages, so the fact she wants to teach/study French is, in my opinion, awesome. However, that's another topic all together...
Also, for those of you who are pulling the "should have" comments, think hard before pointing the finger at someone else. It might be you who next time accidentally misses a deadline; it might not cause you to be deported from Minnesota to Southeast Asia, but that deadline you missed could delay your dreams as well. If such a day happens, trust me, you'll be begging for a break as well.
Posted On: Monday, Sep. 28 2009 @ 4:41PM@DrBSP
I lived abroad for years and got my visa paperwork done in a timely fashion. I showed up at Immigration offices to get my fingerprints taken on time and everything, so I think my "should have" merits discussion.
Immigration followed procedure in the case of Ms. Nguyen. She was probably warned at her border crossing to get her status in order, and part of that is showing up at court. If she was here on a STUDENT visa, then getting married to Mr. Hanson and having her STUDENT status lapse changes her immigration status.
As Meera said, thousands of people show up to court and get through the green card process without any problems--or when they do have problems, they follow procedure. If Immigration made an exception for one case, it would have to make an exception for thousands of cases. Hoa was treated like any other immigrant and, my guess is, she will continue to be so treated.
If you don't like the procedure, you should be asking for immigration reform instead of an exception to one case. And if I experienced a delay like this because of a mistake that was wholly mine and NOT Immigration's, I would be blaming myself, not the system.
Posted On: Tuesday, Sep. 29 2009 @ 11:36AMI do agree that Hoa and Dan should have been more careful, but as others have pointed out, this seems like an extremely harsh penalty for just missing a court date. She could be levied a fine or her green card processing could be delayed for a year or two, etc. - penalties that make more sense rather than forcing her to go back to Vietnam. As someone who knows her personally, Hoa is one of the sweetest, brightest, most helpful persons I know and it is unbelievable that she is going through all this simply because she missed a court date, while there are people who commit far more heinous crimes in this country and get away with it.
Posted On: Tuesday, Sep. 29 2009 @ 7:10PMI definitely agree with Meera. Law is Law, and no one should have any special treatment. There is no difference between a well educated person and a street gang under the course of Law. Let's say our system gives Hoa a special deal on this case (Hoa won't be deported now, do you think everyone else in the future will have the same deal if he/she falls into similar or the same issue. Understand that immigration law is totally different from criminal law or any other law. Too bad that our system don't have a special jail for illegal immigration so they have to use normal jail to lock her up (too bad too sad at this point).Remember that Hoa was arrested at the time she has already been a illegal immigration under immigration law not any other law. Lot of people keep taking immigration law to comparing with other laws.
Remember Dan (Hoa's husband) said that Hoa was confused about the court date. First Hoa has been here for 10yrs. Secondly, August 13th, 2009 was Wed, and August 23rd, 2009 was Sunday. Didn't she question about Court date on Sunday? (Absolutely, no court date is no weekend. This is Common Sense) Dan said she thought it was August 23rd, 2009. It would be better if she thought it was 2010 instead of 2009.
I feel sorry for Dan and Hoa but Law is Law. No one you two should blame on rather yourself. I am pretty sure that Hoa was well aware how important her status was. If Hoa did not intend to change her status to conditional resident, at least she needed to check on her student status (every student visa is only good for five years. trust me Hoa had renewed it once before, so she got to know that she had to renew it again.)
Don't you people remember what it was like to be in college? It's not the real world. I'm surprised Hoa was able to keep her visa up for 10 years because when you're in college and grad school, you've got way lots of things on your mind. Then she had a marriage to plan, both in the US & Vietnam. So she screwed up. But she deserves "due process" of law--but instead the judge refused to hear her case. Is that fair?
And for Mr. Hanson to have kept tabs on his wife is a little ridiculous. Hoa had done this all by herself for 10 years. She is working on her doctorate. I'm sure he figured it was her business & that she knew what she was doing.
I don't know Hoa, but I think this stinks. She's been in prison for 45+ days while our country has allowed multiple terrorists entry into this country & look what they've done.
I'm not saying to give her special treatment--I'm just saying she had a right to have her case reviewed with her being able to testify.
Posted On: Wednesday, Sep. 30 2009 @ 10:19PM@ Used2B aCollegeStudent
I am currently a medical student at Johns Hopkins. My wife of two years is an american citizen. Therefore, if anyone knows what's it like to deal with immigration stuff while dealing with school work, it would be me. Having said that, if you've come to the US as a student, you get to find out pretty quickly how intricate and strict INS processes are. Though student visa applications and permanent residency applications are quite different from each other. One slip up and you could end up in the "illegal" status. If you have time, try to look up the various rules and regulations concerning change in status in USCIS website.
And believe me, my wife had to sign more documents than I did when we applied for my permanent residency. Therefore, it's not so ridiculous to question why Dan was so much out of the loop.
@ lol : you are the only person who picked up on the fact that August 23rd was a Sunday!!! LOL!
Posted On: Thursday, Oct. 1 2009 @ 6:55PMAnon said: "Do you know how many FELONS are guilty of missing a court date are walking around free right now?"
Do you? I'd like to see some stats before I believe "Here's a hint: it's a lot"
Aren't they free because we can't find them?
Just because someone got away with it (replace "it" with anything illegal) doesn't mean everyone should.
Posted On: Friday, Oct. 2 2009 @ 3:25PMI empathize, but can't really accept the "got deported because she missed a court date" argument. Failing to verify or maintain her student visa status, failing to file any status change paperwork after the marriage, ignoring instructions from immigration at the airport to clear things up within 30 days, and then missing a court date. Taking any action at any one of those opportunities would likely have prevented this outcome.
Given her level of education ( and therefore experience dealing with complicated bureaucracies if nothing else) it makes me wonder...
Posted On: Tuesday, Oct. 6 2009 @ 11:14PM
