From the New York Post,
Mexican migrant in SoCal hit with $1.82M fine for living in the US illegally: ‘Leave now or face consequences’
I do hope this headline is 100 percent accurate. The unnamed “Southern California woman” is described as follows,
Her immigration attorney, William Menard, said the woman has no criminal history, no public safety issues, and has spent years complying with immigration authorities while applying for a green card through her US citizen father and three adult children.
Menard told the network his client’s case has been stuck in limbo for years, tangled in red tape as each required waiver gets lost in the sluggish immigration system.
She has a 2003 departure order in place. At no point in the past 23 years has she been “complying with immigration authorities.” Return to Mexico and then she will be in compliance.
A counterpoint,
“A pending green card application does not give someone legal status to be in our country,” a DHS spokesperson said in a statement Tuesday. “The Trump administration is not going to ignore the rule of law.”
But that’s what all of these sob stories are: an invitation for sympathy to disregard lawbreaking.
The law is the law. If you don’t like the law, change it.
