Conference tallis::celt

1012.0. "Yesterday Joe Doherty, Today Widowed Mothers" by TALLIS::DARCY () Sat Feb 29 1992 13:19

    Widow who fled Northern Ireland faces deportation (AP)
    
    DENVER - A 35 year old woman, who fled her native Northern
    Ireland a decade ago after a terrorist bomb rocked her home,
    faces deportation now that immigration officials have denied
    her request for political asylum.
    
    Maureen Farrell, a widow with a 4 year old daughter, has
    received an outpouring of support since her plight was
    publicized this month.
    
    Seven men have proposed marriage, which could help her stay
    in the United States.  Rep. Patricia Schroeder, Democrat of
    Colorado, urged the head of the US Immigration and Naturalization
    Service to review her case.
    
    Verne Jervis, and INS spokesman in Washington, said yesterday
    that the agency had accepted a petition from Farrell's sister,
    who is a US citizen, for an immigrant visa for Farrell.  He said
    it would take about three years for her name to reach the top
    of a waiting list.
    
    Jervis said Farrell has failed, in eight years of litigation,
    to prove she qualified for asylum and had agreed last month in
    federal court in Denver to leave the country by May 16.
    
    Farrell could have become a citizen by going underground after
    her visa expired, becoming eligible for an amnesty law passed
    by Congress in 1986.  On Christmas Eve, the INS ordered her to
    leave the country by Jan. 17, but extended the deadline four
    months on the condition she drop further appeals.
    
    After the Denver Post publicized Farrell's story and gave out
    the unpublished number for the INS, dozens of callers phoned
    the agency, which disconnected the line.
    
    Farrell, a legal assistant in Denver, came to the United States
    in 1981, after her apartment building was bombed.  Her daughter,
    Jamie, was born here and thus is a US citizen.  The child's
    father, and Irish citizen, died in Denver three years ago of
    complications from diabetes.

    For those people wishing to voice their opinion concerning
    this case to the INS, the following addresses numbers are
    provided below.
    
    US Department of Justice
    Community Relations Service
    Thomas P. O'Neil Jr. Federal Building
    10 Causeway
    Boston MA
    617.565.6830
    
    Immigration and Naturalization Service
    Public Information
    Boston Massachusetts
    617.565.3092
    
    Immigration and Naturalization Service
    Public Information
    Denver Colorado
    303.371.3628

    
     It's no use, George.  This "administration" is full of children,
    unable to see beyond their noses and susceptible to every kind of
    propaganda they intercept.  Their utmost concern is the reelection of
    this man-child, George Bush, and no amount of reason or appeals to
    conscience will have any effect.
    
     Our only hope now is that the American electorate will come to their
    senses, highly doubtful given their proclivities over the last three
    decades.
    
    Thanks
      

    
    I just read this note today, a pity it does not give much information
    about the woman's case i.e. did someone try to kill her? Who was it?
    
    A couple of days ago the centre of Lurgan was destroyed by a 
    1,000 pound IRA bomb. Does this case mean that all the people whose
    lives were put at risk and whose livlihoods are now in danger,
    can apply for political asylum in the USA? By extension, you
    could include anyone who shops in a Northern Irish town as a matter
    of course, or who has a job in a city centre.
    
    I'm asking for pure divilment, but is this really possible in
    theory?
    
    Toby