happy fourth of july
Today I found out that a good friend of mine, whom I have I known since we were 12, is secretly an illegal alien. When he was a boy his family came to this country and took on a fake identity.
This is not an everyday sort of conversation. To tell the truth, it's hard for me to accept. The only reason he is telling people now is that the government found out about it when he was completing his military service. That's right, my friend was a military officer. The military didn't enjoy learning that they had sent a non-citizen through the academy, even if he has served them proudly and capably for a decade. So he is calling his friends to tell them he has a deportation hearing in couple weeks. I'm keeping this whole thing rather vague out of respect for his privacy, but after the hearing I imagine it'll be out in the open. I know it sounds corny, but for me the American ideal is defined by open opportunity for it's immigrants more than by anything else. That IS America. So an early Happy Fourth of July to you. I'm hoping that reason prevails and he is allowed to stay.--
As a follow up, my friend got assigned an individual hearing due to the complexity of the case. The hearing is scheduled for April 15, 2010. They're stretching the "speedy" provision of the Sixth Amendment pretty thin on that one.
