The following is a message from Eugene Sherman, a friend of the Khrapko family. Sergei, the father, who is a US citizen, is working desparately to get his wife and daughter out of the INS detention center in Tacoma, which we discussed yesterday.
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PLEASE HELP!!!!Posted by Brian Crouch at April 01, 2005 12:33 PM | Email ThisOur friends Yana Khrapko, and her mom Katia are being held in Tacoma Detention Facility.
Yana and her mom as well as John (Yana's brother) and their father, Sergei Khrapko escaped from Russia, and lived in Seattle for about the last 10 years.
The Judge decided in 1998 that they do not deserve to stay in the United States. Many appeals were attempted. No success.Several years ago Sergei was lucky enough to win Visa Lottery. In April of the 2004 he became a US citizen, and we all were very happy to celebrate such a wonderful event.
We were hoping that this would change the status of all other members of his family, but we were horrified when last week we found out that Katia, Sergei's wife and his daughter were taken into custody and are being held in the Tacoma Detention Center. The old order of deportation is now being executed. They were taken from work. The officer was surprised to "catch" them so easily. He actually told Katia that it was very easy to get them. Duh...! They were always there...
Sergei, a US citizen, was on a short trip to Moscow to visit his elderly parents at their 50th anniversary. It is hard to believe that it was a simple coincidence.
While he was out of the country, his wife and daughter were placed in detention. They are being deported to Belarus (their place of birth but not growing up). They have nothing to do with that country. Their life is here in the United States. Their home, their work. Everything.
Their paperwork (emergency petition) to the Board Of Immigration Appeals is being processed but every day these two people are in jail is hurting not only Sergei, and his family, but also all of us - his friends.
These two young women are held in detention like common criminals. They never tried to hide, or flee anywhere. Their reputation is excellent.
Katia was the employee of the year, Yana is on the Dean's list in her college. Sergei's son is a sea cadet, and one of the best students in his class.We hope that public attention to this problem might help them to be released as soon as possible.
We also think that Katia and Yana would appreciate if their friends visited.
The visitation hours are Monday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
8:00 a.m - 11:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. You can only visit once a day.They can only call collect to a land line. Cell phone numbers are not going through the jail's PBX.
PLEASE HELP!!!
--
Eugene Sherman
Computing Solutions
Systems/Network Engineer
eugenesherman@verizon.net
We should be far more concerned about the flood of illegal immigrants crossing our borders to the south every day, many of whom have no intention of following our laws, or contributing to our society, but instead only want to take what they can from us and send it all home to Mexico.
But instead the INS goes for the "low hanging fruit", the people it can easily find, rather than the people it ought to be looking for.
Posted by: Jason on April 1, 2005 01:14 PMIt is true we need to secure the borders, but we need more funds. To be able to fund this we need to roll back the Bush tax cuts for the rich, and while we're at it, Regan's and Kennedy's tax cuts for the rich. That way we can make our border secure by providing food and water for all these poor undocumented workers from dying in the desert.
// turn liberal off (permanently, please)
Posted by: Fred on April 1, 2005 01:25 PMHave to get them out of Wa. state before they become citizens and vote and help Rossi win. Or, got to get them out so we can show Seattle is doing it's part on the War on Terror. Or, we were looking for them damn south of the Rio Granders who are here illegally but they are hard to catch and they look so much the same. We got them instead because they were so easy to catch. Sure is amazing that Seattle is a sanctuary city and they go after white European types. Ha ha ha.
Does anyone have the name of the INS officer? I want to find out his party affiliation so NELSON can see the hypocrisy of Seattle based INS Agents.
NUFF SAID!!!!
Pudster
Posted by: Puddybud on April 1, 2005 01:29 PMSergei should file petitions for adjustment of his family's status now that he is a U.S. citizen. Hopefully, his family at least entered the U.S. legally (i.e. on a visa of some sort, going through an INS checkpoint). If they didn't enter legally, the adjustment petition would probably be denied.
Of course, we need to deport the millions of other people who are here illegally as well. Most of whom aren't even registered with INS (in contrast to the Khrapkos).
I hope that no one paid Yana for her work ...
Posted by: Richard Pope on April 1, 2005 01:52 PMYou are a rude, cynical person. Judging by your previous post you know Russian, so you are most likely their countryman. Shame on you for being so rude. If you have nothing good to say, shut up. Yes, they messed up their status, but they are decent people, who pose no risk and do not deserve to be locked up.
If the father become a US citizen by a lotery, I think the worst that could happen is for the family to be deported and wait some time (a year or two) for the father to formally petition for his family to join him.
Again, shame on you for having no compassion for your countrymen.
Posted by: E.W. on April 1, 2005 02:21 PMRichard Pope is NOT being cynical. He is stating what the facts appear to be based on what little information has been presented here.
As a legal naturalize American, I can see the logic in his interpretation.
He is also right about the rules having changed since the father won the INS "lottery". It pretty simple to get family re-unification greencards for his wife and two under 21 children.
Posted by: DeadWood on April 1, 2005 04:06 PMIf they're Jewish (as the article implies, but doesn't state explicitly) and had tried to leave the Soviet Union during the period in the '80s and '90s when Israel and the US operated the "Free Soviet Jewry" program, they could have gone, as legal immigrants, to either country without any problem at all.
There are hundreds of thousands of Russian Jews living legally in the US -- most of them in Brooklyn, NY, but also elsewhere -- who were part of that program. Also, they would have automatically been granted Israeli citizenship whether they ever went to Israel or not.
As Israeli citizens, they could have easily gotten legitimate US residency visas.
It also sounds to me like they may not have had the best US Immigration lawyer working on their case, which appears to have been going on for many, many years. They should probably get a new lawyer. Also, if they are Jewish, appeals could easily be made to the Israeli Consulate. The one in San Francisco handles the State of Washington http://www.israelemb.org/sanfran/AboutUs/usconsulates.htm.
None of you want to hear this, but it's a case like this that makes immigration law very difficult and not the easy "a plague on all you lousy illegals" answer that you doctrinaire Republican Conservatives always want to do.
If you truly want to help this family, you have to change the way you look at immigrants here. That's first. Second, check into the family's legal counsel and groups and organizations that could help.
The two Senators should absolutely be contacted as should the Congressman that represents the district they live in. Also, political pressure through the Governor's office is also helpful in these cases.
I understand that none of you who want to really help them, can accept the fact that all of those individuals who could help the family happen to be Democrats!
But that's where the political leverage has to exist in cases like this.
It certainly sounds to me like this family is getting a raw deal from the INS -- and unless there is some factor about this case that isn't apparent from the message -- it's typical of highhanded, ridiculous bureacracy within INS.
Get rid of your anti-immigrant bias, get in contact with the influential political people, the news media, assorted Jewish and Israeli organizations (again assuming they are Jewish) and others. Then you could have some success in helping this family out of this INS morass.
Posted by: Nelson on April 1, 2005 04:15 PMIf they applied for asylum, were denied, and then lost all of the appeals available, then they were given a final order of deportation. They should have honored that order and left the country.
People complain that they are "decent people" and shouldn't be "locked up". What are we supposed to do with people who refuse to leave? Try this experiment. Go to Nordstrom's at the nearest mall tonight. They should close at 9:30 p.m. Stay there anyway. See what happens. They will ask you nicely to leave, and then less nicely, and then even less nicely than that. Keep refusing to leave. See if you end up getting "locked up".
I don't know whether the father has filed a petition on their behalf for permanent residency. And I don't know whether there are any legal barriers that would prevent them from being granted legal residency, or whether the INS is not processing that application correctly (if it was filed).
But they have started off on the wrong foot in my humble opinion. The INS had a final deportation order requiring them to leave the United States. They refused to honor it. That makes them a bit worse than the millions of people who simply overstayed their visa or simply snuck into the country, but who have never been formally ordered to leave.
Posted by: Richard Pope on April 1, 2005 04:52 PMAnd by the way, I'm also curious if all the other posters here would support the fact that I bet the Khrapko family ALL have validly issued drivers' licenses.
Also, I noticed that nobody here has as yet accepted -- or even commented on -- my suggestion that Washington State elected officials like the 2 Senators, the appropriate Congressperson and the Governor all be approached to take up the case.
Could it be that all the necessary help the family needs here are DEMOCRATS???? And none of these right wing jokers could look at themselves in the mirror in the morning if they acknowledged that elected DEMOCRATS could be helpful to a cause they believe in.
Even the Schindlers were willing to accept the help offered by Jesse Jackson, but no, not the people here in WA. They'd rather let the Khrapkos get deported than acknowledge that DEMOCRATS could be of real assistance in the case.
Posted by: Nelson on April 1, 2005 05:54 PMI think what upsets people about this case is not their ethnicity, but that there are so many illegals in this country of every ethnicity that don't even try to play by the rules. This family tried to do the right thing, and that's the ONLY reason that they made it onto the radar of the INS. Had they not made applications and entered themselves into the 'system', they never would have been known to the INS and would not be in this pickle.
That being said, I can't disagree with you that if they were ordered to leave, they should have left, or gone into hiding elsewhere. I don't, however, think they should be deported to Belarus - they should be deported to a country of their choosing, even if they choose Canada.
Nelson:
You remind me of the old saying about having a hammer and thinking that everything is a nail. You see the world through your skewed bassackwards liberal worldview and don't think that conservative Republicans can possibly be open-minded or acknowledge Democrats.
I agree, both Senators and Jim McDermott (if he is their Congressman) should be contacted about this. But given their track record, will they actually DO anything about it? Maybe Patty Murray, but Jimmy Jihad McDermott won't give a hoot about them unless they can score him some excellent Belarussian Vodka - you can take that to the bank.
Furthermore, who is the person at the top of the food chain in this? The Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff, that's who. It's my belief that none of the aforementioned players can affect a positive outcome for this family. But people can certainly let them know about the situation.
Just so you know - acknowledging that Democrats can assist in a cause, and those Democrats actually assisting in that cause, are two completely different things. I had hoped that the Democrats would assist in ending the genocide in Iraq like they had in the Bosnia/Serbia/Croatia conflict. I acknowledged that they COULD have - but they didn't. See what I mean?
Posted by: Larry on April 1, 2005 06:35 PMYou may be on to something here. Did they game the system? I presume they entered on visitor visas with no intention of returning to Russia as required by the terms of the visa, but always intended to apply for asylum. That's a common ploy to be allowed to stay in the country while the appeals are pending. If they really played by the rules they would have applied for asylum abroad, and never would have been eligible for the "lottery".
Because they were white and from Russia, they were permitted to apply for visitors visas. I think Mexicans in the same position would not ever be issued a visitors visa. Just as black Haitians were never allowed to enter this country to apply for asylum.
Posted by: chew2 on April 1, 2005 07:55 PMJust because other people do it doen't make it OK. If the law sucks change it! But don't make excuses for breaking it.
Every day good people are turned down for legal immigration. Some of these good people are from Lithuania, some are from Guatemala, and others are from Zaire.
Part of the problem is the seeming unfairness when bad people, who don't follow the rules, appear to prosper while those who do follow the rules appear to be punished.
I don't see this here. I see Russian immigrants who came here claimimg refugee status after the fall of the Soviet system. If they are refugees then they are economic rather than political refugees. Their claims then seem to me to be as good as those of an El Salvadoran who just wants to provide a better life for his family.
The INS did not find their claims credible and ordered them back to their country of record. They ignored a deportation order and were arrested for breaking the laws of the USA.
If the rule of law has any meaning to the readers of this site, then the political leanings of law breakers should have no bearing on whether law breakers (i.e. criminals) should be punished for committing a crime.
Posted by: DeadWood on April 1, 2005 08:01 PMOn what basis you are stating that because 'they are white' they are republican, but if 'they were Mexicans' they would vote democratic? Did you miss the whole post? The family is Jewish, and it is widely known that Jews vote mostly democratic. Only because this particular family experienced communist system, only because of that they are smart enough not to associate them selves with the democratic/communist party of US. You just like to invent things that suit you party line thinking. I hope you are still young and misguided, because 'if you are 30 and still a socialist you have no brain'.
Posted by: E.W. on April 1, 2005 08:15 PMIf that was the case, then the City of New York would be a Republican bastion, since there are hundreds of thousands of Russian Jewish emigres living in Brooklyn. They vote overwhelmingly Democratic, as do probably 75-80% of the Jewish Americans.
This particularly family votes staunchly conservative Republican -- or rather the father does. The daughter is a fixture of right wing Republican radio, in case you haven't been reading about it here. Now, where are the outraged right wing kooks -- like you -- to yell and scream about a non-citizen illegal immigrant potential deportee being paid by right wing radio to spout propaganda?
Can you imagine the yelling and screaming by people of your ilk if an illegal Mexican immigrant was given such a forum by main stream media?
Notwithstanding that, as a humanist who wouldn't even want someone like you deported, I think every good thinking American would want people who have staked out a rewarding and valuable life in America should be able to stay here. I would urge the people supporting the family's desire to stay in the US to follow some of the suggestions I made:
1. Appeal to the two DEMOCRATIC Senators in the State to interced; appeal to the DEMOCRATIC Congressional Representative to stand up for a constituent in their time of need and appeal to the DEMOCRATIC Governor of the State to do what she can to help.
2. Appeal to the Israeli Consulate in San Francisco, which has responsibility for people in the State of Washington to help, since you confirmed that the family is indeed Jewish. If they were indeed refugees from Russia, they would have a claim to Israeli citizenship even if the father is also a US citizen.
3. Look into getting a new lawyer to represent them, as it appears that their current attorney is getting nowhere with their case.
4. Take their case to the major media outlets, both local and national, to get exposure of the ridiculous bureacratic garbage that INS is making the family go through.
Those are the simple steps I would recommend and I would think they would have a strong likelihood of achieving the success the family would want.
Posted by: Nelson on April 1, 2005 08:56 PMhttp://travel.state.gov/visa/immigrants/types/types_1318.html
A visa lottery applicant must list their spouse and all children and step-children who are unmarried and under 21. This means all children of the applicant and all children of the spouse, regardless of where or with whom the children are living.
If the applicant wins a visa in the lottery, then he or she is entitled to also bring their spouse and all children or step-children who are unmarried and under 21 to the United States. (Of course, if the children are from a prior relationship, and the other parent has legal custody, this might not happen for obvious reasons.)
So did Sergei actually fail to list his family members on his application? If that is the case, he could actually be de-naturalized of his U.S. citizenship, have his permanent resident visa revoked, and be deported to wherever.
On the other hand, if Sergei did properly list his family members on his application, then why didn't he take care of permanent resident visas for his family members at the same time his permanent resident visa was processed? If he had done this, then the whole family could have been taking the U.S. citizenship oath by now.
Another thing -- is Sergei really from Russia, or is he from Belarus? Since Russia sends more than 50,000 immigrants every five years to the USA, its citizens cannot participate in the visa lottery program. Tiny Belarus doesn't send nearly that many, and its citizens qualify.
So by changing his citizenship to Belarus, instead of Russia, Sergei was able to participate in the visa lottery. Unfortunately, this apparently means that his family members are now going to be deported to Minsk instead of Moscow.
Like I have been saying, this Khrapko situation just doesn't add up. What are the real facts?
"why didn't he take care of permanent resident visas for his family members at the same time his permanent resident visa was processed?" HE TRIED. His lawyer screwed it up since last year. Did you not retain the fact that he got his citizenship last April?
As stated before, he's Russian, always been Russian, and the reason the two are being deported to Belarus not Russia is because of their place of birth and fear of persecution (Jewish) in Russia. But this has been stated before in the other thread.
"What are the real facts?" You build a scaffold of invalid assumptions, then draw a conclusion opposite to reality, thus you have quite a bit of temerity to say "this Khrapko situation just doesn't add up." That simply means you don't have all the facts because most of them are unclear.
I think you should save your energy for other topics and other blog posts. I personally would really appreciate it if you would cease commenting on this particular blogtopic altogether if it comes up again. If you can't sympathize at least do us the courtesy to go away. Please. You're not helping.
That goes quadruple to the tenth power for Nelson.
Posted by: Bleeding heart conservative on April 1, 2005 09:57 PMEW -- you are a blithering idiot who obviously has stepped into something that you have zero knowledge about.
The hundreds of thousands of Russian Jewish emigres in Brooklyn that I was referring to were NOT Holocaust survivors that came to the US after WWII. That is an entirely different population of Jewish Americans.
No, EW, the people I'm referring to were gotten out of the Soviet Union in the decade of the 1980s. Almost none of the them were even alive during WWII. Most were engineers and professionals who grew up and were educated and trained TOTALLY UNDER THE COMMUNIST SYSTEM IN THE SOVIET UNION AND MOST WERE IN THEIR 30s and 40s when they came to the US during the 1980s.
They vote overwhelmingly Democratic PRECISELY BECAUSE THEY KNEW EXACTLY WHAT A COMMUNISTIC TOTALITARIAN SYSTEM WAS AND THEY DON'T WANT THE US TO GO DOWN THAT ROAD.
All told, some 3-4 million Jews were able to leave the Soviet Union during the 1980s to emigrate to either Israel or the US. Something over 1 million came to the US and the large majority of them settled in the Brighton Beach area of Brooklyn. If you were to go there today you would find that the Russian is the prime language spoken there.
That wave of Jewish immigrants has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING WHATSOEVER TO DO WITH HITLER. They're a full generation removed from the Holocaust. And, they had lived their entire lives under Soviet communism. The Khrapko family is a second generation version of that wave of emigres, having come to the US AFTER the end of the Soviet Union. A couple of hundred thousand more Russian Jews left the former Soviet Union after the government changed and came here or went to Israel.
These people cherish democracy (with a small "d") and typically vote Democratic (with a capital "D") because they know only the Democratic Party offers the type of humanistic support for mankind that is needed in today's world.
The Khrapkos are unusual in the fact that they're right wing conservative Republicans. But, if they had good lawyers and correctly made use of the opportunities a democracy like the US offers with their elected representatives (who just happen to be Democrats because they're living in a liberal state; if they lived in Kansas or Alabama they would be Republicans) and conventional media -- and didn't follow the false prophets of right wing fanatic anti-diversity and anti-immigration doctrines -- they would probably easily win their case with the INS and become truly productive members of our society.
This pluralism is what has made our country great for 230 years and it's what will keep it great for the forseeable future. The more cultural diversity we encourage in America, the more we become a better and stronger country.
As for you, EW, next time you comment try doing a minimum amount of factual research. Who knows, you might learn something yourself from the exercise.
Posted by: Nelson on April 1, 2005 11:36 PMWould you be surprised if I told you that most of the officers in the Detention Center are hispanic? Four out of 5. The list of "detainees" in the comment field contains the country of origin. Boy, you can study geography of the world using that piece of paper. But I didn't see an Indian officer, or one from Viet Nam, or Russian for that matter.
As for the chain of events with Sergei's family.. I don't know every detail, but I know if people are afraid of going to the store because of the shape of their nose, or because of their political affiliation, their children will know about it very early. How do you become that strong, smart person in the eyes of your own children, when any idiot can (and will) insult you on the street, or in the store? You probably can tell that I know about these things first hand. When things are that bad, I think all critics would use every opportunity to create a better "economic" future for their families.
R.P. You sound like a pragmatic person knowledgeable (or at least well versed) in some law aspects. I will take your advice to Sergei and may be it will do some good. Sergei has an appointment with the local (good) immigration lawyer next week, and we all hope (and pray) that the emergency petition to reopen the case will be approved, and these two good American people will be free again.
Posted by: Gene on April 2, 2005 12:37 AMThe Khrapko case is unfortunate. But it is due to error on their part, not any conspiracy theory or prejudice on the part of the INS. Their asylum claim was extremely weak and there is probably no injustice in it being denied. Sergei Khrapko was lucky enough to win the diversity visa lottery (only about 1% get in each year), but messed up on paperwork needed to extend this benefit to his wife and children.
Sergei became a citizen in April 2004. This means that he had to have at least five years of permanent residency -- actually more than that, since there is also processing time. But he would have first been a permanent residence in April 1999 or earlier.
Visa lottery winners must obtain visas for themselves (and any family members they wish to bring along) during the relevant fiscal year -- October 1 to September 30. The names of winners are announced in the May before the fiscal year begins.
So let's assume that Sergei obtained his visa sometime during the October 1, 1998 to September 30, 1999 fiscal year. This means he would have known in May 1998 that he was a winner who would receive the diversity lottery visa.
Apparently, the Khrapkos lost their asylum case before an immigration judge sometime in 1998, and then filed several layers of appeals, which they also lost. As I said before, no great injustice likely there.
However, at the same time all of this was going on, Sergei would have known he had just won a diversity visa in the lottery. Sergei was smart enough to fill out the paperwork to get this visa for himself sometime between October 1, 1998 and April 1999. Unfortunately, he neglected to apply for his wife and children to get this same visa. Their opportunity to get this visa ran out on September 30, 1999.
Of course, Sergei could have won his diversity visa in an earlier year. If that was the case, it would make his failure to apply for his family members even that more unfortunate.
Assuming Sergei got his visa between October 1998 and April 1999, he would have noticed that he had a green card and his wife and children did not. He would have still had until September 30, 1999 to correct this situation for his family members.
I am not an immigration lawyer, so I don't know what can be done if family members are already here in the USA, and a visa winner such as Sergei fails to timely apply for their visas. However, the Khrapkos would have had several years to ponder this situation -- since Sergei would have a green card from his visa, and the wife and children would be facing deportation.
Presumably, Sergei would have been given another chance to help out his wife and children when he finally became a US citizen, which gave him the right for immediate permanent resident status for his wife and unmarried children under 21. It is not clear whether Sergei has submitted such an application on their behalf.
Since I don't have any more facts about this case, and since I don't know nearly as much about immigration law as I would need to, I can't think of some magical solution for Yana and her mother. But there needs to be a constructive solution, something based on positive approaches and respect, and simply appealing to common sense and basic fairness. This is a human tragedy, which would never have happened without some very unfortunate mistakes on the part of Sergei or his lawyer.
If instead, you want to make it a conspiracy theory case, name-call the INS, claim that Al Gonzalez has been duped by the pinkos, and call Murray, Cantwell, and McDermott hateful Communists, then I would expect that Yana and Katia will be escorted to the departure gate at Sea-Tac and be leaving fairly soon for Moscow on Aeroflot Flight 324 (with possible connection to Minsk). If you would like, I will try to visit them next time I am in Moscow.
Posted by: Richard Pope on April 2, 2005 12:55 AMTo RP -- I agree with almost all of your thoughts on this case, except the voting and political preference patterns of the Russian Jews in the Brighton Beach area. From what I've read, their political leanings are almost identical to the political leanings of American Jews in general. Those that are more secular leaning, who belong to Reform or Conservative synagogues (or none at all) tend to be liberal or moderate Democrats. Those that have Orthodox or even Hasidic and very observant Jewish leanings, tend to be more conservative and Republican.
That part of Brooklyn happens to be populated by BOTH Russian Jewish emigres and very large numbers of very Orthodox American Jews (who dominate the NY electronics businesses as well as the jewelry and diamond industries there). They tend to be the largest bloc of Jewish Republicans in the US, so the lines there between those two types of Jewish-Americans may be a little bit blurred, resulting in somewhat more Republican-leaning than is normally the case amongst American Jews. But I don't believe that is the result of the Russian emigres there but rather the population of the more Orthodox long-time American Jews living in the same part of Brooklyn.
Posted by: Nelson on April 2, 2005 09:06 AMOh, and there is absolutely NO "immediate permanent resident status". I am married to a Kyrygz citizen, and I just had to fill out the I-130 form and waltz on down to the local Embassy. My wife and I have to travel to another country's embassy to complete the process. Just because an American marries a foreign doesn't mean jack - that foreigner has no right to come to the United States.
Posted by: Aaron on April 4, 2005 04:19 AM