Irene Bamenga had her plane ticket to go home. The 29-year-old, carrying a bag of medications to treat a life-threatening heart condition, had planned to return to France and wait out her application for permanent residence in the United States before rejoining her husband in Lynn.
Bamenga had stayed in the United States much longer than she was supposed to under a visa waiver program, but she was exactly the kind of person immigration agents are officially encouraged not to put in jail: She had no criminal record, a husband in the country legally, and a heart condition — and she was trying to leave on her own anyway.
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The iCE is doing the right thing as best they can. We just can't let people illegally enter this country. This newspaper doesn't seem to understand we need to support them in the difficult job of immigration enforcement.
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Leading with an extraordinary sob story to make it seems as is this is a typical occurence is a good play by the Globe. But the facts are the facts. The illegal immigrants have limited rights, should have limited rights, and didn't deserve a single dollar of benefits or help while they are here illegally.
I'm sorry it didn't work out for Ms. Bamenga, but really, with taxes rising, government spending through the roof and American citizens having difficulty in this Obama economy, not my problem.
I understand your position, but what's going on is wrong. Hopefully some attention will be given immigration if we ever get the economy straightened out. To deny a sick person medication, someone who was trying to go home anyway, and causing her death without due process is a crime, and look at the unecessary cost to the taxpayer. If the system was running the way it should, people trying to be legal wouldn't give up and use all the end-arounds to stay in the US.
Now we know for sure how heartless some people can be. It's almost like some posters are disabled from a inability to feel compassion. That can be the only answer.
Legalized murder. That's what happened to the woman, Irene Bamenga, at the hands of the same people who sing "America the Beautiful" and go to church and spend Christmas with their families.
I have known about these practices, in far less detail, for years. Americans don't want to know - don't you see that? Many don't want to know or care. Others just can't believe it and have no idea because this kind of story fades away.
Just watch: This one will fade away and go onto page 57 of the papers, or not at all.
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While this story clearly points out without question the need for reform of our system, one also realizes from these stories that ICE and the other law enforcement agencies are not entirely to blame. They are following the rules and procedures as they exist today. Furthermore, it is obvious to the impartial observer that some of the people caught by ICE need to accept some responsibility and their share of the blame. Irene Bamenga knew her visa had expired years ago, and made the choice to stay illegally. Jesus Tovar was an adult when he crossed the border, and knew he was in the country illegally. He chose to start a family here while in the country illegally. Then, after more than a decade of living here, he could only speak to the Globe in his native Spanish.
While we can all agree a more compassionate process is long overdue, let us not deviate from the realization of how enormous the problem of illegal immigration is in this country, and the examples in this story illustrate just how deep the problem is.
Vete a casa, usted puede escuchar allí.
there should be amnesty for all illegals that have been in this countryfor ten years and have had NOT ONE criminal issue come up in that time, there has to be a way to make this right. We are all from immigrants at some time ......