Is She A Terrorist?

We all know the story of putting a frog in boiling water. He jumps out. But if you put a frog in cold water, and slowly turn up the heat, he'll boil to death. Are we frogs? Perhaps. I travel a good deal, and so I'm often confronted with the the changing rules and unclear policies of the TSA. I've been told to take off my belt, remove my shoes, take out my computer, keep my ticket and basically perform all manner of physically impossible tasks while moving along quickly and not talking back. I've complied. And now, with airlines charging for additional bags, and new special TSA approved cases for computer carry-ons -- it's bound to get worse. But is it an inconvenience or a slow boiling away of civil liberties?

I wasn't sure -- until I got this email from my friend Seth Carmichael:

My Dear Friends, Family, and Everyone else in my address book,

As you know, my name is Seth Carmichael, I am a US citizen born in Washington DC. My wife, Elisa Victoria Gilsenan, is a British Citizen and permanent resident of Australia where her family
has lived for the past ten years. She was going to college in the US and was in the United States on a student visa when we got married on August 28th of last year in Los Angeles where we have been living since she started school in 2005. This past February her father Brian Gilsenan was assaulted in Sydney while on his way home from an after work function. (Link To Sidney Morning Herald)

He was seriously injured and spent the last few months in the hospital. He passed away on Saturday May 24th, 2008. Elisa and I went to see him immediately after the incident, when we returned to the US she decided not to continue with school at this time which canceled her student visa so we started the immigration process by filing our I-130 petition.

In May, Brian's health took a serious turn for the worse and Elisa needed to return to Sydney to be by his side. We called the US dept of homeland security and tried to request an exception to allow her to leave the States but they told us that all they could do is expedite her I-130. Obviously she still had to return to Australia and she did so. As I said Brian passed away on Saturday May 24th. I went to Australia on Sunday the 25th to help settle his affairs and help Elisa with her Visa situation but we had no luck reaching the consulate in Sydney or anyone else that could help us with her Visa. I came back to the states and have been trying to get her back since June 1st, we have had several conversations with various consulate officials and many immigration lawyers but there seems to be no process for helping with this kind of a situation.

We have talked to people at the consulate in Sydney, I've talked to my congressman's office, a friend of a friend wrote a letter to the US Ambassador to Australia, we have talked to many different immigration attorneys, but no one seems to be able to help. We are stuck in the system and right now I just want to get her home so that we can be together in this trying time and finish the immigration process here in the states. The emotional challenges of the whole situation are just overwhelming us.

I am hoping we can get Elisa back into the states as fast as possible so we can continue the immigration process that we have started here and put this horrible tragedy behind us. It seems so simple a request.

I can't help but think of the emerging security bureaucracy that has grown in the past 7 years, and wonder how many grieving young women, musicians, athletes, students, and just tourists have been scooped up in this net of bureaucracy and paperwork -- effectively closing the border to even people as obviously deserving as Seth's wife Elisa.

I don't claim to understand immigration law -- but it seems to me that Elisa shouldn't have to lose her father and her husband in the same six month period.

It seems like compassion ought to be part of the process somewhere - but it seems that in our drive to control the borders and protect us from terrorists, that people like Elisa are ending up unable to return to her friends and family in the US. It doesn't seem like it should work that way.

Comments

[WorkingClass]

Mr. Rosenbaum: You asked, "But is it an inconvenience or a slow boiling away of civil liberties"? Our liberties were slowly boiled away by the war on drugs. Nobody complained. The new war, the war on terror, assumes therefore that we have no liberties. The stuff they do to you at airports has nothing to do with keeping you safe. It has everything to do with the establishment of the police state. We are learning how to be a subject people. I wish you well and your young friends also.

[Colmore]

When I go to pay the bill at Charter Communications, all customers have to show a photo I.D.!!!! I always pay in cash. I told the clerk "If anyone wants to pay my bill for me, please let them do so." Even paying in CASH, you have to identify yourself.!!!

[BARRISTER]

Wow!! Talk oabout the World's "greatest Nation ever! Our Freedoms that EVERYONE wants to take away from us; that they envy so deeply!! WOW!!

[Colmore]

My green card expired. I sent the required $370.00 to Homeland Security. They set an appointment for me at a bureau 60 miles away. My daughter took the day off to go with me. I was fingerprinted, photographed, and told I should receive the new card in the mail. Next came a new appointment at *8a.m. at the bureau 60 miles from home, since the FBI could not process the fingerprints that they had taken. Another day of lost work for my daughter. Another set of fingerprints. Then a letter came informing me I was to go to any police precinct that I had lived in for the last 10 years, to get proof that I did not have a police record. I sent that to them, then I received a new green card. The following Friday I went to my usual hair appointment. I had to park 2 blocks away, because the Catholic church next door to the beauty parlor was hosting the Mexican Consulate, giving I.D. cards to Mexican citizens. The area was crowded. The Dept. of Homeland Security should have been there, checking the status of these people. Too bad they are not inconvenienced the way I was, maybe they would stay in Mexico.

[Colmore]

Oh, by the way, the last two times I have been to England nobody asked for my alien card, not at Chicago's O'Hare, or London Heathrow.

[Liberoservative]

^sarcasm on*
We all know that we are under attack by Australian terrorists who use suicide bomber kangaroos (those pouches make great hiding spots).... and that she could have just made up the fact that she lost her father in an accident in order to bring more kangaroos into the country!
*sarcasm off*

[WASanford]

On second thought, perhaps your friend is trying to solve the wrong problem. I've often thought that if I had to leave America, Australia would be my first choice. Since this country is headed down the crapper, perhaps your friend should consider becoming an Australian.

[WorkingClass]

Brilliant!

[WASanford]

I hate to tell you this, but what you have to go through to get on an airplane has never been about making our nation or even travelers any safer. It's about harassing and intimating us and that's all it is. They want the ability to take our civil liberties away without even a whimper from us.

Realize that while your friend is going through his nightmare, Mexican citizens are illegally pouring across our border while American officials stand by and watch with their hands in their pockets, doing little if anything about it. Of course, they provide the perceived benefit of driving down working class wages.

[wilburr0g]

Agreed. She is white, speaks English and comes from a culture practically the same as ours. Of course they don't want her to live here. Meanwhile, millions of third world aliens flood in without any requirement to assimilate to our culture or even to the most basic civilized levels of modernity and hygiene. And if we don't applaud and encourage accelerating this pointless and unnecessary national suicide we get called 'xenophobic' or some other hate word used to stop debate.

[arkgrfx61]

My husband recently lost his father, who happened to live in another state. While we didn't have to go through nearly any of the heartbreak that they are currently undergoing, we had to deal with the bureaucratic process, and it was no picnic.
No sympathy from anyone, no making things easier during that extremely difficult time and no one knows what the hell they are doing.

My thoughts are with Seth and Elisa.

[itmaybetoolate]

It sucks to live in an emerging police state.

[Syco]

i think you meant full on police state

[itmaybetoolate]

I try to be optimistic!