Immigration Officials Try to Deport Dead Man

By AlterNet Staff, AlterNet. Posted March 17, 2009.

Editor's note: We hear a lot from opponents of immigration reform that the system works just fine. Not a thing in the world wrong with it. Waits of up to 20 years for a government agency to process paperwork are normal, locking up 5 year-olds, depriving detainees of needed healthcare, parading illegal immigrants through towns like animals -- none of those things are in any way indications that the system doesn't work.

The Los Angeles Times reports:

Nasin Mauricio Rivera died in San Bernardino County in August and his body was shipped to his native El Salvador for burial.

Seven months later, the federal government is still proceeding with the deportation case against him. A hearing is scheduled for this summer.

Attorneys for Rivera, an illegal immigrant, said his case is a waste of resources and should be closed.

"To us, it's a matter of principle -- a dead person should not be deported," said immigration attorney Edgardo Quintanilla. At a November hearing in Los Angeles Immigration Court, attorney Alberto Lopez presented a photocopy of Rivera's death certificate. Lopez had obtained the copy from Blanca Ramirez, who was divorced from Rivera but still lived with him in Echo Park.

Lopez said the attorney from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement told him the copy wasn't sufficient.

Read the entire story here.

              

See more stories tagged with: immigration

Liked this story? Get top stories in your inbox each week from AlterNet! Sign up now »