Where One Fight Ends, Another Begins

Mai was deported.

Yes, US Immigration threw aside family and logic for its arcane and faceless laws that cannot be contested in a court of law no matter what the circumstances may be.

My congressional contact, for all the hard work he did do, failed to communicate to me what was happening or even give me the chance to try to petition all of our supporters to call for a pardon. Instead the rug was pulled out from under us and I received a distraught call from my wife on the other side of the border before I knew anything had happened.

When Mai refused to be deported declaring that she had not signed for her voluntary departure, an ICE official informed her that she had indeed already signed it. He continued to explain that she had been lied to several months ago when an officer told her she was signing papers related to her asylum, when in reality she was signing her deportation.

Now she has been given a 20 year ban from returning to the U.S. and our family will suffer much separation and turmoil trying to live on two sides of a dangerous border. I will begin investigating if we can overcome this ban somehow and trying to get my wife setup in a safe place in Mexico.

I can't thank all of you enough for the support you've given us and I will keep you all informed of what our next move will be. Hopefully I can find some type of relief to help re-unite my family. If you have any political, legal or immigration support group contacts, please pass them along to me at:

bringmaihome [at] gmail [dot] com

I'll leave you with one bright note: my wife, after being detained and treated like a criminal, after being lied to by ICE officers, and after being separated from her family for such a long time only had this to say about the United States:

"I'm very thankful for everything the United States has given me, and I hope to get back as soon as possible"

Its hard even for me to appreciate my country that much, and I think the U.S. would be blessed with more citizens like my wife who loves the country so much.

Thank you all so much.

Our war rages on

To all those following our cause, I announce with a heavy heart that my dear wife and mother of my children Mai was denied her asylum case this morning. An overflowing courtroom, a spirited and articulated argument from our lawyer, and the tears of family and friends was not enough to convince the judge to give her case a chance.

I am blessed to have so many people who support our cause. To the 20+ people who came today, thank you. Especially considering our case was delayed over an hour and several people were not allowed to enter because we filled all the seats. To all of you, I am eternally grateful.

While this practically ends her chance at attaining asylum, this is just one lost battle, the war wages on and I will most likely need all of our supporters around the country and the globe to spread the word of our plight, as we may need to petition for high level government officials to intervene and provide us with a pardon, private bill, or other type of relief.

So, heal your wounds and spread words of our fight, we will never give up. This is about more than my wife, our children, or myself, rather it is about keeping families together.

Please spread the word.

http://www.facebook.com/bringmaihome

http://twitter.com/bringmaihome

http://bringmaihome.blogspot.com/

An update, and a Court Hearing

Hello,

For everyone who has been following my wife's case, I wanted to give an update.

My wife remains in an immigration detention center after 3 1/2 months as we still try to fight her deportation. After suffering through several slow and flawed immigration proceedings where Mai was not given adequate access to her attorney, we are appealing her asylum plea in court where the facts will presented before an immigration judge.

Her court date info is as follows:

Mai's Asylum Appeal

Friday January 14th 2011

8:00 AM - 9:00 AM

U.S. Immigration Court San Diego

401 West A Street Suite 800

San Diego, CA

Map: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=401+West+A+Street+Suite+800+San+Diego,+CA&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=401+W+a+St,+San+Diego,+California+92101&gl=us&t=h&z=16

My lawyer said that having people attend the court is beneficial to her case and shows that my wife has support from her family, friends as well as the community. If you are in the San Diego area and can spare some time that Friday morning, your presence and support would be greatly appreciated.

The facebook event can be found here:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=178565068833560

Apart from the legal process, I have been working with my local congressman's office to stay in contact with immigration to make sure they don't rush any decisions and see if there's any type of relief they can offer.

In any case, I'd like to re-iterate my thanks for your continued support, thanks to many generous people we met our campaign goal to pay for our initial legal expenses. If you wish to contribute, simply spread the word to friends or others who may share our concern:

Bring Mai Home on Facebook

Bring Mai Home on Twitter

You can still donate to help us pay for things like Mai's prepaid phone calls home so she can talk to us and to cover our ongoing legal fees.

Thank you so much from me and my family,

T.J. Barbour of Bring Mai Home