Deport Luis Posada Carriles and not Sascha Herrera

By Mary MacElveen

December 5, 2006

So the United States wants to prove that it is serious when it comes to immigration matters, well one only has to read of their duplicitous nature when they will seek to deport the Colombian born wife of a Georgia state senator.

In reading an AP report “Sascha Herrera, 28, arrived at the Martin Luther King Federal Building shortly before 8 a.m. to face authorities in the Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office.” She stated upon arriving, "I'm very nervous right now," Herrera said. "I think I'm doing the right thing. I hope my name and my husband's name is clean." If I were her, I too would be nervous since the only thing I can see is that she wanted the freedom that so many of us cherish and not knowing what her fate will be.

To prove they are tough on immigration issues and again reported by the AP, “Customs Enforcement officers arrived at her home Nov. 28 with an order to remove her from the U.S. She was not home at the time.”

From reading this AP report what set this into motion is that someone acting not on her behalf filed immigration papers without her knowledge and in so doing, she did not appear before the court.  

Her attorney Charles Kuck has said of client’s case that she originally put into motion asylum papers, but she later got as reported “bad vibes” and decided not to go through with the visa.  The man acting alone listed his address as being hers.  So, if it proves that he did in fact list her address using his own, how could she avail herself to the courts?  Victor Cerda, former general counsel for Immigration and Customs Enforcement said, “deportation order in the asylum case would trump any pending green card application and trigger mandatory detention” and then went onto add, “Her decision to hide could hurt her request for a judge's stay on deportation”

You must be asking yourself why I feel that this lone act shows the duplicity of our immigration policies and I will tell you.  Presently we are harboring a known terrorist whose name is Luis Posada Carriles who is a CIA trained killer.  Back in October of 1976 he blew out of the sky all 73 innocent victims on Cubana Flight 455.  Presently he sits in a Houston jail protected by the U.S. government at tax payer’s expense when Venezuela wants him back to face justice.  We are not honoring their extradition because of our belief that they will torture him.  If one reads the Venezuelan Constitution, it strictly prohibits torture and punishes those who would do so.

I have written of Carriles in the past and will continue to do so.  In the past, I wrote, “When Posada Carriles escaped from Venezuela in 1985, he fled to El Salvador and worked under the alias Ramon Medina on the illegal contra resupply program run by Lt. Col. Oliver North in the Reagan National Security Council.  So, even back during the Reagan administration we had a terrorist working for us.”

Peter Kornbluh, at the Archive's Cuba Documentation Project, said there is "no doubt that Posada has been one of the world's most unremitting purveyors of terrorist violence" It truly boggles the mind that we can go after a woman who may face deportation to Columbia, and in the same breath look to protect terrorists like Carriles from facing justice.

As reported by the AP, Sascha Herrera “was accepted as a student at Kennesaw State University, which got a student visa for her.”  Something is wrong with this picture if we choose to set our sights on a student and look to protect a terrorist. 

In reading an updated article of her plight “Government lawyer Terry Bird said the judge lifted the order and agreed to reopen her case. He said she would likely be freed Tuesday pending a hearing on a petition filed by Herrera's husband, state Sen. Curt Thompson, to establish permanent residency for her. The hearing has yet to be scheduled.” 

The AP also reported that, if all goes well a “review of Herrera's residency status could put her on track for a chance to become a U.S. citizen.”  But, it still leaves a bad taste in anyone’s mouth that the weight of the U.S government can come down so hard on a woman trying to make a better life here in the United States as they look to protect a known terrorist in Carriles.

To those that will read this column, if you are for strong and iron-fisted tactics when it comes to immigration and abhor terrorism, then your only option is to contact your elected officials in Washington, D.C. demanding that Luis Posada Carriles be extradited back to Venezuela to face justice.  After all, he did kill 73 innocent victims.  He blew them out of the sky without mercy and should receive none coming from this government.