Zoila Meyer has lived in this nation for nearly her entire life thinking she was a United States citizen. Her family moved to the Unites Stated from Cuba when she was one year old, and all her siblings are citizens as are her parents. Nevertheless, she is now in danger of being deported.
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In 2004, Ms. Meyer was elected to the Adelanto city counsel. After Meyer was elected to the council in Adelanto in 2004, someone told officials that she was born in Cuba, prompting an investigation. Somehow either her parents or the government screwed up in processing her citizenship paperwork, and she never became a U.S. citizen despite the fact that all of her siblings and her parents are citizens. So, on June 18, 2007, the INS had her arrested for "illegally voting" in the 2004 election. Now this 40 year old woman who has lived here for 39 of those years faces the possibility of being deported and sent out of her own country away from her own parents, siblings, husband, and children when she faces a judge on July 18, 2007.
What has already happened to this woman is a disgrace; it's a declaration of war on every immigrant, legal or illegal. As an immigrant nation, we need to stand up and support this woman. I would love to see a defense fund organized so that this woman can avoid being deported. This is a travesty that must be stopped. In her reaction to the arrest and the prospect of being deported, Ms. Meyer stated "[y]ou think you're free; you're really not." Unfortunately those words are becoming all too true as our executive branch continues its assault on each and every one of our civil liberties.