February 18, 2000
COMMENTARY
On February 16th as a Valentines Day gesture, students from Bell Multicultural High School in Washington, D.C. delivered a single flower and a story entitled "The Flower Boy" to each and every congressional representative in a show of solidarity with young Americans that live in sorrow due to the effects of an inhumane law known as the "Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA)."
In 1996, Congress passed a bill signed by President Clinton that has caused extreme hardship to children born to US legal permanent resident parents. The parents at one point in their life made a mistake and now are facing deportation and separation from their family. Deportation is a life sentence. Congressman Howard Berman from California in a Congressional hearing states, "IIRIRA is the most pernicious law he has ever seen since he has started serving as a congressman."
This law ties the hands of the judicial system. This law is being applied retroactively. This law denies the application for relief of deportation. This law subjects many to mandatory detention for life. This law expands the definition of aggravated felony to include even nonviolent, misdemeanors as aggravated felonies.
Many organizations across the country are working to dismantle this law. Families have lobbied in Washington in an attempt to create awareness of the harm this law is doing to their families. The story of the Flower Boy is a projection of the many voices of children we hear too frequently in our office of American Friends Service Committee. May this story raise the conscious of members of Congress and let it be written in our history books that Congress can remedy the gross injustices that this 1996 law created.
(Provided by the "American Friends Service Committee" San Diego, 619-233-4114.)
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