Undoubtedly some of Veritaspac’s faithful readers are fully aware of a Justice of the Peace’s (Oh,wait! No. That wasn’t a JoP; that was an Obama federal judge…same thing in many ways, I guess) recent decision blocking the deportation of a convicted felon/illegal immigrant. The reason? He was denied his “Constitutional right” to say “goodbye” to his family!
Although I had heard of this, I didn’t have the details which Mark Stein always seems to so thoroughly acquire when he’s researching a story.
In a January 31 piece, he reveals them related to this “breaking news”, in his usual humorous/serious style.
We urge you to read the whole piece; Steyn is a great observer of the American scene and a great and entertaining writer. DLH
An excerpt:
The Constitutional Right to a Long Goodbye
“The first rinky-dink district court judge all those criteria run up against will immediately expand any narrowly drawn amnesty to cover not “1.8 million” but 1.8 gazillion and all their great-aunts and second cousins thrice removed.
“For example, a judge called Katherine B Forrest has just discovered that the Founding Fathers cannily provided illegal immigrants with a constitutional right to say goodbye:
Illegal immigrants snared by deportation officers have “the freedom to say goodbye” to their families, a federal judge in New York ruled Monday, ordering the government to release a prominent activist to his family…
“In sum, the court finds that when this country allowed petitioner to become a part of our community fabric, allowed him to build a life with and among us and to enjoy the liberties and freedom that come with that, it committed itself to allowance of an orderly departure when the time came,” she wrote. “By denying petitioner these rights, the government has acted wrongly.”
“The “prominent activist” in question – Ravi Ragbir – is a convicted mortagage fraudster who lost his residency claims after he was sent to jail in the year 2000. That’s eighteen years ago. Upon his release from prison, he was turned over to ICE for deportation. ICE kept him in custody for a couple of years, and then in 2008 released him under “supervision”, meaning he’s required to check in every six months to see if that deportation’s come through yet. 2008 is ten years ago. Which one would have thought would be long enough for a thousand choruses of “So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, adieu, adieu, adieu, to yieu and yieu and yieu…” But apparently there are a few yieus he hasn’t had time to adieu …what with him being “a part of our community fabric” and all.
Lord Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown on October 19th 1781, and was back in England by January. But that was before the constitutional right to a long goodbye, when the permitting process (as President Trump noted) took a lot less time.
So Judge Forrest sprang Ravi Ragbir from the big house on Monday. Do you know where he was on Tuesday?
“Why, that’s right, boys and girls: attending the State of the Union! As an honored guest of two members of the House of Representatives – Nydia Velazquez and Yvette Clarke. Did he have time to exercise his constitutional right to say goodbye to all 435 congressmen and 100 senators? That’s very unlikely. Just to make sure, he should attend the next twenty SOTUs, and he undoubtedly will.
This is what Trump is up against – in the entire Democrat Party, half the Republican Party, the untold legions of the bureaucracy, the media and seventy per cent of the judiciary.
