After a slip-up at the Mexico/US border in 2009, Philip Hartley-Wall now finds himself in the UK, where he was born but hasn't lived in since he was 9 years old. Hartley-Will immigrated to the United States in 1981, and had lived in LA until 2009, where at the border he told officials he was a US citizen, when he only had a green card, meaning he held "permanent alien residency status." He plead guilty and was charged with making false statements to an official. After spending 7 months in federal prison, he was deported to the UK; he had no family nor connections there except for an acquaintance he made during his time in the immigration removal center. He stayed with his friend's family for six weeks after arriving in Manchester. His wife and 12 year old daughter still live in the US; his wife has had to sell their home after she couldn't keep paying the mortgage on only one salary and his daughter, described as having, "the body of a 12-year-old but the mental abilities of a six-year-old," has been acting up in school due to her father's absence. President Barack Obama is being urged to allow Hartley-Well clemency--or mercy to allow him back in the country.
Should Hartley-Well be allowed back into the country? Would Obama allowing clemency backlash and cause other families experiencing the same event demand clemency as well? Should Hartley-Wall have been deported in the first place or was the punishment truly "disproportionate"?
3 comments:
I think that the deportation of Mr. Hartley-Wall because of a mistake that he made was disproportional. Though not a small and silly mistake, for him to be deported after living in the U.S for 32 years legally is uncalled for. He was sentenced to imprisonment and deportation because of making a false statement to a federal officer; it's not like he lived in the U.S illegally. In an article, he stated that he did his part in living in the U.S, such as paying taxes, creating a business, raising a family, etc. His wife needs financial support to raise their daughter, but without him there, things get difficult.
I think that if Obama does support clemency, many of those who were deported despite legal documents would wish to return too. Most importantly, this would reunify families that have been separated for years.
Like Patricia, I also think the consequences that Hartley-Wall is facing are completely disproportionate. Even without giving him the benefit of the doubt (that he made a "slip-up") I still think that imprisonment and deportation are still excessive repercussions. If I were in Obama's place, I wouldn't hesitate to grant clemency even though this may be seen by many to be an exception. But where would this country be without exceptions anyway?
I agree with Patricia and Quinn. The article says Hartley-Wall "mistakenly told an immigration officer on the way back that he was indeed from the land of the brave," so I feel that unless he explicitly and deliberately affirmed that he was a U.S. citizen while knowing he was not, Hartley-Wall should not be so deeply punished for his mistake. I don't think granting Hartley-Wall clemency would backlash, unless there is more to Hartley-Wall's crime and sentence or a compelling reason for individuals like him to be deported for an offense that seems not very significant in this case.
Something that I found interesting from the article was its mention of how Hartley-Wall had a green card establishing his "permanent alien residency status" after living in the U.S. for 33 years; is there a reason why he isn't a U.S. citizen, or would he have naturally become a U.S. citizen after a period of time had he not received a criminal charge and been deported? (I'm not directing this question to anyone in specific.)
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