Friday, May 8, 2009

Limbo- the in-between...can't go here nor there



Limbo...truly the word for this woman: Xiu Ping Jiang. She's in limbo. Married under age and then forcibly sterilized in China for having a second child, she desparately escaped to America for political asylum. Under the stress of surviving in the US, avoiding deportation, and failing to reunite with her two sons, she had developed a mental illness that has only worsened as she became detained. A judge has sentenced her to be deported. Her sisters are working to help her though.


"Ms. Jiang goes without eating for days, or vomits after meals for fear of poison; she mumbles to herself and tears up letters from her family, the petition says. While her risk of dying in detention seems to grow each day, her sisters say, they also fear that she will die if she were deported to China, since nobody there is able to take care of her."
If she stays, she dies. If she goes, she dies. It's as if there is so much beauracracy that there is nothing to be done for someone in her situation. What happens if a detainee has a mental illness? You stay in limbo forever?


It's hard to be revoked of your freedom to give birth. It's hard to be an immigrant and harder to be a refugee. It's hard to go to a completely new country where you don't even speak the language to start over. It's hard to be separated from your children and everyone you've known your whole life.

What is the immigration policy on this? If you're an undocumented immigrant, does there have

to be a specific reason to deport like a crime or can it just happen anytime?

Image Source: Patrick Andrade, The New York Times, "Mentally Ill and in Immigration Limbo"

No comments:

Post a Comment