Pubdate: Thu, 12 Oct 2000
Source: Boston Phoenix (MA)
Copyright: 2000 The Phoenix Media/Communications Group.
Contact:  126 Brookline Ave., Boston, MA 02215
Fax: (617) 536-1463
Feedback: http://www.bostonphoenix.com/standard/feedback.html
Website: http://www.phx.com/
Author: Kristen Lombardi,  Part 1 of a 3 part series

CATCH-22

Illegal Colombian Immigrants Face Deportation To A War-torn Country. But 
They Can't Get Amnesty Because Colombia Is A US Ally In The War On Drugs.

The fear set in a decade ago. Lucas Cardona, then a community advocate in 
the Antioquia region of Colombia, awoke one day to find a note tucked under 
his front door. On it were scrawled two simple words that sent a chill up 
his spine: Beware, revolucionario. Cardona (not his real name) had been 
branded a traitor, accused of sympathizing with the wrong side in the 
complicated civil war that has raged in his country for nearly half a century.

Months after receiving the message, Cardona and his friend Luis headed to a 
popular night spot. As they waited in the packed lobby, Cardona noticed two 
men slowly cruising by on a motorcycle. Soon after, the festive ambiance of 
the evening was snuffed out by gunfire. Cardona felt the pain; he saw the 
blood. A bullet had ripped through his right thigh, and then pierced his 
left leg.

The attempt on his life left Cardona terrified that his attackers would 
return to finish the job. So he paid $2000 for a fake visa to work in the 
United States. He arrived in Boston 15 days later.

In the seven years since his desperate flight, Cardona, a 36-year-old 
illegal immigrant living in Chelsea, has fashioned a rather normal life for 
himself: he works as an artist in and around Boston; he met and settled 
down with his wife in this area (she is a Colombian immigrant with 
temporary protected status); they have a three-year-old son, Mitchell. To 
this day, however, Cardona is haunted by fear -- not of being killed, but 
of being sent back to a place where he will be.

"At first, I come here and think I'm lucky," he says. His friend Luis, he 
explains, was shot dead at close range just six months after Cardona left 
Colombia. "But," he adds, "I know it's hard to make a life without the 
amnesty. Amnesty is future for me, future without the fear."

The Colombian immigrant community, in general, consists of people like 
Cardona: young, educated men and women who could afford to flee the 
violence. According to the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), 
Colombians rank 11th among the top 15 groups of undocumented immigrants. 
(Mexicans, Salvadorans, and Guatemalans are listed as the top three.) It's 
almost impossible to determine how many live in Massachusetts. Using 
figures from the 1990 US Census, the Office of Refugee and Immigrant Health 
at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health estimates that 27,500 
Colombian immigrants live in the Bay State -- most in East Boston, 
Brighton, Lowell, and Chelsea. But that number probably doesn't include all 
those who are here illegally.

Given the conditions in Colombia -- where 200 people are kidnapped every 
month, 3000 are murdered every year, and more than 1.5 million have been 
displaced from their homes by political violence -- you might expect 
Cardona to receive amnesty. He thought the same thing in 1993, when he 
applied for political asylum. But although his life remained in jeopardy, 
his application was denied. "It's very hard for Colombians to be defined as 
political refugees in the United States," he says.

That's because the US government has aligned itself with the Colombian 
government in its fight against Marxist guerrillas and drug traffickers. 
Colombia, in other words, is a democratic ally. For the US to regard 
Colombian immigrants as political refugees, it would have to acknowledge 
that their homeland's government is a repressive regime -- an inconvenient 
detail that gets in the way of America's war on drugs.

A bill filed in August 1999 by US Representative Lincoln Diaz-Balart 
(R-Florida) would offer relief to Cardona and the 60,000 others like him 
now living in the US. The Andean Adjustment Act of 1999 -- HR 2741 --would 
protect the tens of thousands of Colombians (and at least 20,000 Peruvians) 
who arrived in this country before December 1995 by granting them 
permanent-resident status. As Martha Soto of the Cambridge-based advocacy 
group Colombia Vive explains, "The amnesty bill is a first step toward 
forcing politicians to recognize the plight of Colombian immigrants."

The prospect of ending their daily nightmare has sparked unparalleled 
activism among this long-silent and isolated immigrant population. 
Colombians have taken to the streets in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Miami to 
voice support for HR 2741. An October 14 rally for amnesty at the United 
Nations in New York is expected to attract 5000 immigrants, including many 
Colombians. In Massachusetts, they are blanketing Greater Boston in an 
attempt to mobilize fellow immigrants, many of whom fear taking direct 
political action because, in their home countries, speaking out often means 
putting your life at risk.

Despite their lack of political clout, these advocates have managed to gain 
attention -- at least in Massachusetts. Seven of the state's 10 congressmen 
have signed on to HR 2741 as co-sponsors. US Representative Michael Capuano 
(D-Boston), for one, maintains that politics never factored into his 
decision to champion the legislation. After all, he says, "most of these 
immigrants cannot vote." For Capuano, HR 2741 amounts to what he calls 
"basic fairness." There is no doubt that Colombians have left their 
homeland because of persecution, violence, and strife -- the very 
conditions bringing countless political refugees to the US. "Immigration 
law must be fair," he says. "We should not be treating immigrant groups 
differently."

Ultimately, though, HR 2741 is about much more than basic fairness. After 
struggling to come to this country -- fleeing political violence at home 
that is perpetuated by the US -- Colombians continue to struggle for legal 
protection here. Theirs, then, is a fight for the right to live.
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