Saturday, January 7, 2012

BloggeRhythms 1/7/2012

I don't know if you'll agree with my opinion or not, but I've been laughing since yesterday when I saw this blurb go by in the news.

Apparently, this 16 year old girl named, Jakadrien Turner, ran away from her home in Houston a year ago where she had lived with her parents. They hadn't seen her since. According to Houston police, she was arrested on April 2, 2011, for misdemeanor theft in that city and claimed to be Tika Lanay Cortez, a Colombian woman born in 1990. They also said, it was unclear if she had been living under that name. After running the name through a database, to determine if she was wanted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the results were negative so they turned over to the Harris County jail and she was  booked on the theft charge.

A sheriff's office employee recommended that an immigration detainer be put on her, and upon her release from jail she was turned over to ICE where U.S. immigration officials insist they followed procedure and found nothing to indicate that the girl wasn't a Colombian woman living illegally in the country. An ICE official said she claimed to be Cortez throughout the criminal proceedings in Houston and the ensuing deportation process, in which an immigration judge ultimately ordered her back to Colombia.

An ICE official said its standard practice before any deportation to coordinate with the other country in order to establish that person is from there, which they did. The Colombians then followed procedure, ultimately not only helping get her there but putting her in a program called, "Welcome Home" after she arrived. According to the agency, she was given shelter, psychological assistance and a job at a call center.

Sometime later, the girl was located by the Dallas Police Department through her Internet use, with help from Colombian and U.S. officials, after prodding by her grandmother, Lorene Taylor, and then returned here.

And now, folks on all sides are jumping up and down, pointing fingers at each other for allowing this fiasco to happen because the girl's so young. And, as usual, nobody wants to accept the blame which means with the family on one side, the cops on another and the immigration people in the middle, law suits will file, the press will blow the whole thing out of proportion and the situation is likely to escalate.

But it sees to me that nobody wants to sit back and consider the facts which are quite clear. A wayward girl stole or bought a passport belonging to someone else, then committed a crime and got caught. Then, for whatever reason she never disclosed the truth to authorities when questioned, and as a result got deported. Which to me is the same thing as a lame-brained thief stealing a suitcase from some stranger, not knowing the guy was a terrorist. However, the case actually contained a bomb and when the thief later opened the case, he blew himself to bits.

So, my question for today is: Why are any of these folks upset about what this apparently dim bulb did to herself every step of the way?

That's it for today folks.

Adios

No comments:

Post a Comment