Tuesday, October 28, 2014
Canada is often cast as a liberal counterpoint to aggressive U.S. immigration enforcement tactics. But, the U.S. has actually pointed to Canada as the model to implement for U.S. migration policy.
Jose Figueroa, who is courageously defying an immigration warrant to detain him, is a symbol of the arbitrary and exclusionary nature of Canadian immigration and refugee laws.
Jose has been in Canada since 1997 and was approved in principle for permanent residency. Years later, he received a deportation order for his prior membership in a group Canada claims is an organization that engages in acts of "espionage" and "terrorism."
That organization is the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN), which fought against U.S.-sponsored dictatorships in the 1980s and is the current elected government of El Salvador.
