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NRI's plight evokes concern in US
Terwinder Singh has been detained on charges of breaking US immigration laws.
The detention of Indian American woman Terwinder Singh on charges of breaking US immigration laws has led several religious groups in Chicago to voice concern and urge for broader immigration laws.
Wisdom, a coalition of about 90 south eastern Wisconsin religious congregations, and its Milwaukee and Waukesha affiliates plans to urge Congressman James Sensenbrenner to intervene on Terwinder's behalf and hold congressional hearings on broader immigration law reform issues.
Sensenbrenner's press secretary Raj Bharwani said in a telephone interview that the Congressman "never got involved, because he was never contacted by any member of the (Singh) family or a family representative."
"Concern for this woman and her family is pretty widespread," according to the Reverand Joy McDonald-Coltvelt of Galilee Lutheran Church in Pewaukee, a member of Wisdom's Waukesha affiliate, Stewards of Prophetic Hopeful Intentional Action (SOPHIA).
"My pastor colleagues have been calling me all day," she said. "Their congregations are concerned about this woman. Her treatment seems harsh and unfair to them."
"I have two children exactly the same age and I can't even imagine what her children are going through. We hope, by putting a face on the issue, the real fear, pain and suffering that is being caused to hundreds of families in similar situations comes to light," she said.
Joyce Ellwanger, a member of Wisdom's Milwaukee affiliate, Milwaukee Inner-City Congregations Allied for Hope (MICAH), said Wisdom seeks a "total revision of the 1996 immigration law."
She said the parts of the law that particularly need changing are those affecting people such as Terwinder Singh who have been here a long time.
The law needs to provide a way to "legalise their stay" and to offer naturalization as US citizens "if desired".
"Families like the Singhs should not be forced to make a 'Sophie's choice'," she said, "between forcing children to 'return' to a country they don't know and separating them from one or both of their parents."
Joyce Ellwanger hopes for a solution in the SOLVE (Safe, Orderly, Legal Visas and Enforcement Act of 2004) bill, co-sponsored in the US Senate by senators Russ Feingold and Edward Kennedy, and in the House of Representatives by Illinois Representative Luis Gutierrez and 47 of his colleagues.
She's not as hopeful about President George W Bush's proposal for a "guest worker" programme.
"It doesn't meet any criteria for fairness," she said. "It amounts to exploitation of the labour of immigrants who do the work that others won't or can't do."
