Immigrant loses fight to stay here
04/01/04
Robert L. Smith and Damian Guevara
Plain Dealer Reporters
A Lakewood woman's fight to remain in the United States with her three children ended Wednesday when immigration officials put her on a flight to her native Venezuela
Amina Silmi must start a new life without her children ages 5, 6 and 12. The Muslim woman's case aroused widespread sympathy and alarm. She had lived in the United States for 14 years.
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Born in Venezuela to Palestinian parents, Silmi came to America in 1990 on a visitor's visa. She married twice and gave birth to three children without attaining legal residency status. In 2001, an immigration judge ordered her to be deported.
Silmi fought that order for three years but finally surrendered to federal authorities in Cleveland on Feb. 4 and pleaded for another chance. Supporters rallied to her side and said it was cruel to force a mother to leave behind her children, all of whom are American citizens.
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