June 26, 2004

Bureaucracy

An Army Reserve Captain from Minnesota, currently stationed in Afghanistan, is understandably a little upset.

Eric Ekstrom's wife Olena gave birth to a baby last July. Olena is Ukranian, and her mother still lives in The Ukraine. With her husband gone, Olena could use a little extra help around the house, and they have been trying to get a U.S. Visa so that her mother could visit.

Olena Ekstrom's mother, Lidiya Bukhtoyarova, came from Chernivtsi, Ukraine, to visit just before the birth. The family had planned for Bukhtoyarova to stay with her pregnant daughter while he served two weeks of Army training.

She obtained a six-month visa but expected to stay a much shorter period. When Ekstrom was called up for two additional weeks of training, Bukhtoyarova decided to stay longer, flying home two days before her visa expired.

Since early this year, shortly after Ekstrom received a warning that he was due to be deployed for a year, he and Olena Ekstrom, 27, have desperately been trying to obtain another visa for Bukhtoyarova.

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A spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy in Kiev would not comment on Bukhtoyarova's case, citing a government policy that prohibits discussion of individual visa cases. However, the most common reason for rejecting visas occurs when applicants can't definitively prove they intend to return home. About 60 percent of the 35,000 Ukrainians who apply for visas annually receive them, the spokeswoman said.

In the same newspaper today (The Star Tribune of Minneapolis) there is The Tale of The Open Door for a suspected terrorist.

PowerLine condenses and points out how The Revolving Door spun for this guy.

As abbreviated as it is, this account raises some obvious questions. The Strib reports that "The U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained [Elzahabi] and began deportation proceedings," apparently in 1988. Elzahabi then left the country, engaged in various terrorist activities for seven years, and "returned to the United States for medical care" after getting shot in 1995, apparently without anyone noticing that he was supposed to have been deported. He then left the country again, and "reentered the United States in mid-August 2001" after participating in terrorist activities in Lebanon and Chechnya, again, apparently, without encountering any immigration problems.

Great border control.

This is a sad tale. Certainly Olena Eckstrom could use the help. Not to mention, these people are following the rules and laws that are in place to bring her mother, Bukhtoyarova, here. How many illegal aliens are here today, who overstayed their visas or crossed over illegally? Yet, in an instance where people are following the rules, they are punished (i.e., prevented from coming here), but the damn terrorists are welcomed in.