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Monday, June 25, 2007

Former CA city councilwoman faces deportation

The AP reports that Zoila Meyer, a former California city councilwoman may face deportation for illegally voting in the 2004 election because she did not become a citizen after moving to the country from Cuba as a one-year-old.

Meyer is a legal resident and the mother of four citizens; she has said she did not realize voting was a "deportable offense."

7 comments:

ultima said...

Strange that a councilwoman should be so ignorant of the law. It is as though she thinks fraudulent voting is an innocuous offense. Let her take her children back to Cuba with her.

Anonymous said...

no kidding! however, is the offense really a good enough reason to deport her? just don't allow her to vote again! she seems like an otherwise good addition to her community

Anonymous said...

All she did was to accept an invitation from the Government to vote. It's not her fault that somebody registered her as a voter, inviting her to vote, and thus giving her the right to vote.

She wouldn't have voted without having first being registered as a voter, and then being accepted at the time of voting as a registered voter. Who comes first, the egg or the chicken? The act of voting or the registration to vote? Under my pov, it would be unfair to register her as a voter and then punish her for voting (?).

Anonymous said...

To Gordon:

Her children are FULL RIGHTS American citizens (including the right to have their mom living with them in their own country.)

If she once was a council woman, it was because she was elected by American citizens (not Cubans).

May be you should go to Cuba and stay there for a while to understand how life works outside your bubble country.

Anonymous said...

It's a shame that she lost her job on the city council. It's also a shame that she started the immigration process when she was in high school/college and never finished it. She is responsible for her own actions or lack of and since she decided to go into politics, it's a shame she didn't learn much about that either. When going into politics there are residency and citizenship requirements. Guess she wasn't paying attention to her government class in school........
Her responsibility was to make sure she finished her citizenship requirements, and she failed to do so..... the penalty for that is deportation.
When in doubt, follow the law.

Anonymous said...

Put her on the next boat to Havanna! ZERO tolerance for illegal aliens!

Anonymous said...

Are you guys paying attention? She was never illegal. She was brought here when she was one year old, and she became a legal resident. Her parents told her she was a citizen, and she voted believing this to be the case. Then the state came and told her otherwise. The parents seem to have misunderstood something.

Again, when she voted and ran for office, she thought she was a US citizen. Her comments about not knowing it was a "deportable offense" are seriously taken out of context in this post. She said that as an explanation as to why she pleaded guilty to the "fraudulent voting" charges. She thought a misdemeanor was better than a felony, and she didn't realize that being a non-citizen, she could get deported for it. Otherwise she wouldn't have pleaded guilty, because she had voted in good faith. Again, read the article.

Sheesh.