In keeping with the life to which she has dedicated herself. Mother Azucena asks nothing for herself save the chance to continue to help those who need and who are now receiving her help. But this is where our immigration laws come in. As an nonimmigrant. Mother Azucena cannot stay here indefinitely. her present visa has already expired. She is not eligible for a nonquota immigrant visa because she is not a "minister of religion" as that term is used in the law. She faces. if such a thing can be thought of. deportation from our country. She is not eligible for a first preference quota immigrant visa because her services have not been determined by the Attorney General to be of the type urgently needed in the United States. And she is not eligible for adjustment of her status to that of permanent resident because an immigrant visa would not be available to her under the oversubscribed Spanish quota to which she is chargeable. In short. America. through its immigration laws. is saying to this mother of the helpless. to this religious who seeks nothing for herself but an opportunity to serve our people: "You have overstayed your welcome in our country and must now leave." And so. Mother Azucena. through her Mother Superior. has had to turn to the Congress of the United States to let her remain in this country. It makes little sense to require a special act of Congress to keep in this country a humble Mother of the Helpless. who fled here. not out of strict personal choice. but as a victim of a terrifying religious persecution by cheap tyrants for whom charity is sin and humanity antisocial. I have the utmost faith that the Congress of the United States will not relegate Mother Azucena to the fate which our immigration statute dictates for her. But cases such as this expose the inequities of that statute. Congress will.
Keywords matched
immigrant immigration visa deportation