TTSOML #220: My Immigration Attorneys (II)

I just decided to leave the last post as is instead of erasing it. However, this is my post about the immigration attorneys I got in Vancouver, B.C.

I should clarify, while I only had about a half hour to talk to the lawyers, there was a lot of time that elapsed before the hearing. I sat down with them, and then I was back in the holding cell, and then hours passed before I was brought into the hearing room.

When I was first taken out, there was one lawyer, and I can't remember his name, but it will be in Canadian records. He had some papers with him and asked me what my position was. He said my case was before them because the government (immigration) claimed I was illegally trying to become a Canadian citizen. I told him this was not true. I told him I'd told Russ Radi I was making a political asylum claim, and that then circumstances changed and I was told I could work in Canada, provided I go through proper channels, which I was willing to do. I also told him I had not even started working at any position and had been trying to travel to Toronto with my son.

The lawyer recommended I drop the political asylum claim. I told him I didn't know if I was planning to make that claim or not, and that I wasn't there because of asylum but because Radi claimed I was trying to be a citizen illegally. I said I hadn't decided whether to pursue an asylum claim or not. He said he didn't know anyone who won, from the U.S., and that even if I went through the process, I'd be in a detention center for months and then if allowed to be free until the process was decided, I would be out in Canada, away from my son with no way to get him back. He said it was in my best interests to go back to the U.S. He asked why I would try to get asylum anyway and I told him some things. He looked over some papers and said he was going to call in another guy to explain the process to me. I told him I already understood what he was saying. He was pressuring me, and he also said he was going to tell the judge I had "withdrawn" my request for political asylum. I told this lawyer I had not even MADE a political asylum request to them, to the judge yet, and that by stating I HAD and was going to "withdraw" my claim, it would prevent me from making a real political asylum claim down the road.

I had already researched the law, and if you make a political asylum claim once, and withdraw it, you don't get to make the claim again. If you even try to, you have to wait something like 5 years, and I didn't want anything on my record looking like I'd been wishy-washy.

I told him the issue which brought me to the detention center was Radi's claim that I was trying to work illegally in the country. I had not been doing anything illegal.

I knew, these lawyers should have argued I had not even started work, and that I had been with "friends" and my situation had changed, and that I had a right to be there, with my son, for up to 6 months as a visitor. We could have obtained financial support from our new friend to travel to Toronto, for all they knew. I had not violated ANY immigration law. It was all trumped in an effort to separate my son from me. And they knew if my son was sent back, I would follow.

So this first lawyer thought he could just put me into a niche and throw me back, and prejudice my Canadian record. Then he claimed he was having trouble getting me to "understand" and that he was calling in his partner.

His "partner" was just another person trying to force me to agree, AND he was attempting to conceal the fact that his "role" was as a mental health support. His job was to "assist" the mentally ILL in trying to "understand" the process, when they were deemed incapable of speaking on their own behalf and making their own decisions. I didn't realize this initially...because he passed himself off as a "supervisor". Once we were in the hearing, the shit HIT the fan.