Soapbox

I Know I Sleep Better at Night Knowing our Homeland is Secure

I found this man’s web site and plea for attention through Air American Radio. thought it was a telling example of the many ways Geroge Bush and John Ashcroft have made us all safer since 9/11.

On June 30, 2004 Penny McClurg responded to a letter she had received in the mail from the Department of Homeland Security. The letter requested her to report to Tampa International Airport Airside F. Penny made the necessary arrangements to have her children cared for, while she attended this appointment.

A Department of Homeland Security officer finally arrived and escorted her through to the secured airside F terminal and asked her to be seated in an office area. She was greeted by a Department of Homeland Security officer by the name of Mr. Guthier and told to remain seated. Approximately two hours went by before Mr. Guthier motioned her into his office. Inside his office he questioned her about a 1997 felony conviction that she had on her record. She acknowledge the felony conviction and informed him that she he had completed her sentence and probation for this incident.

Penny was sent back out to be seated again and waited another three hours. She had now been in the office approximately five hours.

Mr. Guthier finally came out of his office and informed her that she should report back the following morning at 9:00am. Penny reported back the following morning as instructed and this time remained in the seated office area. During this time officer Guthier told her that he was still waiting to get a hold of the person he had been trying to reach the previous day.

Approximately three hours went by before Mr. Guthier told Penny that he had some bad news for her and that she was officially being detained. Penny asked what that meant and officer Guthier informed her that she was basically being arrested and that everything would be explained to her when she arrived at her next destination. Penny asked where she was being taken and she was told by Guthier that he did not know and that someone else would tell her.

Penny did not in her wildest imagination realize that this appointment letter was going to result in her being arrested and perhaps never seeing her children again.

Penny arrived in the US, from South Africa, in 1986 when she was fifteen years old. In 1991 she had received her permanent resident status in the US. Penny is now thirty three years old and is a single mother of two American children ages 10 and 11. She also has an American fiancée and was, at this time, six weeks pregnant with his child. Penny has been residing in the US for the past 18 years and in the last three years established a successful business in the Tampa Bay area.

The sudden and abrupt news that she was being incarcerated was devastating to all who know her. There was no time or warning to make any arrangements for her children, home or business. That was it…she was no longer to continue with her life and she had no forewarning to make any preparations for this day.

Penny has now been incarcerated since July 01, 2004. On July 15, 2004 she lost her eight week old unborn child while in detention. She was taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami in handcuffs and shackles where she was seated in the waiting room for two hours. Penny did not get seen until she finally started to hemorrhage. The doctor informed her that she was miscarrying and proceeded to perform a D&C on her without any anesthesia. Several hours after the procedure she was taken back to Turner Guilford Knight County Jail in Miami in shackles and handcuffs, barely able to keep consciousness while walking, due to the blood loss.

Three days before Penny‘s miscarriage, she submitted a written request to see the facility counsellor. She needed to talk to someone about the depression and stress she was undergoing…how it was affecting her ability to eat, sleep and try to stay calm as she knew that it was essential in order for her to have a healthy pregnancy. Her request went unanswered. In fact, to this day, no official has informed her as to what is happening with her or why she is being detained. No information has been provided by any officials regarding this matter.

Penny has since hired attorney Steven Goldstein and Grant Kaplan to handle her case. She learned, only through the attorneys, that she is being charged with illegal entry into the US.

Penny is being denied entry into the US, resulting from a deferred inspection. This deferred inspection resulted from a cruise Penny took in June of 2003, where she left and reentered the United States within a 4-day period. While in this “deferred inspection” status, Penelope’s resident alien card was supposed to be taken and substituted with a temporary card. This did not occur. Instead she was allowed to exit and re-enter the United States twice more in September of 2003 and again in May of 2004.

Penny has been a US permanent resident since 1991 and at no time to her knowledge was this status ever revoked. Her attorney has informed her that these situations are never good and that probably the fastest way out of jail is to ask for expedited deportation, otherwise she could remain in jail indefinitely while trying to fight the case against her.

This is a true story of how in one day with no warning two American children, Joshua and Sandra McClurg, lost their single mother to the Department of Homeland Security on July 01, 2004.

There has been no follow up by this department or for that matter any US department to make sure that these two American children where to be taken care of. Fortunately for Penny she has her father and fiancée to step in to help with her children, but again no departmental agency has checked to make sure of that. One could only imagine what could have happened if there had been no one to take care of these children.

Penny is currently being held at Turner Guilford Knight County Jail, in a designated woman’s immigration unit. There she has learned of about many other women, who also have American children and that have been separated from them abruptly in this way.

It seems unfair and not traditional with American standards that these children have no voice or rights as American Citizens and that their futures are placed in jeopardy with no one to follow up and make sure that they are surviving as they should be with the appropriate care.

My name is Eric Schmidt, fiancé of Penny McClurg. As a concerned American citizen and ten year Navy veteran, I would like to come forward and let the country know what awful atrocities are going on behind the scenes in our great country, with respect to immigrants.

If I could ask anything of my country in exchange for my ten years of service, it would be to return myfiancée back to her family where she rightfully belongs.