January 2nd 2024.
Rebekah Hubley is fighting the United States Citizen and Immigration Services to keep her adopted son, Jonas, from being deported from Indiana to Haiti. Jonas, a 12-year-old boy with cerebral palsy, has been legally adopted by Hubley since he was 4 years old. He is blind, autistic, and has a seizure disorder.
Issues with his adoption arose due to a massive 7.0 earthquake that caused his adoption papers to get lost. Despite this, Hubley was able to obtain Jonas' citizenship. Unfortunately, on Dec 27, Hubley received a letter from the USCIS that the Petition for Alien Relative form had been denied. The letter also stated that Jonas had until Jan. 2 to leave the U.S. voluntarily before being called to an immigration hearing to discuss deportation.
When asked about the issue, Hubley said, “How low can we get as a government agency? This has to be rock bottom for immigration, that you could threaten to deport a profoundly disabled child who has been legally adopted for 13 years by two law-abiding U.S. citizens. It’s unconscionable. Is that who we are as a nation? Asking him to [voluntarily leave] is the most ludicrous thing I’ve ever heard of in my life. How can you deport someone to a country that you have a level four travel warning on?”
The USCIS request included a requirement for Hubley to show proof of adoption documents and to show that she’s had physical custody of her son for 2 years. The USCIS denied Jonas' citizenship because Hubley didn’t provide adequate physical evidence after only submitting school records. However, Hubley claims she included documents from as early as 2009 in the submitted documents and that the USCIS agent didn't review them thoroughly.
In response to the USCIS ruling, Hubley posted an open letter to President Joe Biden on Facebook, pleading for him to “intervene on his behalf to help Jonas [become] a lawful citizen of this great nation.” The fight for Jonas to remain in the US continues, and the current situation has been roundly criticized by many.
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