{"id":16296,"date":"2018-01-23T16:31:01","date_gmt":"2018-01-23T21:31:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/live-immigrationreform.pantheonsite.io\/?p=16296"},"modified":"2018-12-28T11:03:30","modified_gmt":"2018-12-28T16:03:30","slug":"internist-immigration-problems-isnt-innocent-victim-ice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2018\/01\/23\/internist-immigration-problems-isnt-innocent-victim-ice\/","title":{"rendered":"Internist with Immigration Problems Isn\u2019t Innocent Victim of ICE"},"content":{"rendered":"
CNN.com<\/em><\/a> recently ran a piece about Lukasz R. Niec, a Polish citizen in removal proceedings. According to friends and relatives, Lukasz is a great guy. A colleague quoted by CNN <\/em>says, “He’s exactly the kind of person that our immigration policy should be encouraging to prosper here.”<\/p>\n On the surface that may appear to be true. Lukasz\u2019s parents fled Poland and brought him to the United States in 1979. He was five years old. The family obtained lawful permanent residence. Lukasz grew up to be Dr. Niec. He lives in Michigan and practices internal medicine at a local clinic.<\/p>\n Now U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has placed Dr. Niec in removal proceedings. CNN.com <\/em>claims ICE \u201ctargeted\u201d him<\/a> for deportation because Donald Trump has \u201ctaken a sweeping approach to the definition of criminal\u201d as it applies in the immigration context.<\/p>\n Of course, CNN<\/em> is dead wrong. President Trump has asked ICE to enforce our immigration laws as drafted by Congress. It was the Obama administration that attempted to unilaterally redefine who is considered a criminal alien \u2013 refusing to remove all but the most hardened foreign rapists and murderers.<\/p>\n So why is Niec being placed in removal proceedings? Well, it turns out that Dr. Niec may not be such a nice guy after all. The good doctor has multiple criminal convictions, including:<\/p>\n Pursuant to Section 237(a)(2)(A)(ii)<\/a> of the Immigration and Nationality Act, anyone who has been convicted of two crimes involving moral turpitude<\/a> after admission as a lawful permanent resident is subject to deportation. So the question CNN.com<\/em>, and all the other critics of the Trump administration\u2019s immigration policies, should<\/em> be asking is, \u201cWhy wasn\u2019t Lukasz Niec placed in deportation proceedings right after his first criminal convictions?\u201d<\/p>\n He clearly benefitted from lax immigration enforcement, that\u2019s why he\u2019s been in the U.S. long enough to earn a medical degree. But should the fact that Lukasz became a doctor earn him a pass on deportation? That\u2019s up to an immigration court. Our system is so reasonable that, prior to being deported, he\u2019s entitled to a full hearing<\/a>. At the conclusion of that proceeding, its entirely possible that an Immigration Judge may find him eligible for relief from removal and give him another chance to straighten up and fly right.<\/p>\n But one thing is certain, the decision to place him in removal proceedings isn\u2019t an example of Dr. Niec being \u201cpunished\u201d or \u201ctargeted\u201d because he\u2019s an immigrant, as CNN.com <\/em>claims. Rather it\u2019s a shining example of the Trump administration\u2019s firm commitment to even-handed immigration enforcement. Despite constant charges by the mainstream media<\/a> that President Trump is a \u201cwhite nationalist<\/a>\u201d (whatever that means), it appears that European immigration violators with college degrees are just as amenable to prosecution as Mexican high school dropouts. \n