Return to Sender

In 2006, Homeland Security inaugurated an operation called "Return to Sender," which "seeks to catch and deport criminal aliens, increase worksite enforcement, and crack down hard on the criminal infrastructure that perpetuates illegal immigration." In fact, this program targets -- very selectively -- those who are in the United States legally.

As the marvelous Larisa Alexandrovna reports on her site, one "fish" caught in this net is her cousin Bella Maryanovsky, who has legally resided within the United States for three decades; she was born in the Ukraine. (See here and here.) The family came here to escape the Soviet system.

As everyone over the age of 30 knows, America used to welcome such immigrants.

Maryanovsky claims that she is currently being held in a jail cell with an accused murderer. Last week she was in a cell with five other people and only two beds, so she slept on a "urine-laden cement floor."

To make matters more disheartening, Maryanovsky takes medication for heart arrhythmia and high blood pressure. She confided to her family and friends that prison personnel mockingly refused to give her medication, telling her, "When you have a heart attack, then we will help you."

She has since been released, thanks in large part to public pressure, but she is still going to be deported unless she can achieve political refugee status. She certainly came to this country as a political refugee.

Why single out this one former escapee from the Soviet system? After all, some Russian-born residents of this country have turned out to be criminals -- which I am sure cannot be said of Maryanovsky. If she returns to the Ukraine, she will find herself living under the rule of Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, who is a close ally of Soviet President Vladimir Putin.

Larisa is as staunch a critic of Putin as she is of George Bush.

In the past, governments have been known to silence critics by placing a family member in danger.