4A NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
MONDAY. NOVEMBER 19:2007
IMMIGRATION
Prominent couple faces Thanksgiving deportation threat
BY GENARO C. ARMAS ASSOCIATED PRESS
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — Immigrants Pedro and Salvacion Servano have been model U.S. residents since arriving from the Philippines in the 1980s.
Pedro Servano, 54, is a prominent family doctor in an underserved area of central Pennsylvania. His 51-year-old wife runs a grocery store and bakery.
But a change in their marital status
Dr Pedro Servano, center, and his wife Salvation Servano, center left, hug friends who came out to a vigil held at Cameron Park in Sunbury, Pa. Saturday evening in support of the doctor and his family. The Servano's face deportation to their native Philippines unless their lawyers can salvage their 17-year-long immigration law with last-ditch legal and political appeals.
Burden change during their visa application process more than two decades ago has come back to haunt them, and now, they are facing possible deportation back to the Philippines.
The couple have been told to report
Salvacion Servano said in a telephone interview. "We've been here for 25 years. This is our home."
to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement office the day after Thanksgiving for the start of deportation proceedings, agency spokesman Michael Gilhoody said Friday.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Their attorney, Gregg Cotler, is devising a flurry of last-ditch legal and political appeals to allow them to remain in Selsinggrove, about 100 miles northwest of Philadelphia.
Their difficulties can be traced back to 1978 when, while both were single, their mothers applied for visas for them to come to the United States.
"We love this country, and this is our American dream to be here,"
"We love this country, and it is our American dream to be here. We've been here for 25 years. This is our home."
SALVACION SERVANO Filipino immigrant
The couple married in the Philippines in 1980, and two years later, Salvacion Servano's visa was granted and she left the country. Pedro Servano followed in 1984 after getting his visa, and the couple moved
of lying and misrepresenting then marital status, and the deportation process began, Cotler said.
to Philadelphia.
"I guess it's an honest mistake," Salvacion Servano said. "It's not premeditated."
The Servanos applied for U.S. citizenship while living in San Diego in 1990, but an immigration official noticed during an interview that their visa application listed them as single. They were accused
The Servanos went about their lives as they filed appeals. They moved back to Philadelphia in 1992 before settling in Selinsgrove three years later. Pedro Servano works at Geisinger Medical Group
in Selinsgrove, where he has about 2,000 patients.
Two of their four children graduated from Temple University, while one is in high school and another is in middle school.
"They had an error on their visas when they first came here," said Terry Specht, Sunbury's city clerk, who frequents the store. "It's ridiculous to think they would lie about that."
Several years ago, the Servanos bought and renovated two properties in nearby Sunbury, Salvacion Servano recently opened a small grocery store there, selling Asian goods and baked items.
But their appeals have been unsuccessful and appear to have run their course.
"It was a surprise to us," Pedro Servano said. "After that, it was as if a ton of bricks had fallen on our family."
The Servanos turned to Cotler after receiving notice earlier this month that they had to report to the immigration enforcement office.
Gilholoy declined to discuss the specifics of the case, citing ICE policy.
"They have
appeals."
Cotter hopes otherwise. His legal team is considering emergency appeals in court and directly to the
"They had an error on their visas when they first came here.It's ridiculous to think they would lie about it."
"They have had their due process through the U.S. immigration court system," he said. "They have exhausted their
TERRY SPECHT
Sunbury, Pa. city clerk
U. S. attorney general's office.
in from local dignitaries, Servano's patients and even someone from the Department of Homeland Security,
The family has lobbied for help from politicians. Friends scheduled a prayer vigil in Sunbury for Saturday night.
which oversees ICE.
"I fervently believe in the ICE mission. However, the Servanos did not sneak into this country illegally, they have broken no laws, and they have not been a burden to the economy. They pose no threat," DHS counterterrorism operative Bill Schweigart wrote in a letter obtained by The Daily Item of Sunbury. "I cannot fathom how deporting the Servanos fulfills any portion of the ICE mission. In fact, I would argue the action runs counter to it."
Cotter said the couple under-
stands the government's position, but
would simply like another chance to
tell their story.
"You would not find two nicer people, two more unassuming people," Specht said.
WORLD
Hezbollah begins rebuilding Beirut with donated funds
Western-backed Prime Minister Fuad Saniora's government has been distributing the funds as compensation to families whose homes were destroyed by Israeli bombardment so they can build anew.
BY BASSEM MROUE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BEIRUT, Lebanon — The Shiite Muslim militant group Hezbollah has launched a massive project to rebuild south Beirut, devastated in last year's war with Israel — and it's paying for much of the construction with international donor funds that were meant to strengthen its top rival, the Lebanese government.
But in south Beirut, long a Hezbollah stronghold, most of the families have promised to give their compensation — about $53,000 each — to the militant group to redevelop the devastated area in an ambitious
sent any reconstruction aid, waiting for a damage assessment by officials from the U.N., World Bank and Lebanese government, said Christiane Hohmann, a European Commission spokeswoman.
"If this project succeeds, it will give credit to Hezbollah on a political as well as a popular level."
plan likely to bolster Hezbollah's standing.
It does not appear money from the United States and the European Union was ending up in the hands of Hezbollah, an ally of Iran and Syria which is considered a terrorist organization by Washington. Al-Jack said the American and EU donations — about $140 million and $110 million promised, respectively — were not earmarked for family compensation but for infrastructure and technical help.
The high-profile campaign to rebuild south Beirut gives Hezbollah a political boost in its yearlong power struggle with Saniora's government. Since the 34-day war between Hezbollah and Israel ended in summer 2006 — leaving swaths of south Beirut and many towns and villages in southern Lebanon in ruins from Israeli bombardment — the two sides have competed to show who can do the most for
The money going into the government's family compensation program comes mainly from Islamic and Arab nations, chief among them Saudi Arabia — a strong supporter of Saniora and opponent of Hezbollah — which has given $570 million, said Sanaa al-Jack, government spokeswoman for relief and reconstruction projects.
ADNAN SAYYED HUSSEIN Professor, Lebanese University
Asked if U.S. money could be going to Hezbollah's rebuilding project, a U.S. Embassy official in Beirut said, "I would doubt it." The official, who insisted on anonymity under embassy rules, said U.S. funds were given for specific projects and would be carefully monitored.
The European Union has not yet
"If this project succeeds, it will give credit to Hezbollah on a political as well as a popular level." Adnan Sayyed Hussein, a professor of international relations at Beirut's
the Lebanese people.
The $370 million campaign — Lebanon's biggest construction project since downtown Beirut was rebuilt in the 1990s following the country's 15-year civil war — is being planned and directed by "Waad," a branch of Hezbollah. It aims to transform the district, home to hundreds of thousands of people, mainly Shiite Muslims.
Work in the Beirut district known as Dahiyeh began over the summer. Hezbollah banners at dozens of construction sites across the area proclaim, "We will build it nicer than it was," as thousands of workers lay foundations for new apartment buildings.
A Saudi Foreign Ministry official said his country has "nothing to do with how the government distributes the money". The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.
Lebanese University, said of the south Beirut reconstruction.
Al-Jack said the Lebanese government was aware that south Beirut families were giving their compensation to Hezbollah but refused to comment further.
families to rebuild 213 of the district's 300 destroyed buildings, including 3,700 units in apartment buildings as well as shops, offices, warehouses and schools, said Hassan Jishi, Waad's general manager.
It also will improve roads and build parking lots and gardens. The remaining 87 destroyed buildings are being rebuilt by individual owners who decided not to participate with Waad.
Waad has been contracted by
One Dahiyeh resident, Ahmad Khalil, said the residents of his ninestory apartment building voted on whether to give their money to Waad to rebuild their home, which was destroyed along with the nearby Hezbollah's headquarters complex. Two-thirds of the families voted for Waad, so all went along with the decision.
The name "Waad" — Arabic for "Promise" — refers to a television address made by Hezbollah's leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah hours after the war ended on Aug. 14, 2006. Nasrallah declared victory and promised Hezbollah would help the Lebanese rebuild, saying, "Completing the victory can be done with reconstruction."
Any costs not covered by the families' compensation money will be paid by Hezbollah's main construction arm, which is also renovating hundreds of damaged buildings in Dahiyeh, Jishi said. Hezbollah is known to have received billions of dollars from Iran since its founding in the 1980s.
"Our building was destroyed because Hezbollah's headquarters were close to us, so for sure they (Hezbollah) will rebuild," said Khalili, a 42-year-old father of two who has been renting an apartment elsewhere in Beirut, using money given by Hezbollah.
As an AP reporter and photographer toured Dahiyeh recently, builders and architects were seen working at construction sites under close watch of Hezbollah members. A Hezbollah representative accompanied the journalists, since the militant group has restricted the media from going into the area without its permission.
Immediately after the war, Hezbollah gave every family whose home was destroyed $12,000 to rent an apartment until their homes were rebuilt.
WORLD
Tech waste piles up in China
BY CHRISTOPHER BODEEN
ASSOCIATED PRESS
GUIYU, China — The air smells acrid from the squat gas burners that sit outside homes, melting wires to recover copper and cooking computer motherboards to release gold. Migrant workers in filthy clothes smash picture tubes by hand to recover glass and electronic parts, releasing as much as 6.5 pounds of lead dust.
For five years, environmentalists and the media have highlighted the danger to Chinese workers who dismantle much of the world's junked electronics. Yet a visit to this southeastern Chinese town regarded as the heartland of "e-waste" disposal shows little has improved. In fact, the problem is growing worse because of China's own contribution.
China now produces more than 1 million tons of e-waste
each year, said Jamie Choi, a toxics campaigner with Greenpeace China in Beijing. That adds up to roughly 5 million television sets, 4 million fridges, 5 million washing machines, 10 million mobile phones and 5 million personal computers, according to Choi.
"Most e-waste in China comes from overseas, but the amount of domestic e-waste on the rise," he said.
This ugly business is driven by pure economics. For the West, where safety rules drive up the cost of disposal, it's as much as 10 times cheaper to export the waste to developing countries. In China, poor migrants from the countryside willingly endure the health risks to earn a few yuan, exploited by profit-hungry entrepreneurs.
International agreements and European regulations have made a dent in the export of old electronics to China, but loopholes — and
sometimes bribes—allow many to skirt the requirements. And only a sliver of the electronics sold get returned to manufacturers such as Dell and Hewlett Packard for safe recycling.
Upwards of 90 percent ends up in dumps that observe no environmental standards, where shredders, open fires, acid baths and broilers are used to recover gold, silver, copper and other valuable metals while spewing toxic fumes and runoff into the nation's skies and rivers.
Accurate figures about the shady and unregulated trade are hard to come by. However, experts agree that it is overwhelmingly a problem of the developing world. They estimate about 70 percent of the 20-50 million tons of electronic waste produced globally each year is dumped in China, with most of the rest going to India and poor African nations.
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