Cleveland, Ohio July 4, 2006 – Manuel Bartsch, a German teenager who didn’t know he was in the United States illegally made a renewed appeal recently to stay in the country and thanked new found friends U.S. Sen. Michael DeWine, R-Ohio, and Rep. Paul Gillmor, R-Tiffin or supporting him when he was jailed last December.
“I consider myself an American,” said Manuel Bartsch, 18, who has lived in Gilboa, southwest of Toledo, for nearly half his life. “I grew up here. I have a lot of friends back home. I’m a part of the community. Hopefully, I can continue on doing what I’m doing.”
He learned he was in the U.S. illegally in December when he was jailed for 16 days after trying to find out his Social Security number so he could take a college entrance exam.
Bartsch returned to the Cleveland area where he was jailed to thank private citizens and politicians who spoke up on his behalf.
Immigration attorney David Leopold said Bartsch is awaiting a hearing on his immigration status, which could take weeks or months.
“There is no comparison between Bartsch and the millions of illegal immigrants who never had any intention of complying with the rules, as the young German did. Equating him with them is simply dishonest. Bartsch intended to comply with the rules. He may deserve a break. Those who intentionally are breaking the law do not.” said David Jakupca about the Bartsch situation.
The situation could be resolved sooner if Congress passes a bill allowing Bartsch to remain here or if immigration legislation currently pending allows Bartsch and others in similar circumstances to remain in the United States.
Bartsch said he would obey the law if ordered to leave the country but would find it difficult.
“I just take it day by day,” he said. “I try to not think about it.”
Bartsch won’t be deported before at least the end of the year.
At the request of Sen. Mike DeWine of Ohio, Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s immigration subcommittee, has requested a report on Bartsch’s case from the U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The request blocks Bartsch from being deported this year even if a judge orders it.
DeWine has introduced a measure that’s part of the Senate’s immigration legislation that would let illegal immigrants’ children stay in the country and go to state universities if they have been in the U.S. for five consecutive years and finish high school here.
Another piece of legislation that would give Bartsch permanent residency status was introduced last month by U.S. Sen. Michael DeWine, R-Ohio, and Rep. Paul Gillmor, R-Tiffin, who Bartsch met with.
“I just told them that I appreciated them introducing the legislation and hope they continue my cause and help me out,” he said. “DeWine told me that one way or another, they were going to help me out. I’m pretty confident.”

Bartsch traveled from Germany to Ohio in 1997 on a 90-day visa with a U.S. citizen, Toby Deal, who took custody of Bartsch in Germany when Bartsch’s grandmother died. Deal never adopted him nor processed his immigration papers in the U.S.
Bartsch will graduate Friday evening from Pandora-Gilboa High School and has asked for time to thank his fellow graduates and the community for their support. On Wednesday, seniors will share their remembrances of their time with Bartsch during an after-school gathering.
German American Business Association (GABA) businesses supports Bartsch: Fred Baker, 63, who emigrated from England in 1964 as a 22-year-old auto mechanic and now owns a Porsche-Audi dealership, said he helped Bartsch informally by encouraging friends, including those in public office, to support Bartsch, after hearing he had been jailed.
“I didn’t think that was right considering the fact that there are millions of illegal immigrants running around,” said Baker, who offered a job at his suburban Cleveland dealership to Bartsch if that would help resolve his immigration status.
Baker said allowing Bartsch to stay in the U.S. wouldn’t amount to amnesty, which some oppose as encouraging illegal immigration, because Bartsch was unaware of his immigration responsibilities when he was brought here by adults.
“He didn’t know anything,” Baker said.

Federal legislation proposal: http://www.dreamact.info

Contact Info:
Breann González
U.S. Senator Mike DeWine (R-OH)
152 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington D.C. 20510
Direct: 202.224.7997
Cell: 202.531.5511

Honestly, I’m not sure which terms were “loaded”. Facile? Characterizing Hezbollah as enemies? Illegal immigrants as lawbreakers?

I’m not arguing to condemn anyone to a life of poverty. I’m all for free trade, which I think is the most effective “assistance” we can give other countries. Before 9/11, I was for more immigration, on the grounds that we Americans benefit from a flow of people dynamic enough to endure the hardships of leaving home.

But this is based on the benefit to Americans. The US government is responsible to Americans, not the New World Order or the UN.

Five years ago, I supported more legal immigration, but enforcing the laws we have. If you have read the stories of Chinese migrants dying at sea, Latinos dying in the desert, women forced into a life of prostitution, you can’t help but support law enforcement. Unfortunately, 9/11 revealed the danger of our relatively open borders.

Sorry, but I’ll support any policy that helps keep NYC from being hit by a dirty bomb, even if that restricts some foreigner’s economic choices.

Boston gets shut down because one smuggler tells a tall tale about another smuggler to the Feds? The credibility this story was given depletes our ability to worry about other threats. Close down the border effectively and this problem becomes manageable.

I loved Atlas Shrugged, but Ayn Rand’s Economic Man was not much closer to reality than Marx’s. While unfettered (economic, spatial, etc.) freedom for everyone is important, it is not the absolute goal.

In real life, the Nogales wall and the Berlin wall look the same, but are polar opposites. I shrug when I see this kind of comparison in the NYT. But I expect libertarians to think things through more carefully.

Mike

Honestly, I’m not sure which terms were “loaded”. Facile? Characterizing Hezbollah as enemies? Illegal immigrants as lawbreakers?

I’m not arguing to condemn anyone to a life of poverty. I’m all for free trade, which I think is the most effective “assistance” we can give other countries. Before 9/11, I was for more immigration, on the grounds that we Americans benefit from a flow of people dynamic enough to endure the hardships of leaving home.

But this is based on the benefit to Americans. The US government is responsible to Americans, not the New World Order or the UN.

Five years ago, I supported more legal immigration, but enforcing the laws we have. If you have read the stories of Chinese migrants dying at sea, Latinos dying in the desert, women forced into a life of prostitution, you can’t help but support law enforcement. Unfortunately, 9/11 revealed the danger of our relatively open borders.

Sorry, but I’ll support any policy that helps keep NYC from being hit by a dirty bomb, even if that restricts some foreigner’s economic choices.

Boston gets shut down because one smuggler tells a tall tale about another smuggler to the Feds? The credibility this story was given depletes our ability to worry about other threats. Close down the border effectively and this problem becomes manageable.

I loved Atlas Shrugged, but Ayn Rand’s Economic Man was not much closer to reality than Marx’s. While unfettered (economic, spatial, etc.) freedom for everyone is important, it is not the absolute goal.

In real life, the Nogales wall and the Berlin wall look the same, but are polar opposites. I shrug when I see this kind of comparison in the NYT. But I expect libertarians to think things through more carefully.

Mike

As a would-be immigrant, who might have to return to his home country because of stupid bureaucratic rules, I just wanted to say: “Thank you”.

I see myself as a citizen of a virtual country where I have more in common with folk like you than I have with many of my own compatriots “back home” or with the bigots everywhere.