In my home state of Washington, I’ve heard from hundreds of families and businesses who have been directly impacted by our broken system.“Businesses like the West Sound Lumber Company on Orcas Island – a small sawmill owned by the Helsell family for more than four decades. “West Sound Lumber is only able to keep its doors open because of a young man,Benjamin Nunez-Marquez, who goes by Ben.
“Ben is an undocumented immigrant from Mexico – and since he arrived on Orcas Island more than a decade ago – he’s become a cherished member of the community and an expert sawyer – the Helsell’s will tell you they’d have to close down if they lost “And that possibility nearly became a reality when Ben was randomly stopped by an immigration official while he was taking an elderly neighbor to a doctor’s appointment out of town.
“Though he posed no danger to his community, the Department of Homeland Security scheduled him for deportation, which was only narrowly avoided this year after I took his case directly to the Secretary of Homeland Security and the Seattle Times told Ben’s story on its front page. “M. President, we should not be kicking people like Ben Nunez-Marquez out of this “We should welcome him, we should treat him like a human being, and we should give him an opportunity to become a citizen in the country he loves – our country.
http://www.murray.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/newsreleases?ID=21671a0a-8884-446e-9497-82e994de36f3
