How much should a crime cost the perpetrator? Should a teenager that pleaded guilty to a “string of muggings committed at 15″ and served 3 years in a reformatory be punished again at age 29 because of his crimes at age 15?
Nina Bernstein’s article on Qing Hong Wu in The New York Times exposes the random cruelty of our justice system. We know that if we commit a crime and serve the sentence we are done; our obligation to society has ended because we have been punished. That’s not to say there won’t be permanent consequences to having committed that crime, but the punishment phase has ended.
Notwithstanding the victims of crime, who can have permanent consequences, a criminal’s history follows him like a shadow that can’t be escaped. Ever applied to a job and reached the line asking if you’ve been convicted of a felony? It takes an enlightened employer to overcome this stigma, even if you’ve changed.
But Qing Hong Wu’s punishment has been extended. Judge Corriero, the judge that sentenced Mr. Wu to a reformatory, made a promise to Mr. Wu , that if he turned around his life, he would stand behind him. Mr. Wu did change his life, but became ensnared in our immigration laws when applying for citizenship and was deemed deportable because of his prior record.
Our immigration laws still reflect their 19th century doctrine where neither detention nor deportation count as punishment, so in an Orwellian twist, the law can claim that Mr. Wu is not being punished by being permanently barred from the United States. So he is being punished twice but the law doesn’t recognize it.
Ironically, if Mr. Wu’s impoverished immigrant mother had applied for citizenship, he would also have received it, making this whole deportation case moot.
Once again our convoluted law has created two justices, one for citizens and one for immigrants, especially poor immigrants. Illegal immigrants are one thing, but legal non-citizens should receive the same legal privileges that citizens enjoy.
Three cheers for Judge Corriero for keeping his word to Mr. Wu. I hope his efforts succeed. And a big Bronx cheer to Governor Paterson for not pardoning Mr. Wu. He could end this tragic nightmare with a stroke of his pen.
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