(The following article is from the July 1-31,  2010 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)

People's Voice Editorial

     New examples emerge regularly exposing the arbitrary, anti-human flaws in Canada's immigration and refugee system. Consider the case of José Figueroa, a father of three who lives in Langley, B.C. In May, the Immigration and Refugee Board ordered his deportation back to El Salvador, on the grounds that he had been involved with a "terrorist" organization in his youth.

     The organization is the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, which ultimately achieved a negotiated end to one of Central America's most bitter armed conflicts. The "terrorists" in El Salvador were the assassins of Archbishop Oscar Romero, and the death squads and government troops with the blood of some 70,000 victims on their hands. The Reagan administration was deeply involved in the genocidal crimes committed in El Salvador, Nicaragua and Guatemala during those terrible years.

     The FMLN, on the other hand, won wide support among the people, and its candidates were elected to many local government positions from the time of the first post-war elections. Today the country is led by President Mauricio Funes, the FMLN candidate elected in 2008.

     José Figueroa arrived in Canada in 1997 and applied for refugee status, openly stating his record as an FMLN supporter. Now, 13 years later, Immigration Review Board member Otto Nupponen wants him deported, even though the FMLN is not on any list of terrorist groups. Figueroa has filed for a judicial review of this appalling decision, and deserves full support.

     Leaving it up to the Canadian government or bureaucrats to decide which groups or individuals are "terrorists" is a recipe for disaster. Thousands of Salvadorans living peacefully in Canada could face serious consequences if this IRB member's bizarre beliefs become accepted as grounds for deportation. The federal government must be told: hands off José Figueroa!