The death of a Guyanese teacher in New York before his green card was approved has left his family in an immigration nightmare.
Today’s New York Daily News reported on the plight of Vernon Innis. He had been a lecturer in Guyana when the New York Department of Education approached him and he decided to take up a job teaching mathematics at a city school in 2003.
Innis had been expecting that the green card would mean permanent residency for his family but the Daily News said that he died of an aneurysm before the papers were completed.
His widow and sons are now in immigration limbo and are getting no help from the city, the report said.
Vernon’s wife, Sherin Innis, 51, said “He came here for the future of his children”.
She added, according to the report that “He saw it as an open door. He came to live the American dream, but it has become the American nightmare.”
Sherin told the Daily News that after her husband’s death their lawyer – who was designated by the Department of Education – told her that the family’s status had “died” with Vernon.
Vernon would have been able to include his family on his application but on their own they don’t qualify for employer-sponsored green cards, the report said.
Sherin said that she would consider returning to Guyana but that her boys are thriving in New York. The Daily News said that Samuel, 16, tested into Bard Early College High School. Immanuel, 14, played trombone at Carnegie Hall with his Forest Hills High School friends.
“These kids came when they were 6 and 8. How can you just uproot us?” she asked, according to the Daily News.
The trio has managed to stay in the U.S. because Touro College, where Sherin is a tutor, sponsored her for a temporary work visa.
But, according to the report, she can’t legally get a second job. The family had to quit their US$1,200-a-month apartment and are now staying in a friend’s living room.
Sherin is worried that time is running out for a permanent solution because her eldest son will apply for college next year. Without green cards, her sons won’t be eligible for federal or state financial aid. They also can’t work in NY legally.
Sherin shook her head when asked what her late husband would say about his family’s situation. “I know he would be very disappointed – because a promise was made, and that was broken,” she said.
“His main hope was college for his sons. This would have literally killed him, believe me, because he lived for his sons”, she told the Daily News.
