Braun: Fickle immigration policies keep green card out of reach for accomplished N.J. woman (The Star-Ledger)

Braun: Fickle immigration policies keep green card out of reach for accomplished N.J. woman
Published: Thursday, December 02, 2010, 8:56 AM Updated: Thursday, December 02, 2010, 9:22 AM
Bob Braun/Star-Ledger Columnist

TOMS RIVER — Cecilia Ojoawo says she lives in a kind of limbo, and that is not a good place to be. Far worse for someone, like her, who is blind and alone. In a different time not long ago, she would probably be celebrated as a brave and accomplished woman, worthy of help or, at least, compassion.

But Ojoawo is one of the unwanted in this country. She may have, in her solitary darkness, earned an undergraduate and master’s degree and finished her coursework for a doctorate at Boston University. She may have worked as a public school teacher and counselor for a state agency for the blind. She may have been an advocate and volunteer for blind Americans. She may have for 25 years contributed to the lives of others who cannot see.

She may have done all that, but she is an immigrant, an out-of-status immigrant, and that has led her to lose a work permit she had for a quarter-century and, with it, her ability to earn a living.

Her home in Toms River is in foreclosure because she cannot pay the mortgage. When it gets sold, she also will be homeless. She has no money to return to Nigeria and, even if she did, has no one there to help her. She has no family here and few there.

"Ever since I was a child, I have tried to overcome what happened to me and use the knowledge I have gained to help others,’’ says Ojoawo, 53. "I think I have done some good.’’

Her blindness is a result of small pox, contracted as a 10-year-old in Nigeria, where she was born and lived until she came here for college. For the last 30 years, she has lived in the United States, first as a student and then as a teacher, counselor and advocate for the blind.

Ojoawo’s problem is the word "most." If she had lived all that time in the United States, not just most of it, she would not be facing destitution and homelessness. In 1986, however, she returned for several months to Nigeria to care for a brother who was in a car crash.

According to the federal bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, she overstayed the time she should have been away and that landed her out-of-status. She also, immigration officials say, worked when she should have been just a college student.

There was a time when federal immigration policy was more forgiving. Ojoawo’s life coincided with that era — a time when the government granted amnesty more easily than it does now. She thought she could win amnesty or a second chance of remaining here permanently.

"It was confusing," she says. "Although the government said I was out of status, I continued to receive work permits every three years. They obviously knew I was here and they knew what my status was."

Over the years, she pursued her efforts to win a green card. The height and complexity of her file mounted and includes, among other things, a concession that one of her appeals was rejected in error. Her last appeal for an adjustment to her status, to allow her to resume working, was denied just weeks ago. Her stay in limbo was extended indefinitely.

"That was a terrible day," she says.

Another terrible day because, a year earlier, she had to resign from her job as a counselor with the New Jersey Commission for the Blind because her work permit was not renewed.

As an out-of-status immigrant, Ojoawo is ineligible for government benefits, including unemployment and disability. She has lived on cashed-in pension benefits but they’re gone. She lives alone, she is broke, and she is soon to be homeless. Just weeks, she says, from eviction.

"As a blind person, I can’t exactly work for under-the-table income," she says. "I can’t show up at someone’s house and offer to clean it."

Ojoawo is pursuing other appeals. The office of U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez has expressed an interest in her case and, perhaps, it can help.

A devout Catholic since childhood, she has made friends throughout the state through the Cursillo movement, a group of Evangelical Christians.

"Cecilia has done so much so much for so many," says her friend Carolyn Ahrens of South Orange, who met the Nigerian in church and, like her, is active in the religious movement. "We should be doing something for her now."

What Ahrens is trying to do — first — is save Ojoawo’s home. The chances look slim.

"But we’re not looking for a miracle," says Ahrens. "We’re looking for justice."