Family fights immigrant’s impending deportation

Monday, Nov. 9, 1998 | 11:01 a.m.

Time is running out for 42-year-old Suresh Kumar Goel, an illegal immigrant from India who says he slipped into this country 10 years ago to escape political persecution.

Goel was featured in a Sun story last May, shortly after he received notice from the federal Immigration and Naturalization Service that he was to be returned to his native country after years of court battles to remain here.

The INS told him to wait until he heard from the agency, a message that finally came Monday -- almost six months after he was told to get ready to leave the country.

Goel, who is just one of more than 75,000 illegal aliens in Nevada, according to the INS, has been ordered to report to the Las Vegas INS office at 7 a.m. Tuesday.

His wife, Genie, believes her husband should be able to stay because she has a heart condition that doesn't allow her to work. The INS office has rejected the request.

She also learned last week that her father, who lives in Arlington, Va., has terminal cancer and her mother, of Tampa, Fla., was operated on for liver disease Thursday.

Genie Goel left Las Vegas Friday to be with her mother while she recuperates so she will not be in Las Vegas when the INS deports her husband. The couple has been told it may be five or 10 years before Suresh Goel can legally return to the United States.

The INS has refused to grant Goel residency based on his marriage to Genie because the wedding occurred after deportation proceedings began.

"They told me I could go with him if I could come up with the money for airfare," said Genie Goel, an American citizen. "But because of my medical condition, I couldn't live in India very long. And besides, we don't even have enough money to pay for my husband's airfare."

Roseanne Sonchik, INS district director in Phoenix, said depending upon the circumstances of Goel's case -- which she is not familiar with -- he might be able to get a stay because of recent developments.

"But they need documentation," she said. "If there are humanitarian reasons, they need to bring it to the attention of the (INS in Las Vegas)."

Goel's legal counsel, San Diego attorney Dario Aguilar, has filed an appeal of the deportation order, which is on file with the INS' Board of Appeals in Falls Church, Va.

Aguilar is trying to convince the INS to reconsider the marriage issue and to allow it to be ruled valid. He also is trying to have the hardships reconsidered as a basis for allowing Goel to either remain in America or return soon.

Barbara Cason, who is with the appeals board, said nothing can be done about Goel's request for a humanitarian stay until he is taken into custody.

When that happens, his case will receive immediate attention, she said.