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Fenway High teacher Obain Attouoman, scheduled to be deported March 11, can now stay in the US until at least 2007. Fenway students have been fighting on behalf of Attouoman all week, including a march at City Hall. Yesterday, six students went to Washington to meet with John Kerry, and even Mitt Romney wrote a letter to the Department of Homeland Security supporting Obain.
Attouoman came to the US from the Ivory Coast in 1992, where he was arrested for his involvement with a teachers' union. He applied for asylum but missed an immigration meeting in 2001 and has been narrowly avoiding deportation ever since. He's been teaching in Boston for ten years, and Kerry is filing private legislation for Attouoman to stay permanently.
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*Gasp* Even the cold, heartless Mitt Romney is supporting him?
According to the Fenway High website, the two offices that could help Obain avoid deportation were the New England Field Office Director of Immigration or Private Legislation being filed by a Senator. The Director of Immigration declined a direct request from a Boston School Superintendent to let Attouoman stay until the end of the school year, so lawyers asked Kerry to file legislation, which was the next logical step. It was looking for a minute that maybe Kerry couldn't come through.
Romney, on the other hand, wasn't really on the list of people that should directly help, but he made the effort anyway. He listened to a bunch of kids, which alot of people wouldn't make the time to do. It was a good day for government all around, or at least for Fenway High.
Good to see our elected officials actually doing something nice. Obain should run for public office. The kids love him! Sure, he has a hard time making meetings, but that actually qualifies him for a seat in the U.S. Senate.
He also appears to be a snappy dresser and I hear he is nice to old ladies.
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