Deportation splits up family

The Pakistani woman lived here illegally since 1989.
CINCINNATI (AP) -- She lived in the United States for 18 years, rearing her two sons, teaching religion classes at the mosque and selling cosmetics door to door.
But while she lived quietly in the United States, Fatima Raziuddin also lived illegally. Last week, the woman who violated her student visa in 1989 by working at a fast-food restaurant was deported to Pakistan.
"I have been a good person," Raziuddin, who lived in West Chester Township near Cincinnati for 10 years, said in a telephone interview before she was deported. "My children need me. I'm always there for them.
"I would do anything to live in this country."
Raziuddin never disputed the visa violation or that she broke a promise to leave the country voluntarily. But she argued that the exemplary life she led in America should outweigh her violations.
If Raziuddin had left on her own in 1990, she could have reapplied for a visa in just six months and started the process of becoming a U.S. citizen. Instead, she remained in Texas with her husband, Razi Dinn, quit college and had two sons, Shabbir and Abbas.
"If she would have just voluntarily departed, she might have been able to come back in a matter of months," said Greg Palmore, a Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman. "When you don't do that, you become an absconder."
Can't return for 10 years
Raziuddin is not eligible to re-enter the country for 10 years. Dinn, a U.S. citizen and a native of India, which has had poor relations with Pakistan, is wary of moving his children to Pakistan.
The United States deports about 200,000 people a year.
Raziuddin, who married Dinn in 1988, said she planned to leave after her second son was born in 1991, but she became sick with thyroid cancer. Court records include hospital bills for treatment from 1991 to 1997 at the University of Texas.
Dinn said her illness hurt the family financially and made it difficult for her to leave the country.
They moved to the Cincinnati area in the mid-1990s after Dinn took a job with Frisch's Restaurants.
"She's very kind and very giving," said Barbara Reisen, a neighbor. "She's not affluent, but she was always giving someone gifts."
Raziuddin's repeated attempts for citizenship ended last month when she was arrested and sent to a jail in northern Ohio. Her lawyer made one last try to keep her in the country, arguing she could be harmed by returning to Pakistan because she is a Shiite Muslim while her husband is a Sunni Muslim.
She cried into the phone as immigration officials allowed her to make a final call before boarding the plane to Pakistan. She asked her husband to send some of her belongings to her sister, with whom she planned to stay for a while.
"It's just too much," Dinn said after the call.
"I'm without a wife. My kids are without a mom."