By Damian Gessel
LEWISBURG — U.S. Rep. Chris Carney on Friday said he needs time to research the pending deportation of a Selinsgrove physician and his wife before taking any kind of action.
“It’s a heart-wrenching case, but we have to make sure we have all the facts before we act,” the congressman told a small group of reporters at Friday’s listening tour town hall meeting in Lewisburg. “(With the 60-day reprieve), we have time to do the right thing.”
Pedro and Salvacion Servano received a letter on Oct. 25 informing them they would be deported for coming to the United States under false pretense. Their original visas, submitted in 1978, listed them as single. But the Servanos eloped in the Philippines in 1980 and came to the U.S. as a married couple.
They had been fighting deportation since 1990, taking their battle as high as the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Supporters say the Servanos’ good standing in the community, four successful children and important careers should supersede their decades-old immigration error.
Rep. Carney said his staff has been talking to Immigrations and Customs Enforcement about Pedro and Salvacion Servano’s pending deportation to the Philippines to better understand the situation they face.
The first-term Democrat prides himself on being tough against illegal immigration.
“I’m not one who favors amnesty,” he said. “We need to find a way for people, if they want to be citizens, to do it the right way.
“There are 600,000 people in the same position as the Servanos in this country.”
