‘Model Citizens’ Being Deported Friends And Neighbors Up In Arms; Ins Says Family Tried To Fake Citizenship

Bogdan and Miro Babinski left Poland to make a better life for their daughter.

In Spokane, Martyna Babinski became a model student who played the flute in the Chase Middle School band and was part of a synchronized swim team, friends say.

The family appeared happy and hard-working during their 10 years in Spokane, but they had a secret that finally caught up to them.

The Babinskis are being deported to Poland today because they do not have legal citizenship, according to the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

INS officials say the couple challenged deportation orders in court and staged joint marriages to U.S. citizens in an effort to stay.

Neighbors, friends and co-workers knew them as an industrious, private couple who wanted to better their lives. Bogdan Babinski worked as a meat cutter for S&P Meats Inc. Miro Babinski worked at Colonial Care nursing home.

“They’re a hard-working couple who just wanted to be citizens,” said Linda Green, a friend and neighbor. “We let every Tom, Dick and Harry in here. We let people in here who are on welfare. Here you have hard-working people.”

As the Babinskis’ daughter attended school and learned perfect English, they fought a losing battle against deportation orders. That fight ended Sept. 29, 1997, when the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refused to review their case, according to court records.

They were ordered to report for deportation Jan. 30, 1998, not long after they had a house built on the South Hill near the 3400 block of East 36th Avenue.

They did not respond.

On Nov. 20, days before Thanksgiving, INS agents arrested the family in their home. The parents were sent to a Seattle prison. Their daughter was detained at Martin Hall, a private juvenile detention facility in Medical Lake that also contracts with the INS.

Teachers were allowed to visit Martyna Babinski, as were some friends. None of the family members could be reached by phone for comment.

Green was outraged. She called INS officials, politicians and attorneys in hopes of helping somehow, but to no avail. Their daughters were best friends and were on the swim team together.

“She doesn’t know Polish so she won’t know how to go back to school there,” Green said. “We want to help, we just don’t know who to call.”

There was nothing that could be done.

“The INS has no leeway in this matter,” said Irene Mortensen, INS spokeswoman in Seattle. “All the people who are here illegally are in the same category. People have to abide by the laws of this country.”

Both parents are permanently barred from the United States for attempting to fraudulently obtain immigration benefits, Mortensen said. Bogdan Babinski and his brother, a U.S. citizen, both arranged divorces from their spouses in February 1997. Then they switched wives and married on paper, while maintaining their original unions, Mortensen said.

Their relative who was a citizen could have sponsored them to aid in their pursuit of citizenship legally, but didn’t, Mortensen said.

None of this counts against their daughter, who would be able to return by filing a waiver, she said.

People tend to think the INS was being spiteful or mean, Mortensen said.

“The public doesn’t always know the full story,” Mortensen said. “The INS has gone out of their way to lessen the event as much as we can. It’s unfortunate when these things happen, but they do.”

To comfort Martyna Babinski, INS workers went back to pick up the girl’s flute at her school, Mortensen said.

“You have to remember it was the parents who brought her here, not the Immigration Service,” she said.

After the family was arrested, Miro Babinski was escorted to pick up her final paycheck at Colonial Care, a nursing home where she was employed.

“Four people brought her in like she was a big security risk,” said Larry Sarff, the administrator. “Miro worked for us for 10 years, and she was a great employee.”

The Babinskis arrived in this country in April 1990. When Miro Babinski began working a few months later, she hardly spoke English, Sarff said, but she soon became a favorite.

Residents have been asking where she went, Sarff said.

Penny Clarke, a certified nursing assistant, worked with Babinski and became friends.

“When they first moved here they came with one suitcase,” Clarke said. “They tried to do really good.”

They stayed in a one-bedroom apartment to save money, she said. About four years ago, they built their home near Ferris High School, she said.

Babinski described life in Poland as poor and without many opportunities, Clarke said.

“They wanted to come to the United States to better themselves and make a good home life for Martyna,” Clarke said.

“She really didn’t want to return to Poland.”