A Little Diddy About Jack and Martina

Whenever the topic of the migrant caravan is on the news, one cannot help but feel some sort of sympathy. Sure, the media has been intentionally misleading Americans on the size, speed and makeup of this caravan. But clearly, there are some within it that are genuine in their intention to escape poverty and oppression and make a new life in America for themselves, which tugs at the heart strings and sends Washington into partisan tizzies.

While we can sympathize with those people and their stories of woe, we should remember that every immigrant coming in legally have stories that are just as compelling.

Imagine, If you will, a star-crossed love story, where a boy from across the sea comes to America, meets a girl from New York, who both find that they have much more in common than they originally thought, and they begin a long-distance relationship. Then, imagine that just as they decide to make a lifelong commitment to each other, outside forces hostile to their love manipulate a nameless, faceless bureaucracy who, without explanation, stops their union and prevents the boy from to the country that brought them together.

I’d watch that Lifetime movie.

It just so happens that this is the story of Jack Buckby, an outspoken British conservative who, for reasons unknown, has been blocked from getting a visa to enter the United States to be with his fiancé, Martina Markota.

Jack and Martina have resorted to suing the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, State Department and Department of Justice to compel the government to process his visa application, which has been held in administrative limbo for years.

Imagine that. Jack has been waiting since March of 2017 for a simple yes or no to his application for a visitor’s visa to see Martina and visit her family. We blow a gasket if we’re in the DMV for more than an hour. Apparently, his application was been flagged for “additional, mandatory administrative processing,”

The exact reason why is not known, but obviously, the story is a tad more complicated than the dreamy melodrama we laid out. You see, Jack can be a bit of a “nutter.” He is a right-wing political activist and contributor to conservative media outlets with a penchant for being outspoken on controversial issues in his homeland. That is to say, if Jack was an American, he’d be considered a real conservative person. In the bizarre liberal paradise that is London, Jack might as well be a leper, as he is fearless in advocating his opposition to Islamic extremism and mass immigration, making him an easy target of the left.

Those conservative leanings may be the very reason Jack and Martina are being kept apart. According to them, the couple was somehow put on the FBI’s radar based on a anonymous tip that he was planning terrorist activity and that their relationship was cover to get him into the country. If you knew Jack, you’d laugh at the ridiculousness of that proposition – he’s basically a cross between Harry Potter and Kenneth Branagh portrayal of Sir Alistair Dormandy in Pirate Radio, but without the penchant for censorship.

To be clear, Jack has no criminal record. At all.

Having exhausted all option, Jack and Martina want answers. Whether they would get them anytime soon is subject to the grinding of the wheels of justice and to how well they can maneuver through the system.

In listening to our friends’ epic love story, we can’t help but think of the resources being used to manage the caravan situation. Think how all the money and time devoted to illegal immigration is money and time that could be used to better process legal immigration applications. Think of the limited political capital and time squandered hand-wringing over managing immigrants who disregarded our laws could have been devoted to fixing our broken system so that aspiring legal visitors like Jack can gain entry.

Now that you think about it, aren’t Jack and other law-abiding immigrants and visitors languishing in administrative hell waiting for their happy ending more deserving of our time, resources and sympathy?

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About Gene Berardelli, Esq.

To learn more about the author, check out the "About Us" page. Behind Enemy Lines Radio is a national Award-Winning radio show / podcast broadcasting live out of the belly of the Democratic beast - "The People's Republic of" New York City that airs on multiple radio stations as part of the Talk America Radio Network. It is also an "Insider" column on Newsmax featuring show hosts Gene Berardelli and Russell Gallo. The show is also available on multiple networks across the internet, with more being added regularly.