Threatened with deportation
On March 27, I made a call to the National Immigration Agency’s Information for Foreigners Hotline.
I explained that I have a Joining Family Residence Visa (JFRV) and I intended to attend the demonstration against the government’s handling of the cross-strait service trade agreement outside the Legislative Yuan with my family. I then inquired whether there was any legal impediment to my doing so.
I was told by the government employee on the telephone that I should not go, as I would be violating the purpose of my residence visa.
I reiterated that I have a Joining Family Residence Visa and planned to go with my family and expressed my view that participating in the aforesaid legal demonstration together as a family was the very epitome of my keeping the express purpose of my residence visa. (See Article 29 of the Immigration Act).
Once again, the government representative admonished me and told me not to go, repeating that I would be violating the purpose of my residence visa.
Unconvinced, I asked him what could happen if I was found to be in violation of the purpose of my residence visa. He replied that I could be deported.
I explained again for clarity that my wife and daughter are both Taiwanese and I asked him if he were suggesting that the government of Taiwan would deport me, a legal resident, simply because I participated in a public demonstration, even if doing so could mean that my daughter would have to grow up in Taiwan without a father.
His response was “yes.”
However, he was unable to point me to any law that would back up his assertions when I requested that he do so.
I would like to hear what the government has to say about this deliberate propagation of misinformation and scaremongering on its part.
In lieu of a personal apology, I would be willing to settle for the administration’s unequivocal commitment to a prompt and comprehensive Constitutional revision (for a summary of the Constitution’s deficiencies, see “The Road to a Better Democracy,” April 21, page 8), along with a pledge to abandon the present version of the cross-strait service trade agreement.
In its current form is clearly detrimental to the interests of the majority of the people of Taiwan.
Jason Grenier
Hualien
Reconsider Matsu statue
Regarding the proposed construction of a 70m statue of Matsu in a Greater Taichung park, I do hope that the authorities will reconsider the project.
From the wording of the article in the Taipei Times (“Greater Taichung seeks tourism boost from perhaps SE Asia’s largest Matsu statue,” April 16, page 11) it does appear to be a government-sponsored park, hence citizens’ money would be paying for a religious monument.
This is questionable, as it raises the question of the official separation of state and religion necessary in an avowedly secular state.
Second, the article focuses on the idea that the Christians would want a 70m cross also erected. That might open the door for Muslims, Hindus or other faiths to want their own symbolic structures.
To resolve the issue, and still attract tourists, a 70m statue of Confucius might be appropriate, insofar as Confucius was not a religious figure.
Yet, even better would be a statue of the common man of today, possibly a series of statues of a worker, a farmer, a fisherman, a nurse, a teacher and so on.
It would even be more loving to create a large statue of a young modern mother, with a child or two tugging at her dress or a child in her arms.
John Dankowski
Tianmu, Taipei
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