Mike’s Minute: The Daman Kumar deportation case is fascinating

How fascinating is the Daman Kumar case? 

How would you like to be Chris Penk, the minister in charge of making the call as to whether to deport people? 

In a way this is a singular example of what the Americans deal with millions of times over. 

There seems to be no dispute 18-year-old Daman's parents are overstayers. 

Daman was born here and New Zealand is his home. So does he get deported and do his parents get deported? 

If you follow the law the answer seems simple - yes they do. 

It's not Daman's fault his parents broke the law. And that’s the birthers debate in America. 

The illegals come across the border, they have a child, the child is an illegal and yet it is not their fault. It is their home, it is the only country they know, a Democratic administration gives you leniency and a Republican one not so much. 

There are, as there always are, questions around how you can be here as an overstayer for so many years. 

Also, I assume these are decent people. If they were criminals or reprobates the decisions would be a lot easier. 

So a family who work, contribute to the country, call it their own and want to stay. There's no shortage of emotion in the argument. 

I am sure part of their issue is at some point they technically became overstayers and they feared getting caught after a week, or a month, or a year. So do you come clean and tidy your affairs up, plead for leniency and hope for the best, or do you try your luck? 

Surely in doing what they did, they must have known the game at some point, for some reason, would be up? 

Or maybe after 8, 9,15, or 21 years, maybe they put it to one side. Maybe they would never be found out. 

So, what to do? Section 378 of the Immigration Act says the minister can, apparently, do anything he likes. 

It's easy to say "let them stay", but then you set a precedent. That’s the trouble with power jobs and big decisions - they're hardly ever simple. 

It may well be the hardest thing Penk ever does, unless he lets them stay. 

That would be easier, and make you feel good – probably with minimal push back. 

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