travbowman asked
Laci Peterson Law Keep Mexican in U.S. KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A federal judge presiding over the case of a pregnant woman fighting deportation to Mexico cited a law enacted after the deaths of Laci Peterson and her fetus to keep the woman in the United States. Myrna Dick, 29, of the Kansas City suburb of Raymore, is five months pregnant and married to a U.S. citizen. Senior U.S. District Judge Scott O. Wright ruled Thursday that the couple's unborn child was also a U.S. citizen and thereby entitled to legal protection. In rejecting the federal government's request to lift a temporary stay granted April 30, Wright cited the Unborn Victims of Violence Act of 2004, which grants unborn children equal protection under the law. The law is also known as 'Laci and Conner's Law,' for the California woman and her unborn son whose bodies washed up along San Francisco Bay in April 2003. Scott Peterson, Laci's husband, is charged in their deaths. Wright said the government does not have grounds to deport Dick's unborn baby. Unless Wright's order is overturned, that baby would probably be born - as a U.S. citizen - before the case is decided. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey P. Ray indicated he would appeal the decision to the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis. Dick, who was born in Mexico but lived in the United States most of her life, is accused of falsely claiming American citizenship while returning from a 1998 trip to visit a relative in Mexico. The violation carries a punishment of immediate and permanent deportation from the United States. Dick was arrested in April after going to immigration officials to renew her work permit. Her attorneys say it is a case of mistaken identity. Earlier in the hearing, Rekha Sharma-Crawford challenged the government's assertion that U.S. authorities had known for quite some time that Dick was the person who had given false information at the border crossing, asking why they would wait until she went to immigrat
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