Oxnard Pair Separated by Immigration Technicality

OXNARD — It started as a three-week vacation to the island nation of Cape Verde, a chance for Anaiza Davies’ family there to get to know her husband, Shilo.

But it has turned into a five-month separation and a bureaucratic nightmare for the Oxnard couple because the Immigration and Naturalization Service has refused to let her back into the U.S.

In the country on a student visa, Anaiza Davies believed that all of her immigration paperwork was in order when she and her husband boarded a plane to her homeland off Africa’s west coast in December.

But the couple received a rude awakening when they were told by U.S. officials in Cape Verde that Anaiza Davies’ visa would not be renewed--even though the couple had been married a year.

The young couple did not know about the fine print in immigration law that requires foreigners in the U.S. on visas to petition the INS before making any major changes in their lives--such as getting married to an American citizen.

Rather than securing her place here, her marriage prompted the INS to cancel her student visa.

So Shilo Davies returned to the United States without his bride. And now the pair are standing by as the notoriously slow INS goes through their paperwork. It could take six months to a year for Anaiza Davies to receive a new visa--if she is granted one at all.

It has been a long, lonely time for Shilo Davies--made all the more frustrating by the fact that he serves the U.S. government as a Navy mechanic.

“I would give my life for this country, but this country won’t let my wife come back to me,” said Shilo Davies, who is stationed at Point Mugu Navy base. “It’s been very hard. The worst part about it is that I don’t even know when she will be back.”

INS officials, meanwhile, say there is not much they can do about the situation.

“I think we probably feel as badly as they do, but the law is the law, and we have pretty much no alternative,” said Joe Flanders, an INS spokesman. “We have no choice even though we may be totally sympathetic with them.”

Shilo Davies, 24, says he fell in love the minute he spotted Anaiza at the College of Alameda library. Anaiza, 23, never paid him any mind, but he finally got the chance to woo her one day when the candy machine gobbled up her change.

Seeing a great opportunity, Shilo Davies gallantly helped her get the candy out.

After dating for a year, the couple married in December 1995.

“She was so beautiful, I could not believe it. I had to do a double take,” Davies said of his bride on their wedding day. “People always take people for granted until those people are gone. I took her presence for granted.”

Thinking they would clarify her immigration status before flying to Cape Verde, the Davies visited an INS office in San Francisco and were told all of their paperwork was in order, they say.

So they left.

“We assumed we’d have no problem getting a visa, so we didn’t worry about it,” Shilo Davies said.

But in Cape Verde, U.S. Embassy officials informed the couple that Anaiza Davies should have applied for residency long before they got married.

And that is when the nightmare began.

After a tearful goodbye, Shilo Davies boarded a plane back to the U.S. and began the process of filing for legal residency through the INS’ labyrinth of rules and procedures.

The main problem is that the couple did not apply with the INS before they got married. That misstep automatically annulled her student visa, making her an illegal resident in the country, said Flanders, the INS spokesman.

“If you go through the process correctly, they can come in immediately,” Flanders explained. “The fact that they got married under the law is not kosher. She is still subject to deportation.”

Shilo Davies said they did not know about the process.

If the INS grants her a visa, Anaiza Davies must then apply for residency. Once she becomes a legal resident, she will have to wait as long as five years to become a U.S. citizen, Sanders said.

But at the moment, Shilo Davies is desperate.

He recalls those first few months they spent together in their Oxnard apartment. Their home is a roomful of reminders with photos of the two and native art from Cape Verde that Anaiza Davies carefully hung on their walls.

“When I walked into the house, she was the first thing I saw,” Davies said. “She would kiss me, hug me. Now I go home and there is nobody.”

Because he was calling her every day, Shilo Davies’ phone bill tallied up to $600 last month. Now their communication is cut down to two or three times a week.

Anaiza Davies says she is tired of waiting--and borrowing her mother’s clothes because she only brought enough outfits for 20 days.

“I’m here with my family, and that is a good thing,” she said in a telephone interview. “But I miss Shilo.”

Every Sunday, they would shop at the farmer’s market at Channel Islands Harbor, where Anaiza Davies would buy a long list of fresh vegetables, flowers and other goodies.

Now Shilo Davies eats Hamburger Helper every night. He only buys bread, potatoes and milk at the supermarket. He has even taken a second job as a parts repairman to distract him.

But help may be on the way.

Hearing about the Davies’ case, U.S. Rep Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley) has urged the young man to get in touch with his office.

“This sounds to me like the type of case that we would be involved in,” Gallegly said. “Unfortunately, ignorance is not always an excuse for the law, but that doesn’t mean that we won’t do whatever we can to help these folks out.”