|
?:reviewBody
|
-
Amid an impressive series of performances by the U.S. women’s gymnastics team during the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, coach Marta Karolyi and her husband Bela were the subjects of frequent headlines, including a 12 August 2016 profile that credited them with transforming the United States' global standing in the gymnastics world: The Romanian couple were also subjects of rumors claiming that they were illegal immigrants to the U.S.: On or around 11 August 2016, popular Twitter account @OMGFacts retweeted a subsequently viral iteration of the claim the Karolyis emigrated to the United States under less than legal circumstances: The above example references Donald Trump's campaign slogan (Make America Great Again) and appears to critique his controversial stances on immigration, suggesting that immigrants of (initially) dubious status have been responsible for years of American success at the Olympics. The tweet clearly had impact (it was shared by tens of thousands of users), but its claims were misleading, The circumstances under which Bela and Marta Karolyi emigrated from Romania to the United States are well documented but possibly unfamiliar to younger audiences. In their native Romania, the couple coached legendary gymnast Nadia Comăneci, who at the age of 14 achieved the first perfect 10 gymnastics score in Olympic history during the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal. In 1981, the Karolyis embarked on what was intended to be an exhibition tour of the United States before a planned return to Romania, but (ostensibly) on a whim, the Karolyis (along with companion and choreographer Geza Pozsar) decided to defect and seek asylum in the United States due to increasing political pressure in their native Romania: Seeking political asylum is very different from what Americans often term illegal immigration, as the latter typically involves those who unlawfully sneak into the United States at unguarded border crossings or who enter the country on temporary tourist visas but unlawfully decline to leave at the end of the allotted visitation timeframe. By contrast, individuals eligible for asylum (codified in the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952) are described legally as generally people outside of their country who are unable or unwilling to return home because they fear serious harm. Persons claiming such status must demonstrate the condition of serious risk upon return to their home countries and bear the burden of proof to successfully secure asylum, and those who apply for asylum in the United States are legally authorized to remain in the country while their cases are pending, so at no point could the Karolyis have realistically been considered illegal immigrants. In January 1982, the New York Times reported that the Karolyis secured the help of lawmakers in retrieving their daughter from Romania as their application for political asylum was being processed: Bela and Marta Karolyi were officially granted asylum by 1983, indicating immigration authorities agreed they would have been at risk of harm had they returned to Romania in 1981. Legislative efforts were undertaken to expedite the granting of U.S. citizenship to the couple in order to allow them to take part in coaching the U.S. gymnastics team for the 1988 Summer Olympics: Karolyi later said he struggled with the decision to leave 19-year-old Nadia Comăneci behind, ultimately deciding that she was too young to fully appreciate the involved risks. Comăneci herself defected in 1989, by which point Karolyi was already an American citizen: The defection of Bela and Marta Karolyi from Romania to the United States in 1981 has been extensively documented in accounts of Olympic history. The couple followed legal procedure in securing a legitimate claim of asylum that allowed them to remain in the United States (and obtain U.S. citizenship), and at no point in the process were they illegal immigrants in America.
(en)
|
![[This page as RDF]](http://data.gesis.org/claimskg/static/rdf-icon.gif){kind=icon}