Thread: Deported Man Was Actually U.S. Citizen

http://www.wral.com/apnationalnews/9721761/detail.html

ALBANY, N.Y. -- Duarnis Perez became an American citizen when he was 15, but he didn't find out until after he had been deported and then jailed for trying to get back into the country.

He was facing his second deportation hearing when he learned he was already a U.S. citizen. Still, federal prosecutors fought to keep him in custody.

Last week, a federal judge scolded prosecutors for the mistake.

"In effect, the government is arguing that an innocent man who was wrongly convicted should not be released from the custody of the United States," U.S. District Judge Lawrence Kahn wrote. He ruled that Perez never should have been deported.

The case has gotten the attention of immigration observers, who call it a striking example of the gaps in an overworked immigration system.

Perez became a citizen when his mother was naturalized in 1988 but apparently wasn't aware of it. His lawyer, J. Jeffrey Weisenfeld of New York, declined to release details other than to say that Perez, now in his early 30s, remains in the United States.

"He would like to get on with his life quietly," Weisenfeld said. "It was an unpleasant experience for him."

Perez was deported to the Dominican Republic in 1994 after a drug conviction.

In 2000, he was caught trying to re-enter the United States from Canada. But he wasn't informed he was a citizen until the spring of 2004, after serving three-and-a-half years in prison for that 2000 arrest.

It was not clear why Perez's status wasn't discovered when he first faced deportation. Messages left over three days seeking comment on the case from Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Washington were not returned.

In early 2005, Perez filed a lawsuit to vacate the illegal re-entry conviction. He also has sued the Bureau of Prisons and the Department of Justice, claiming they had no right to imprison him, and against the Legal Aid Society in Albany, which represented him on the illegal re-entry charge.

Immigration watchers wonder if he can sue for being deported in the first place.

"Beyond legality, it's just an issue of common sense and humanity,'" said Daniel Kowalski, a Texas attorney who publishes Bender's Immigration Bulletin, a publication that tracks immigration issues.

U.S. immigration courts handled 368,848 matters in 2005, a 23 percent increase over the 299,474 cases addressed in 2004, according to U.S. Department of Justice's Executive Office for Immigration Review.

A spokesman for the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said the government has no practical way to inform people of their citizenship in such cases because of the complexities involved.

"The responsibility rests fully on the shoulders of the new citizen, so the questions of the citizenship of children are adequately addressed," said Chris Bentley. "Many times, we honestly won't know about it."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Sara Lord, who prosecuted Perez, declined comment when asked if the government would appeal. In a brief, she argued Perez was at fault for not knowing his status, saying he "cannot base his failure to discover the circumstances on the alleged omissions of others."

Estelle McKee with the University of Wisconsin Law School said the responsibility is shared.

"The immigration service has to prove someone is removable. It's their job," she said. "It's remarkable to go through an entire removal process and not know the person is a citizen."

Looks like this guy planned on breaking the law and only found out through luck that he did not have to after the fact. Boo Hoo...

Im sure the illegal alien supporters will try to hold this lone example up as a reason to change laws and policies affecting millions of people.

W

I wish I could sue stupid Immigrants for not knowing what country they are a citizen of.

I’m sure the immigrants that passed through Ellis Island had no problem remembering which country they were a citizen of. Sounds like drug dealing was this guy’s main thought, not being a law abiding American citizen.
But hey lets reward this guy’s ignorance by letting him sue a bunch of American institutions.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Sara Lord, who prosecuted Perez, declined comment when asked if the government would appeal. In a brief, she argued Perez was at fault for not knowing his status, saying he "cannot base his failure to discover the circumstances on the alleged omissions of others."

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales doesn't know who was legal or illegal in his own family. Can we deport him so he'll check it out?

Im sure the illegal alien supporters will try to hold this lone example up as a reason to change laws and policies affecting millions of people.

That would be fine with me, let them use a convicted felon as an example. I'm starting to see a pattern here, every person the opposition wants to use as a rallying point does not live up to the Bush administrations claim: They're hard-working folks who are just seeking a better life for themselves and their families. So now they have the lady in Chicago holding up in a church whom has already been deported once and has been using a fake social security card for years and a convicted drug abusers. Not exactly shinning models of character for anyones cause.

Well, he wouldn't be in this mess right now if he had not been breaking other laws by dealing drugs. One guy doesn't know he is a citizen, how is the rest of the world supposed to know? At some point, you need to keep up with yourself and quit putting it off on others. Is this really an adult?

Dixie

This will make a wonderful hollywood sob story flick.Mr Perez will be played by Cheech Martin.

more and more of the news stories I see on illegal immigration are
lawsuit $$$$$$$ driven, greedy freeloaders and hungry lawyers.
ambulance chasers are now on a new venue.

TV ads on El Mundo?

Perez became a citizen when his mother was naturalized

I'd like to see how they came to that conclusion. A parents Naturalization does not automatically grant citizenship on a minor child.

If mom was a Resident alien, then the child was also. If mom Naturalized, then it's most likely she filed for Naturalization of her child at the same time.

If it was granted, why did he not attend the Naturalization ceremony? Why did his mother not tell him of the most important day of his life?

If he was Naturalized, then ICE failed its due diligence in determining his citizenship!

Something about this story doesn't sound right. There are too many odd circumstances.

Perez was deported to the Dominican Republic in 1994 after a drug conviction.

Maybe he didn't know his legal status 'cause he sampled too much of his drugs.