Thread: Man freed after imprisonment in deportation case

Oct 12, 1:21 PM EDT

Man freed after imprisonment in deportation case

FREMONT, Calif. (AP) -- A Fremont man is free after spending more than four years in prison as authorities tried to deport him to his native Afghanistan over a decade-old criminal case.

A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman says the agency has halted deportation proceedings against Obaidullah Rahimi, who returned home last week.

Immigration authorities ordered the 33-year-old mechanic deported in 2003 when they learned he had pleaded guilty six years earlier to having sex with his underage girlfriend. Rahimi came to California as a war refugee at age 12.

The federal government dropped its case after Alameda County prosecutors allowed Rahimi to withdraw his plea and instead plead guilty to threatening a witness, a non-deportable offense.

Rahimi's case attracted the attention of Alameda County Supervisor Gail Steele, who campaigned for his release.
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Information from: San Francisco Chronicle, http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/ ... REED_CAOL-?

OH,PUKE! This guy should be deported, as it doesn't seem he will be a fine, upstanding American citizen. Just wondering, and I know the question will never be answered, if his underaged girlfriend was also not born here, or born into a family that came from a country where under-age is prime meat for dirty men.

The federal government dropped its case after Alameda County prosecutors allowed Rahimi to withdraw his plea and instead plead guilty to threatening a witness, a non-deportable offense.

Why would they do that? What a load of BS!

Hmmm..........didn't I just read another post that said we were accepting over 17,000 Iraqi war refuges in 2009?

The federal government dropped its case after Alameda County prosecutors allowed Rahimi to withdraw his plea and instead plead guilty to threatening a witness, a non-deportable offense.

WHAT??? They let him withdraw a plea after TEN YEARS??

Where's that special treatment for American citizens who found themselves in the arms of a girl only weeks before her 18th birthday, who now have criminal records for statutory rape? Where's their years-later plea withdrawal?

What a bunch of baloney!!