Thread: Haitian-American stripped of U.S. citizenship awaits fate

http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJ ... 120906.htm


December 09, 2006
Haitian-American stripped of U.S. citizenship awaits fate

Associated Press
MIAMI -- Lionel Jean-Baptiste waits on a bench at the Krome Detention Center with his legs outstretched, the last three digits of his detainee number scrawled on the toes of his slip-on shoes.

His orange uniform further identifies him as the responsibility of U.S. immigration officials. They want to deport the former Miami restaurant owner convicted of federal drug trafficking charges after he became an American citizen.

An immigration judge revoked his citizenship and ordered him deported in September -- the first time since 1962 that the U.S. government ordered a naturalized citizen to be deported after a drug conviction.

He served seven years in prison on the drug charges, and has now given up fighting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for his citizenship. His current legal tactic is waiting out the agency, pending an administrative review of his case, scheduled Dec. 12.

He could get help from a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that foreigners who cannot be deported cannot be held indefinitely, and set a six-month detention maximum. Jean-Baptiste has been held at Krome since June.

The U.S. government hasn't been able to find a nation willing to take Jean-Baptiste, who is no longer a citizen of any country. His native Haiti refused because he gave up his citizenship there a decade ago to become an American; France has also declined.

"They have nothing really to hold him but his criminal record. The guy has been a model citizen for the last 25 years," said Andre Pierre, Jean-Baptiste's attorney.

Government attorneys have disagreed, arguing he did not have "good moral character" before he became a citizen. That determination allows officials to strip naturalized Americans of their citizenship; offenses include not paying alimony, lying on the citizenship application or admitting facts that constitute a crime even if no charges were filed.

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals concurred in January 2005, ruling that the conviction alone was not enough to revoke his citizenship -- but committing a crime showed he lacked the required good moral character. The Supreme Court declined to hear Jean-Baptiste's appeal 10 months later.

"The case is still under review. Our obligation as a law enforcement agency is to carry out orders of removal as issued by immigration judges," ICE spokeswoman Barbara Gonzalez said in a statement.

Late last month in a spare computer room at Krome, Jean-Baptiste, 59, could only shrug at his attempts to get the government to hear his side of the story. "The government is an elephant and my lawyer is a little cat. He does whatever he can," he said.

Jean-Baptiste became a U.S. citizen in April 1996, after answering no to questions about whether he had ever been arrested, charged, fined or convicted for breaking any law except traffic violations. What apparently never came up in his application was the March 1995 day when he says a woman walked into his Little Haiti restaurant and asked if he could sell her 2 ounces of crack cocaine.

Federal authorities at the time alleged that Jean-Baptiste was an upper-level manager of a crack cocaine ring in the impoverished Miami neighborhood.

Jean-Baptiste has persistently denied the allegations. He says he told the woman -- an undercover police officer -- not in his restaurant, but drugs would probably not be hard to find up the street.

He was indicted in October 1996 on charges of possessing, selling and conspiring to sell crack cocaine; he was only convicted of conspiracy. The undercover officer testified at trial that Jean-Baptiste specifically directed her to his supplier -- a claim she could not substantiate with a recording because her wire had failed to catch their conversation.

Jean-Baptiste could have fought his deportation ruling on the grounds that naturalized immigrants cannot be deported for convictions while they are citizens, Pierre said, but despaired at potentially spending years in detention during the appeals process.

Some immigrant advocates ask why so many federal resources have been spent prosecuting Jean-Baptiste.

"It does seem like in this case the government is going through quite a lot of expense for someone convicted of a crime that is relatively common," said Kerri Sherlock, a director for the Washington-based Rights Working Group.

Sherlock said immigrants get punished twice, in criminal and immigration court, with no regard for their long-standing ties to the community.

"They deserve to be treated with dignity and fairness and have the same basic rights as other Americans and shouldn't be punished over and over again for minor offenses," she said.

Federal prosecutors have said in court filings that no extenuating circumstances in Jean-Baptiste's life offset his criminal record and establish good moral character. "Mr. Jean-Baptiste forfeited his right to become a United States citizen by violating our nation's laws. The bottom line is, he was convicted of a serious drug trafficking offense, and consistent with our congressional mandate, ICE has fulfilled its legal obligations," Gonzalez said.

He arrived in the U.S. after being rescued from an overloaded wooden boat sinking off the state's coast and was detained at Krome for several weeks in 1980. He went on to gain permanent residency and worked odd jobs until he earned enough to buy his restaurant, then the building and two other properties. He brought his wife and three sons from Port-au-Prince, Haiti; two daughters were born here.

Jean-Baptiste punctuates his story with terse exclamations of "Why?"

"When you do something, you have to pay for it. When you don't do nothing, you have to be angry," he said.

"Why it happen to me? Because I'm from the Caribbean, or what? Because I'm black?" he said. "If they find something in my past that wasn't in my records, they can revoke my citizenship. Or if I conspire against the United States, they can revoke my citizenship. I didn't do nothing like that."

Sex offenders are stripped of their citizenship and returne to their country of origin too.

Dixie