Thread: New Jersey 'Dreamer' deported to Albania months after his parents' removal

New Jersey 'Dreamer' deported to Albania months after his parents' removal

Monsy Alvarado, North Jersey Record
Published 6:30 a.m. ET Oct. 24, 2018

From March 2018: The Pukri family was expecting a diversity visa, but the parents were detained. The father is in jail and the mother has to wear an ankle bracelet. Anne-Marie Caruso/NorthJersey.com



(Photo: Anne-Marie Caruso/NorthJersey.com)


A 21-year-old Clifton man who had been shielded from deportation under a program for undocumented immigrants who came to the country as children has been deported to Albania, joining his parents who were sent back earlier this year.

Mikel Pukri, a Clifton High School graduate who came to the United States when he was 3, was deported last month, immigration officials said Tuesday. His deportation came after he spent several months in detention in the Essex County Jail as he fought his immigration case.

"Pukri's case was unsuccessfully litigated at every level of the immigration court system,'' U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said in a statement. "Once he exhausted all venues, he was removed."

Pukri and his older brother, Bepin, came to the United States with their parents, Vitor and Neta Pukri, on a tourist visa in 2001. Neta Pukri said in an earlier interview that they were forced to leave Albania because of her husband's political views, which she and her sons said clashed with the socialists in power and made him a target of threats. They also expressed concern over family rivalries in Albania known as "blood feuds."

Bepin Pukri, could not be reached Tuesday.

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More: A Clifton mother of three is deported to Albania, months after her husband's removal

Neta and Vitor Pukri applied for asylum soon after arriving in the country and were denied. They settled in Clifton, where Vitor Pukri, who had been a veterinarian in Albania, worked as a truck driver and Neta Pukri was a waitress at a local diner.

The couple were issued orders of removal in 2004 that were upheld by two appellate courts, according to an ICE spokesman.

Mikel Pukri and his older brother applied and received a work permit and protection from deportation under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, an Obama-era policy for undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as children.

Their younger sister was born in the United States and is a U.S. citizen.
Last year, the couple and Mikel Pukri, were notified by U.S.

Citizenship and Immigration Services that their application for a diversity visa had been selected. The visa is given to up to 50,000 people annually from countries with low rates of legal immigration to the United States.

The family thought that they were on a path to legalization, but when they arrived for a meeting with immigration officials, the couple were detained because of their previous deportation orders. The Pukris didn't know that the orders prevented them from pursuing the diversity visa. Because Mikel Pukri was protected under DACA, he was not detained at the time.

Neta Pukri sits beneath a family photo with her children, from left, Angela, Mikel, and Bepin in this file photo. (Photo: Anne-Marie Caruso/NorthJersey.com)


In March, when immigration officials were deporting Vitor Pukri, his wife, who had been released with an ankle bracelet, and Mikel Pukri went to Newark Liberty International Airport to say goodbye, according to Sally Pillay, program director for First Friends of New Jersey and New York. But some sort of altercation erupted, according to law enforcement officials.

Neta Pukri was taken into custody and charged with assault, disorderly conduct, hindering and obstruction for allegedly interfering with federal law enforcement agents. She was deported in June.

A few days later, Mikel Pukri, who left the airport, surrendered to police, and was also charged and detained.

Mikel Pukri had been issued a final order of deportation years ago before he received his DACA status, according to ICE.
"He lost his DACA status after trying to interfere with his father’s removal at Newark Airport and then subsequently being detained by ICE at Essex,'' said Emilio Dabul, an ICE spokesman.

Pillay, of First Friends, said that the Pukris youngest child moved to Albania to join her parents after the end of the school year.

"My heart is broken how this family has been torn apart and what just happened,'' Pillay said.

https://www.northjersey.com/story/ne...al/1741843002/

And the taxpayers are footing the bill of MILLIONS of dollars on these foreigners court cases.

Deport them on the spot!

Stop bringing them here.