Park Hills, Mo. man faces deportation to Canada


BY STEPHEN DEERE
1 Comment | Posted: Saturday, November 6, 2010 12:10 am

ST. LOUIS • Scott Jones thought the early morning pounding on his door in August was a friend playing a joke.

But then out came the handcuffs, and before he knew what was happening, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were arresting him in the living room of his Park Hills, Mo., mobile home. His wife and four kids looked on.

Jones was charged with being in the country unlawfully.

For four months, Jones, 33, sat in a jail cell while the government tried to deport him to Canada — a country he says he hasn't seen since he was 6 weeks old.

On Friday, ICE released him with little explanation.

As he walked away from the Robert A. Young federal building in downtown St. Louis, Jones held his 3-year-old daughter, Jocelyn, and whispered in her ear.

"I love you," he said. "I've missed you so much."

It's a perplexing case involving paternity tests and 20-year-old court records. Felony convictions from a decade ago only compound Jones' problems.

ICE officials refused to comment on the case beyond a two-sentence statement Friday confirming Jones' release and that his removal charges are still pending.

Jones' attorneys fees and inability to work for the past few months have exhausted the family savings.

"I'm absolutely broke now," said Jones, who owns a small roofing company. "I'm scared I'm just going to run out of money and they are going to send me to Canada, and I won't have anything but the clothes on my back."

BORN IN CANADA

All Yvonne Clark wanted to do was get far away from a bad relationship.

She wasn't even from Canada. She had immigrated to the U.S. from Scotland 10 years earlier and become a permanent U.S. resident.

Saskatchewan was just a place where she thought she could recover from a divorce from Byron Jones, the man she says was Scott's father.

"That was about as far north as I could run," she said.

Clark settled in the small Canadian town of Regina while pregnant with Scott. She made a living cleaning apartments.

When her son was born, she didn't list Byron Jones as the father on the birth certificate, fearing it might reveal her whereabouts.

But he found her anyway, and six weeks after Scott was born, Byron Jones persuaded his former wife to get back together.

When the couple crossed the border, no one questioned the citizenship of her newborn infant, Clark said.

"I just automatically thought Scott was an American," she said.

Scott Jones never had a problem getting a Social Security card, drivers license or employment, he said. Questions of citizenship didn't come up during multiple convictions in Arkansas in 1998 or in Missouri in 2000. Jones received probation in both states. Since 2000, court records show he has only been charged with traffic offenses.

His citizenship wasn't an issue until 2006, when Jones broke his back in an ATV accident. When he applied for Medicaid, he was turned down because the government claimed he wasn't a citizen.

In 2007, Jones filed an application with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. It was denied because the government said Jones failed to prove that Byron Jones was his father. He heard nothing more about his status until ICE agents showed up at his door three years later.

"To come in here and treat him like a terrorist is absurd," said Jones' wife, Stacie.

Jones' attorney, Raymond Bolourtchi, said if his client hadn't filled out the application for citizenship, ICE probably wouldn't have been alerted to his presence in the country.

"It's just the government's continued effort to gather all the noncitizens with criminal convictions," Bolourtchi said. "He just put himself on the map."

PROVING KINSHIP

Proving Byron Jones is Scott Jones' father — for the purpose of citizenship — isn't as simple as a paternity test.

But Scott's family convinced Jones, of Wichita, Kan., to take one in September. The results showed a 99.9 percent likelihood of paternity.

Bolourtchi also uncovered a 1980 court order regarding Byron Jones' child support payments for Scott Jones; proof, the attorney said, that Scott was legally Jones' son.

Still, the Department of Homeland Security is arguing for Jones' deportation. According to court documents, the government's attorney claims Jones still needs the original court order for child support.

Bolourtchi has been unable to locate it. He doesn't know why.

"I wish I knew," he said.

A TRIP DOWNTOWN

Scott Jones' release from jail came almost as suddenly as his arrest.

He had been detained in the Montgomery County Jail, which serves as a federal immigration and detention facility. Jones requested bond, he said, but was denied repeatedly.

Then at 5 a.m. on Friday, a jail employee told Jones he was going to the federal building in downtown St. Louis. Jones wondered if he was about to be sent to Canada. He rode in a van with five men who were about to be deported to Mexico, he said.

About a half hour later, he learned he would be freed — at least for now.

"They said it was coming from higher up the chain of command," Jones said.

His release came two days after the Post-Dispatch sent ICE spokeswoman Gail Montenegro an inquiry about Jones' case. She declined to answer questions about his release.

Jones noted that he still faces deportation charges. He has a court date Dec. 6.

But on Friday he just was grateful to see his family. His wife picked him up with their youngest daughter, and he planned on getting his other three children out of school.

Next week, he plans to get back to roofing.

"I need to take care of my family," he said. "I've missed like four roofs since I've been in here."

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