http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/ ... 212022.htm

Posted on Mon, Dec. 11, 2006

FACING DEPORTATION
Immigrant's fight brings issue home
DÁNICA COTO
dcoto@charlotteobserver.com

The phones began ringing in late May.

The caller usually began the conversation with, "You don't know me, but ... "

One phone call begot another, and soon, high-ranking Charlotte professionals were learning that Michel Shango, a popular limousine driver, was being deported.

Shango was like another family member to some clients. His hearty laugh, knowledge of Charlotte's history and penchant for current events drew them in. They began inviting Shango to dinner, to their children's dance performances, even to join them at a NASCAR night race in Bristol, Tenn.

The national debate on immigration suddenly became personal.

About a half-dozen people decided to fight for him, taking a public stand in a state where stringent laws and English-only resolutions are increasingly employed to oust an estimated 390,000 illegal immigrants.

"I don't know about all these other ones, but I care about this one," said Dr. Jared Schwartz, a Presbyterian Hospital pathologist who met Shango two years ago on a ride to the airport.

As he talked with other people who knew Shango, it reminded him of the early days of HIV/AIDS. People would rant about how someone deserved to be infected, until a family member or someone in their church was diagnosed, Schwartz said.

"Then it'd be, `Oh, wait a second,' " he said.

Wendy Liff, a New York City resident, was the first client to find out that immigration officials had arrested Shango. Liff's daughter, who lives in Charlotte, was expecting Shango to pick her up. His cousin Pierre Onekanda showed up instead.

"He's not here," she was told. "He's trying to solve some problem."

Seeking asylum

In 1995, Michel Shango fled what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo after spending several weeks in jail for having written a newspaper report criticizing the government.He applied for asylum after arriving in the U.S., but soon married an American woman. A petition to become a legal resident was approved. By then, though, an order of deportation was already in place -- triggered by the asylum request Shango had dropped, said Glenn Fogle, an Atlanta immigration lawyer who represented Shango. An immigration judge had granted Shango voluntary departure on June 2, 1998 -- a procedure less stringent than forced deportation.

Shango thought he had obtained legal status, relatives say, and began building a life in Charlotte. He continued working as a limousine driver, got divorced and remarried a Congolese woman he met here.

At 6 a.m. May 24, immigration officials rang his doorbell in southwest Charlotte.

Irčne Shango stumbled toward the door. Fluent only in French, she said she didn't quite understand what the officials wanted.

They showed her a picture of a man she didn't recognize, but they kept repeating her husband's name, she said. She agreed to let them search the house. Michel Shango was asleep, having returned from work around 4 a.m.

About 30 minutes later, authorities left with Shango, 41, who said goodbye to his wife, young daughter and baby twin boys.

Hoping for extraordinary

As Shango's clients began finding out what happened, they mobilized.

Liff began researching lawyers and offered to pay for his defense, as well as a visit to the Atlanta detention center so Shango's family could see him.

"I understand that people have to be here legally," she said.

But, she said, if you've lived here a long time, have family and contribute to society, there should be some leniency. "It's hard for me to separate the law from this individual."

Schwartz, meanwhile, started calling on government officials and wrote a letter of recommendation.

Allison Brown, a local event planner, and her boyfriend, are helping pay the family's bills. They became friends with Shango because he drove them at least three times a week to dinner and sports events.

"I understand the immigration thing and all that, but he wasn't on the street robbing people," Brown said.

Shango, imprisoned since May, is awaiting a flight to the Congo, where his only relative is a sick grandfather. It's unclear why immigration officials targeted him, said Fogle, speculating that a federal fugitive unit rounding up illegal immigrants had Shango on their list. Immigration officials declined to comment. A criminal background check revealed only several speeding citations.

Shango's legal hearings are over. A motion to reopen his case was denied on Nov. 3, according to court records. Unless something extraordinary happens, he will be deported. His clients refuse to accept that.

Once a group of strangers, they're now calling other clients, organizing help for the family, looking for any idea that might bring Shango home.
Dánica Coto: 704-358-5065.