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Published July 12, 2005

Refugee cries after learning judge grants him U.S. residency

By CHUCK SCHOFFNER
ASSOCIATED PRESS

A Ugandan refugee who has been helping coach a high school track team in Iowa cried and was left speechless after learning he had been granted permanent residency in the United States.

An immigration judge ruled Tuesday that William Keleture’s marriage was valid and he could remain in this country, ending a two-year battle to avoid deportation.

‘‘It was emotional. It was tears all over my face,’’ Keleture said by cellular telephone while returning from a hearing. ‘‘I couldn’t talk. I couldn’t say anything. My wife next to me was crying. It was tears all over.’’

The ruling by Judge Carlos Cuevas followed a 10-minute hearing conducted through a video hookup.

Keleture, 39, and his wife, Theresa, sat in a courtroom in Council Bluffs while Cuevas questioned them from Chicago.

Cuevas ruled immediately, granting Keleture an ‘‘adjustment of status,’’ which makes him a legal resident.

‘‘The judge says he doesn’t need any more proof for him to prove our marriage,’’ Keleture said. ‘‘He sees it is a genuine one.’’

Keleture, an assistant track coach at Pleasant Valley High School, has lived in the United States since 1992. His battle to stay began after the Board of Immigration Appeals ordered him to leave the country in February 2003 because his appeal of a decision rejecting his request for asylum did not have the proper documentation.

His attorney at the time did not file papers to support the effort after Keleture told him he had married.

The notification never reached him, however, and he was arrested in January 2004, subsequently spending 46 days in jail. Friends and others who heard of his case rallied for Keleture and Rep. Jim Nussle, R-Iowa, got involved.

An attorney eventually won a halt in the deportation proceedings and Keleture was allowed to apply for resident status.

His hearing originally was scheduled for last month but was delayed until Tuesday after the government said it did not have a recent set of Keleture’s fingerprints on file.

‘‘It took too long, but it was worth it. I get to stay,’’ Keleture said. ‘‘It was a hard-fought battle by my wife and everybody, but it was well fought. I’m happy because of the way it ended.’’

The couple’s 5-year-old daughter, Autumn, accompanied her parents to the hearing, though they had to wake her after the judge ruled.

‘‘They told her about everything and then she was saying, ‘Thank God. The judge let my daddy stay,’ ’’ Keleture said.

Keleture arrived in the United States from a small village in Uganda about four miles south of the border with Sudan. His father had been killed in an ambush three years earlier and a close family friend had been arrested.

After receiving a student visa to attend school, Keleture applied for asylum in 1995, but the request was denied six years later. He said Tuesday he wants to continue coaching and try to finish his schooling.

‘‘This is a country of great opportunity,’’ Keleture said. ‘‘I’m trying to see how I can achieve. In this country, the sky is the limit.’’