27968: Hermantin(news)New wrinkle in deportation case (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Posted on Thu, Feb. 23, 2006


IMMIGRATION
New wrinkle in deportation case
U.S. immigration officials claimed in court that a Haitian sex offender facing 
deportation is not entitled to U.S. citizenship because he is adopted.
BY ALFONSO CHARDY
achardy@MiamiHerald.com

Frantzy Odige, the 23-year-old Haitian-born convicted sex offender in 
deportation proceedings, is not entitled to U.S. citizenship because he may 
have been adopted, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement prosecutor told 
an immigration judge Wednesday.

The claim adds a new complication to Odige's legal struggle to preempt 
deportation to his native Haiti. Odige argues that his U.S. citizenship 
automatically derives from his parents, who were naturalized when he was a 
minor.

André Pierre, Odige's attorney, told The Miami Herald after a 30-minute 
immigration court hearing that the government's claim does not alter his 
contention that his client qualifies for citizenship and cannot be expelled.

Immigration Judge Kevin McHugh suggested he may render a decision at the next 
hearing on March 1.

The adoption claim came from Nancy Waller, an Immigration and Customs 
Enforcement assistant chief counsel.

Waller and Odige appeared at McHugh's immigration courtroom in Bradenton. Odige 
has been held in detention in Bradenton since he was taken into custody in 
January. Pierre participated by phone from his North Miami office.

Immigration officers detained Odige, on probation after pleading guilty to 
sexual assault on a minor, because under federal law foreign nationals 
convicted of aggravated felonies must be deported. Odige told the officers he 
is a U.S. citizen -- but had no way to prove it because he neither had a U.S. 
passport nor a certificate of citizenship.

Pierre revealed during Wednesday's hearing that his client's family filed an 
application for a citizenship certificate in 2000, when Odige was 17 -- but 
never received it. He was awaiting a copy of the application from the family.

Pierre told The Miami Herald after the hearing that neither Odige nor his 
family had told him that he was adopted. But he said he had questioned Odige's 
mother closely late Tuesday and concluded his client may be adopted and that 
the mother did not want her son to know. He said the new information does not 
alter his opinion that Odige is entitled to automatic derivative citizenship.

''He is clearly a U.S. citizen, your honor,'' Pierre told McHugh.

Waller argued back that Odige is not a citizen and was required to be present 
in the United States with a green card at the time his adoptive parents 
naturalized to claim automatic derivative citizenship.

Pierre countered that Waller was misreading the law. But Waller said she based 
her conclusion on two other cases.

One of the unpublished opinions cited by Waller involved a Haitian convict who 
claimed derived citizenship from an adoptive ''mother or grandmother.'' Waller 
handled the government's side in that case as well.

The immigration judge ruled against Geordany Jean Andre and ordered 
deportation. The Board of Immigration Appeals affirmed deportation, stating the 
law requires residence in the United States with a green card at the time of at 
least one adoptive parent's naturalization.

Miami lawyer Ira Kurzban, a national authority on immigration law, said 
adoption should not erode Pierre's contention his client is an American -- as 
long as the adoption occurred before Odige was admitted as a green-card holder 
in 1999. Pierre said the adoption occurred before Odige's arrival in 1999. The 
parents naturalized in the late 1980s.

Kurzban also said that generally unpublished opinions are not considered 
binding in immigration law.