Dear Editor,
A recent judicial ruling by a US Federal court could help some deported Guyanese to regain their status to live in the U.S. Guyanese in deportation centres in America could also obtain relief from the ruling but they would need a savvy lawyer to file an appeal on their behalf. Guyanese Attorney, Randy Depoo, who practices American immigration law in Guyana and Trinidad, has helped a Trinidadian deportee to return to the U.S to present her case why her residency status should be restored. It is a rarity for a deportee, who had a green card revoked because of a criminal record, to be allowed back into the U.S. The law does not allow for deportees to return to the U.S without judicial intervention.
The case involves Marlene Jaggernauth who left Trinidad at age 11 as a permanent resident with her parents. She never bothered to apply for citizenship; immigrant citizens with criminal records are not deported unless citizenship is obtained through fraud. Jaggernauth has 4 kids born in the USA including twins. While she was pregnant for her twins, the father walked out on her. After delivery, she suffered post partum depression, which manifested itself in shoplifting. Some people resort to drugs and alcohol, etc. In Jaggernauth’s case, according to Depoo, she would go to Kmart and steal items such as a hammer that she did not need. She was convicted of shoplifting in 1997 and 2001 and successfully served probation.
But in 2003, Jaggernauth was rounded up by immigration authorities and taken to a detention centre hours away from her home. When she protested the deplorable conditions at the jail, she was moved to a more remote facility. When she secured an attorney to represent her, she was moved from the jail on the morning before the attorney could meet with her.
Depoo said “she was deemed to be an aggravated felon making her ineligible for bail and cancellation of her green card”.
She fought her case through the immigration appeals and then in Federal Court, assisted by the Catholic Legal Immigration Network Inc (CLINIC) and the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center. She was deported to Trinidad while her federal appeal was pending. In Trinidad she teamed up with Depoo to form a deportee advocacy group, Displaced Nationals in Crisis Coalition (DNICC) to provide services to deportees.
The Federal Appellate Court eventually ruled that she was not convicted of an aggravated felony and remanded the matter for a hearing to determine whether she qualified for withholding of deportation. On February 1 Jaggernauth received notice from the U.S Embassy in Trinidad that she had to return to the USA that same day at 3:00pm. She went to the USA and was taken into custody pending her hearing.
According to immigration law, green card holders are subjected to deportation if convicted of a crime or plead guilty to a crime that leads to six months probation. There are exceptions to the rule with a stay in deportation proceedings. Thousands of immigrants have been deported over the last few years because of a criminal record and some of the crimes are very petty – shop lifting, evading mass transportation fares, fights, and spousal abuse.
Many immigrants are unfairly deported because they don’t have lawyers to argue their cases. An immigrant in detention could have a strong case to stay in the U.S if he or she has a loved one who is a citizen or if the person lived almost all of his or her life in America as in the case of Jaggernauth. Depoo is confident Jaggernauth will win her case paving the way for others to challenge deportation policy.
Yours faithfully,
Vishnu Bisram
