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Vindicated
in Fight For Freedom |
It's been just over a month since Haitian immigrant Enrico St. Cyr walked out of the Connecticut Correctional Facility. Speaking about the time spent as a detainee of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the 26 year old said that for almost two years, he, and other detainees, had their self-control tested by other inmates many of whom were hardened criminals who often found the slightest reason to brawl. Additionally, he had practically every action determined for him. He was told when to shower, when to eat and when to work. Every morning, St. Cry says he and other prisoners were awakened at 6 a.m for breakfast, which often included a boiled egg, two slices of bread, some milk and a few grapes. If anyone missed breakfast, then that person had to wait for lunch. After breakfast, prisoners were given an option of working for 75 cents per day or basically spending the time watching television.
Work involved mopping, cleaning, passing out food to other inmates, waxing the floors, or painting. Lunch often a cold sandwich with some potato salad - was served usually at 11:30 am, and inmates were given 20 minutes to eat, before being ordered back to work. Often times many of the inmates retired after lunch to their cell, the basketball court or infront of the prison-owned television. As many jostled for position, fights often ensued. So to avoid confrontation, St. Cyr had his family send him money to buy his own television and he stayed most of the time in his cell. vowing that the thought that "the day I go out it is the day they open this door to let me go home."
Some of the time he would sit silently, pondering his fate and asking himself over and over again, "why?," as he reminisced on times with family and friends.
A call for dinner often interrupted his reverie at 4:30 pm and then it was back into the cell until 6 am the next day. It was in those long hours that many, including his cellmate, contemplated suicide, says St. Cyr. But St. Cyr never did. Instead he kept hope alive. And he got his parents to hire Attorney Michael Moore to fight his deportation order.
On June 25th, St. Cyr not only won his case, but made history for immigrants in deportation proceedings in the United States. This followed a "habeas corpus" petition submitted and argued by Attorney Moore of Massachusetts, along with attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union, on behalf of St. Cyr and three other immigrants. The attorneys basically stated that it was unconstitutional to deport immigrants who had committed crimes even minor ones - prior to the 1996 law
without allowing them to seek reprieve. The U.S. Supreme Court
justices agreed. According to Lucas Guttenberg of the ACLU, the
5-to-4 decision will now give legal immigrants who are facing
deportation the right to challenge their cases and it will grant
reprieve to those who committed crimes before 1996 and were in
deportation proceedings.St. Cyr falls into the latter group since he committed a crime back in March 1996, for which he served his time. After his release, on April 10, 1997, the INS issued St. Cyr a Notice to Appear, charging him as removable under the new law, because he had been convicted of an aggravated felony. On January 12, 1998, an immigration judge found that St. Cyr was removable under Section 237 of the Immigration Naturalization Act. In the time between St. Cyr's conviction and his receipt of a Notice to Appear, Congress enacted the AEDPA and IIRIRA. These laws significantly limited the cases where discretionary relief from deportation could be sought and rendered an immigrant who was removable because of an aggravated felony conviction, statutorily ineligible to apply for relief from deportation.
At his hearing, St. Cyr's lawyer Michael Moore sought to prevent his client's removal by applying for a discretionary waiver of deportation under the former law. The immigration judge denied the application. Moore then appealed St. Cyr's removal order to the Board of Immigration Appeals, but because of the changes made by Congress to the immigration laws, the BIA dismissed the Haitian national's appeal on November 10, 1998.On April 27, 1999, St. Cyr filed a "habeas corpus" petition in the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut. This subsequently led to the Supreme Court's hearing and the June 25th decision.Now St. Cyr is preparing for his court hearing in another six months. He hopes to secure a reprieve and be able to move on with his life and put the horrific experience behind. But for now, he has to abide by the restrictions still placed on him by the INS.
"I have to see the INS (officers) in Hartford on the first Tuesday of every month," said St. Cyr in an exclusive interview from his mother's home in Bridgeport. "And I cannot be out of the area for more than 48 hours without first giving them notice and getting their permission."
And in a related matter some 3,400 detainees across the nation will probably be released in the wake of the decision resulting from the Ma v. Reno suit whereby the US Supreme court ruled it was unconstitutional to indefinitely hold Kim Ho Ma, a Cambodian refugee who has lived in the United States since age 7. Ma was convicted of manslaughter at age 17 for a gang-related shooting. He served two years and was then put in INS custody because Cambodia has no repatriation agreement with the United States.
Among those who could soon earn their freedom is Anthony Budhai, a Guyanese sentenced for four years for attempted armed robbery. But he has just just finished serving six years, having completed his term in 1999. Today he is still in state prison, one of the ''lifers'' stuck in detention - required by a 1996 federal law to be deported, but unable to leave America because his home country won't take him back.
Within three months, however the 3,400 detainees will probably be released in the wake of the ruling that overturned part of the 1996 law, declaring that immigrants may not be held for more than 90 days after their sentences end.
For Budhai, the ruling is long overdue. ''They've let child molesters go home,'' he said. ''Since they are American, they can leave. But because I'm an immigrant, I have to stay locked up. Is that fair? They have to let us go. That's all I have to say. Just set me free.''