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Controversial Act Increases Deportations

Law criticized as especially unfair to non-citizen residents

By Associated Press

Andrew Hyun, of Stamford, Conn., was a college freshman and aspiring computer scientist when he was charged with selling marijuana to an undercover police officer. Now the 19-year-old is getting a harsh lesson in immigration law. Federal officials have decided that Hyun must be deported to South Korea, even though he grew up in America and doesn’t speak the language of that country. He hasn’t been in South Korea since he was 7 months old.

Hyun is one of numerous criminals criticizing the U.S. Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, which increased the number of deportable offenses to include such minor charges as shoplifting.

Nationally, deportations more than tripled between 1995 and 1998, when they reached 172,500. In Connecticut, the number of deportations increased from 229 in 1996 to 379 last year.

The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service has labeled Hyun a drug trafficker and says he must be deported. Under the law, he would be barred from visiting the United States, including the Stamford home where he grew up the youngest of four siblings.

Hyun was attending the University of Connecticut last September when he and his 19-year-old roommate, Peter Rowland, were charged with selling marijuana.

Hyun was on probation at the time for an earlier drug offense. He took a plea bargain on the new charge and in February was sentenced to one year in prison. Rowland also entered a plea. He faces a 90-day jail term when he is sentenced later this month.

When he arrived in the United States, Hyun became a lawful, permanent resident. But his father never became a naturalized citizen, making Hyun ineligible for naturalization until his 18th birthday. By then, he had already been convicted of a drug offense.

The law’s most controversial provision authorizes deportations of non-citizen residents for crimes committed years ago. The 1996 immigration act has hit Connecticut’s newer ethnic groups hardest. Jamaicans, Colombians and Dominicans have been deported in the greatest numbers.

“A lot of people who are impacted came in as children,” said Hyacinth Douglas-Bailey, an East Hartford lawyer who primarily handles immigration cases. “They don’t even stop to think they’re not citizens. They’ve gone to school here and they’ve been here so long they think of themselves as Americans.”

The INS also wants to deport Earle Munroe because he was convicted of drug possession and weapons charges in 1989. Munroe, a 30-year resident served an 18-month sentence and now is a business owner in New Haven.

Kenneth Phillips was arrested by the INS after he was injured during his construction job and stopped making court-ordered restitution payments for a 1994 larceny conviction for failing to return rental equipment. He’s a father of three who has lived in the country lawfully since 1979.

“This is sort of a typical example of someone who was leading a fairly straightforward, non-criminal life, and it sort of just spins out of control,” said Michael Boyle, an immigration lawyer.

Atlanta resident Olufolake Olaleye, a mother of two, was ordered deported because of a conviction six years ago for shoplifting baby outfits worth $14.99. Olaleye, a Nigerian, became a permanent resident in 1990. Her children were born in the United States.

Before 1996, non-citizens could appeal a deportation decision. But the new law abolished the appeals process for non-citizens found guilty of drug crimes and sentenced to at least one year in prison, whether the term is suspended or not.

“The problem with the law is it doesn’t allow the INS to decide who is sympathetic and who is not,” said Christopher Meade of the Immigrants’ Rights Project of the American Civil Liberties Union. “These laws were harsh and are being interpreted in a way that tears families apart.”

The INS even agrees the law goes too far. The agency has urged Congress to restore the discretion that has been largely stripped from immigration judges.

Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., is one of several lawmakers who want to restore that discretion. Last year he introduced bipartisan legislation. But the House failed to take formal action on the bill and passed a more conservative version on Sept. 19.

The new bill, pending in the Senate, would allow people facing deportation because of crimes committed before 1996 to apply for relief in immigration court. The bill doesn’t cover people who committed certain nonviolent drug offenses.

Hyun, meanwhile, was transferred to a more secure prison once the INS decided to deport him. He will remain there until he serves his entire sentence, having lost the chance for early release.

Prosecutors say Hyun knew that he faced the risk of deportation when he took the plea bargain.

An INS official said there is little the agency can do until the law is changed.

“It’s difficult to look at these cases,” said Paula Grenier, an INS spokeswoman at the district office in Boston. “We’re aware that it hurts families, but the bottom line is we’re enforcing the law as it’s given to us.”