Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Immigrant Ordered To Depart Voluntarily By September To Peru, Despite Open Federal Immigration Appeal Cases

Moisés Roger Mory-Lamas

Photo: The Militant

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to deport undocument immigrant despite open federal immigration appeal case, a petition for residency and work authorization until 2011

By H. Nelson Goodson
August 24, 2010

West New York, New Jersey - On Monday, ICE agents arrested Moisés Roger Mory-Lamas, 53, at about 2:00 p.m. when he failed to buy an airline ticket for voluntary departure. Mory-Lamas was taken to the Essex County Correctional Facility, 354 Doremus Avenue in Newark for deportation, despite pending immigration appeal cases. His arrest was brought upon by alleged dubious actions by ICE agents that transpired last week. Mory-Lamas is currently being kept in isolation by ICE officials and not allowed media reporters to interview him or even legal representation, according to sources at the Essex County Jail facility.
Last Thursday, three federal agents from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) took Peruvian citizen Mory-Lamas to the Peru Consulate in Paterson from an ICE office he was reporting as required, so Consul Alejandro Beoutis could approve his deportation. Mory-Lamas alleged, Consul Beoutis told him he had to surrender his Peruvian passport to ICE, or face legal authorization for ICE to deport him anyway from the Peru government, if he wouldn't comply. He said, that ICE agents confiscated his Peruvian passport inside the Peru Consulate, while Consul Beoutis looked on.
A Peruvian official letter (an official Act) in Spanish states, Mory-Lamas had agreed to turn over his Peruvian passport to ICE and will have to depart voluntarily on September 18. But Mory-Lamas alleges, he was given no alternative by Peruvian Consul Beoutis and was forced to accept voluntary departure.
Mory-Lamas says, Peruvian Consul Beoutis, three ICE agents identified as Juan Mezarina, Oscar Torres and James Laforge, U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and U.S. Department of Homeland Security Department (USDHS) are violating his rights, under immigration law and the U.S. Constitution.
By USICE agents to enter a foreign consulate for the purpose to force (coerce) detainee or immigrant to surrender his/her passport of a foreign country, in this case Peru is questionable, if not illegal.
A Peruvian citizen has a right to enter a Peruvian Consulate for official purposes, but with U.S. agents as escorts is illegal, they have no legal authority, jurisdiction, or diplomatic status to sign such an Act inside the Consulate, considered foreign soil.
The agents whose signatures with their official capacity appears on the Act were inside the Peru Consulate as U.S. officials representing the U.S. government when in fact, they have no legal status to do so and it seems their agreement by legal standards is voided.
The ICE agents act alone inside the Peru Consulate shows how questionable and extreme their activities and ICE policies are viewed in deportation proceedings by immigration rights activists in the U.S.
Mory-Lamas has been challenging his deportation for 11 years and has become one of longest appeal immigration cases in 15 years. Mory-Lamas case is proof how disfunctional and probable illegal acts committed by federal agencies under former President George W. Bush and current President Barack H. Obama and U.S. Attorney General Eric Himpton Holder Jr.
He has spend at least five years in immigration detention, until he was released in early 2009.  
Mory-Lamas was convicted of possession of drugs, a minor state offense. He pleaded no-contest in 1986, and his lawyer did not advice Mory-Lamas of the consequences and possible deportation. Mory-Lamas served 6 months in jail and was fined $30.00 for the conviction.
He began his appeal in 1999, served one year in '99 and then served four years from 2004 and was finally released in January 2009. Since then, Mory-Lamas was put on an electronic device, had to report to an ICE officer at least twice a week, until he finally was granted a work permit until 2011. 
Ruth Mory a U.S. Citizen, his wife had petition for Mory-Lamas residency in 2004, under the 1986 amnesty Northwest Immigration Projects.
Today, Mory-Lamas has a pending habeas corpus appeal with federal Judge Dennis Cavanaugh in the district of Newark.
Mory-Lamas has a 17-year-old daughter who is a U.S. Citizen.  
Mory-Lamas falls under several circumstances that ICE would not deport an immigrant due to extraordinary circumstances (heartship).
1. He is the main bread winning for his family. His wife Ruth is very ill and has mounting medical bills. If he is deported, his family would have to seek other means of support, most likely state and federal government assistance.
2. He is not a gang member or is affiliated with any criminal organization.
3. His conviction is a minor offense in the State of New Jersey and not considered a federal offense.
4. His wife Ruth had petition for his residency in 2004.
5. His right to appeal, if his lawyer failed to advice him of the consequences it could have on his immigration status by pleading no contest to a minor offense. In this case, the lawyer in 1986 failed to advice him and Mory-Lamas sued. Case still unresolved.
However, in Mory-Lamas immigration case he has been excluded by ICE officials to allow him to stay in the U.S.
The Peruvian Consulate in Paterson, ICE, USDOJ and USDHS have not released any statements about Mory-Lamas final plight.

Copy of official Act in Spanish by the Peru Consulate, and Consul Alejandro Beoutis in Paterson, identifying ICE agents with their signatures, concerning Moisés Roger Mory-Lamas departure from the U.S. (Click on photo to enlarge)


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