Sunday, November 28, 2010

Lack Of Accountability Taints Morton's Leadership In U.S. ICE

John Morton
Assistant Secretary of ICE

ICE officials wrongdoing lacks accountability in deportation cases

By H. Nelson Goodson
November 28, 2010

Newark, New Jersey - On November 16, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) officials confirmed that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deportation officials erred in the removal of New Jersey resident Moises Mory Lamas, 55, who was deported almost three months ago. Mory Lamas was deported to Peru after more than a decade of challenging his removal due to a minor violation of a state law.
On November 3, CIS sent Mory Lamas a letter to his New Jersey residence granting him an interview on November 16, for temperary residence. In this case, he had been already deported. His wife Ruth Mory, their Attorney Glen Troublefield and a long time friend and interpreter Luz La Torre showed up for the Mory Lamas' interview. They told the CIS official that Mory Lamas had been deported, the official immediately called her supervisor and both admitted that Mory Lamas shouldn't have been deported before the interview. The CIS officials were going to contact ICE about the unlawful deportation and were expected to decide soon, if they would request for Mory Lamas to return to the U.S. for an interview, according to Ruth Mory, Troublefield and La Torre, explained Mory Lamas in an interview from Peru.
Ruth Mory a U.S. Citizen, his wife had petition for Mory Lamas residency in 2004, under the 1986 amnesty Northwest Immigration Project. The temperary residency case had been pending, thus by federal law preventing his removal from the U.S. Mory Lamas informed ICE deportation officials to check his Amnesty pending case, but they failed to do so.
On September 9, despite his pending petition for amnesty and residency, ICE Deportation Officer Catherine Brantley decided to deport Mory Lamas to Peru. On August 12, three ICE agents following the orders of Brantley took Mory Lamas to the Peruvian Consulate in Patterson, New Jersey to get Acting Consul Alejandro Beoutis Candahuana to force Mory Lamas to surrender his Peruvian passport to the ICE agents, while signing a voluntary departure agreement without a lawyer present or any other options. Mory Lamas is not a Peruvian criminal or was wanted in Peru for a crime warranted to be force to return to Peru.
Peruvian Acting Consul Beoutis Candahuana, and three ICE agents were identified in the Act signatures as Juan Mezarina, Oscar Torres and James Laforge along with their official capacity under the names.
Since the incident, Mory Lamas filed a complaint with Peru government against Acting Consul Beoutis Candahuana. After several protests outside the Peru Consulate in Patterson, Acting Consul Beoutis Candahuana was demoted and assigned other duties for his alleged incompetence and unscrupulous agreement with the three ICE agents.
ICE deportation officers definately committed a wrongdoing by deporting Mory Lamas and not following John Morton's, Assistant Secretary of ICE decision not to deport undocumented immigrants with minor violations or who had immigrantion pending cases. A lack of accountability for any wrongdoing by ICE officers under Morton's leadership has tainted his ability to lead ICE.
On June 30, Morton send a memo to all ICE officers in the U.S. about a new directive from the White House. ICE should use their limited resources to deport immigrants with serious crimes, instead of deporting long time immigrants that haven't committed serious crimes. On August 20, Morton's directive to ICE officials was to dimiss cases of deportation against immigrants who have a credible immigration case pending and who hadn't committed a serious crime. Under Morton's directives, Mory Lamas qualified and had committed no serious crime.
As of today, Morton nor ICE has released any public comment regarding the Mory Lamas mishap and controversial case. Copies of articles from Hispanic News Network USA regarding Mory Lamas have been sent to Morton and top ICE executives via e-mail.

Related article: NJ: ICE erred in deporting Moises Mory Lamas to Peru before CIS held a petition Amnesty hearing for temperary residence http://bit.ly/9RidGk

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