Freshman Rep stops trump last minute ILLEGAL deportation of man to place he is not a citizen

[tulipsandroses]

In one of its last acts, Trump administration tried to deport man to Haiti who has never been there

For the second time in his stateless life, Paul Pierrilus faced the possibility this week of being deported to a country he has never known, never lived in and that has never recognized him.
The 40-year-old New York man was minutes away from boarding one of the last deportation flights of the Trump administration before a relentless international effort by his family, attorney and a fortuitous connection to a freshman U.S. congressman helped him evade removal.

SNIP

Pierrilus found himself in such a situation. The financial consultant was born in the French territory of St. Martin to Haitian parents and immigrated to the United States as a child. But neither Haiti nor the French government automatically confer citizenship to children born outside its borders.

So Pierrilus was stuck in limbo, a citizen of nowhere and with no country willing to give him legal status. Precise data is elusive, but the Center for Migration Studies of New York estimates about 218,000 people in the United States are stateless or at risk of being so.

Katrina Bleckley, staff attorney with the Haitian Bridge Alliance, said a drug offense put Pierrilus on the radar of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ICE tried to deport Pierrilus’s brother, Daniel Pierrilus, who is in an identical immigration situation. But when the brother arrived in Port-au-Prince in 2006, Haitian officials sent him back, family said.

[link:https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/in-one-of-its-last-acts-trump-administration-tried-to-deport-man-to-haiti-who-has-never-been-there/2021/01/20/738d88e4-5b49-11eb-a976-bad6431e03e2_story.html|