US Citizen --deported as illegal--bounces around Central America prisons and homeless shelters

[mnhtnbb]

for FOUR months before an American embassy verifies his citizenship and helps him connect with family
to get home.



Feds wrongly deport citizen living in N.C.
Believing Mark Lyttle was Mexican, they launched him from a Wayne County prison on an odyssey across Latin America.
By Kristin Collins - Staff Writer
Published: Thu, Apr. 30, 2009 05:02AM
Modified Thu, Apr. 30, 2009 08:17AM


Mark Lyttle expected to return home after serving a few months in prison for inappropriately touching a woman's backside.

Instead, he says, the U.S. government deported him to Mexico, Mexican officials deported him to Honduras, and Honduras deported him to Guatemala - even though he is a North Carolina-born U.S. citizen who speaks no Spanish.

U.S. immigration officials confirmed this week that they wrongly deported Lyttle, 31, who his family says is mentally ill and suffers from mild retardation, in December after finding him in a North Carolina prison. He and his lawyer say he spent four months bouncing among Latin American prisons and homeless shelters before ending up this month at a U.S. embassy in Guatemala, where officials confirmed his citizenship.

Lyttle returned to his family on Friday, but only after immigration officials at the Atlanta airport tried to deport him again. He said that, throughout the process, federal agents repeatedly ignored his assurances that he was a U.S. citizen and native of Rowan County, about 125 miles southwest of the Triangle.

for the whole story: http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/1507200.html


This story is an indictment of not only the Immigration Service, but of the travesty that exists
as mental health care in the country. The article doesn't say much about the particulars of
why Lyttle was imprisoned for "inapproprately touching a woman's backside", but I wonder
whether he had competent counsel. I wonder whether he got any mental health care treatment while
he was imprisoned. I wonder why his family wasn't aware of his circumstances.

I wonder whether there will be anyone held accountable for the actions that led to this
failure of governmental services to treat this American citizen with dignity and respect.

[Heidi]

1. Absolutely disgusting.

I wonder what, if any, legal recourse he has? If I were a bettin' person, I'd bet this wouldn't have happened if he'd had lighter hair and skin. :grr:

[mnhtnbb]

2. Shameless kick.

[Lilith Velkor]

3. Holy Shit!

I wonder whether this is an isolated case.

[mnhtnbb]

4. I guess this post doesn't get any respect because I drive a BMW and must be an arsehole.

:sarcasm:

[EFerrari]

5. Makes you wonder how many citizens have been treated the same way. n/t

[ThomCat]

6. In another thread on this subject earlier

a link to a source sited 34 other Americans this has happened to.

That doesn't include the American children of undocumented immigrants.

[mnhtnbb]

7. At least 34 according to a professor at UC Santa Barbara

From the article:

Jacqueline Stevens, a political science professor at the University of California Santa Barbara, said she has been researching wrongful deportations for the past year. She said she has found at least 34 U.S. citizens who have been deported since 2003.

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. Most people think BORN IN EAST LA, was a movie

nope, was based on a real story

[struggle4progress]

9. Immigration Judges Often Picked Based On GOP Ties (WP / 2007)

Law Forbids Practice; Courts Being Reshaped

By Amy Goldstein and Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, June 11, 2007; A01

The Bush administration increasingly emphasized partisan political ties over expertise in recent years in selecting the judges who decide the fate of hundreds of thousands of immigrants, despite laws that preclude such considerations, according to an analysis by The Washington Post.

At least one-third of the immigration judges appointed by the Justice Department since 2004 have had Republican connections or have been administration insiders, and half lacked experience in immigration law, Justice Department, immigration court and other records show.

Two newly appointed immigration judges were failed candidates for the U.S. Tax Court nominated by President Bush; one fudged his taxes and the other was deemed unqualified to be a tax judge by the nation's largest association of lawyers. Both were Republican loyalists.

Justice officials also gave immigration judgeships to a New Jersey election law specialist who represented GOP candidates, a former treasurer of the Louisiana Republican Party, a White House domestic policy adviser and a conservative crusader against pornography ... http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/10/AR2007061001229_pf.html

[glitch]

10. More clean up.

We could probably have full employment, devoted entirely to cleaning up Bush messes.

[Festivito]

11. Pick'n on the least of these, of our own countrymen. Disturbing.

What do these other countries have to say for themselves as well.