-Caveat Lector- RIGHTS-U.S.: IMMIGRANTS FACE DEPORTATION FOR MINOR OFFENSES MIAMI, (Apr. 29) IPS - Employed to clean up a construction site in this southern Florida city, Antonio Barrios tried to cut corners by dumping some of the debris at a nearby residence. He was arrested when the homeowner filed a complaint with the police, and quickly found himself pleading guilty to a misdemeanor before a judge. The court appearance was routine -- Barrios was sentenced to "time served" (he had spent the previous night in jail) and 20 hours of community service and released -- to the delight of his mother and girlfriend. Unfortunately, their joy may be short-lived. Under the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigration Responsibility Act (IIRAIRA) passed by Congress in 1996 and effective since April 1997, Barrios, a Honduran immigrant, can be adjudged by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) to be a convicted felon (never mind that he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor) and deported from the United States. And under the Anti-Terrorism Act, passed after the 1996 Oklahoma City bombing, he can be arrested and detained until his deportation. The two pieces of legislation have been denounced as the most oppressive in a series of anti-immigrant measures enacted by the Republican Congress since taking control of the House of Representatives in 1994. And the most onerous aspect of these laws is that they can be applied retroactively, say immigration advocacy organizations and other human rights groups. They warned in 1996 that the new law would victimize people who had lived in the United States for years, even decades, and had committed offenses (even minor offenses) for which they had already been punished. They argued that the retroactivity clauses were unconstitutional as they could lead to someone being punished twice for the same offense. They said the laws would lead to mass deportations, which would place an intolerable burden on the resources of the INS and on the capacity of the countries to which people were being deported. Anti-immigration agencies denounced the warnings as "scare- mongering." The reality is that there has been a steady increase in the number of people being deported by the INS. In 1997, the INS deported 113,698 people, 23,000 more than its target. It said some 51,000 of them were people with criminal convictions. Many of the deportees have been Caribbean nationals. More than 15,000 people have been sent back to Commonwealth Caribbean countries since 1993. In 1995 the figure was 2,600. It was 3,000 in 1996, 3,800 in 1997 and 5,824 last year. Despite the increase, the level of deportations has not kept pace with the numbers detained and all INS detention facilities are seriously overcrowded. The agency said it needs another 16,000 beds. Some of the detainees and deportees are serious criminals. A joint undercover operation by the Border Patrol (the INS enforcement arm) the Palm Beach Sheriff's office and the Riviera Police Department detained 31 men who had been convicted of and served prison time for sexual offenses, including molestation of children as young as six. All but three were legal permanent residents. The oldest was a 70-year-old man who had lived in the U.S. for 17 years. All face deportation. There is Cuban immigrant, Alberto San Pedro, dubbed "the Great Corrupter" by the Miami media. In 1986, San Pedro was convicted on five corruption related charges and served three years in prison. Released in 1989, he was again arrested in 1991 on murder, conspiracy, drug smuggling, racketeering and bribery charges. A jury acquitted him on the bribery charge. The judge threw out the others, accepting San Pedro's argument that the FBI had reneged on a deal in which he would provide information against some of his former partners in return for not being charged with any previous crime. Now the INS has instituted deportation proceedings against the 48-year-old San Pedro, who has lived in the United States since he was two, a move his attorney describes as a vendetta. Speaking up for San Pedro is his second wife, Lourdes, who says he has turned his life around since serving time in prison, is involved in Christian missionary work, is running the family business and is raising two teenage children from a previous marriage. The INS says he is a dangerous criminal who must be deported. But many of those facing deportation are not criminals, say spokespersons for immigrants' rights groups. They say some have lived reformed and productive lives since initially running afoul of the law, while others were the victims of bad legal advice. American Bar Association President Phillip S. Anderson relates the story of Olufolake Olaleye from Nigeria who entered the U.S legally in 1984 and became a permanent resident in 1990. In 1993 Olaleye was arrested for shoplifting. The store said she had stolen baby clothes worth $14.99. She said she had bought the items days before, had found them unsuitable and had returned to the store to change them. She could not find the receipt. Thinking it was all a misunderstanding, she appeared in court without an attorney. Wanting to end the matter quickly, she pleaded guilty. She was fined $360, given a one-year suspended sentence and put on 12 months probation. Both were terminated two months later when she paid the fine in full. Olufolake Olaleye had no more trouble with the law. She was never on welfare. She supported herself and her two children working as a gas station attendant. Her application for U.S. citizenship was approved in October 1996. The INS had reviewed her 1993 conviction and classified it as a petty offense. And then Congress passed the IIRAIRA. Two aspects of that law affected Olaleye: the provision for the INS to classify almost any crime as a felony, and the retroactivity. In August 1997, the INS reopened her case to consider the impact of the IIRAIRA on her misdemeanor conviction. In October, the agency reclassified her shoplifting offense as an aggravated felony and denied her citizenship. Last June, she was ordered deported. She is facing a choice of separation from her children -- who are U.S. citizens -- or uprooting them from their country of birth. Anderson has taken up Olaleye's case and has filed papers challenging the constitutionality of the law. He said Congress could not have intended the law to be used to deport people like Olaleye. "If we want to deport criminals who pose a threat to our well-being, then we should target those convicted of serious felonies, not slam the door on the likes of Olaleye," said Anderson. For people like this Nigerian immigrant he said, "the rules have been changed in the middle of the game" and that "is simply un-American." News provided by COMTEX. 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