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An excerpt from Immigration News Briefs
A monthly supplement to Weekly News Update on the Americas
Vol. 2, No. 5, May 1999, by Jane G.
On May 7 the INS returned US citizen Thomas Sylvain to Miami and admitted that it made a mistake in deporting him to Haiti. Sylvain was immediately rushed to a hospital, where as of May 27 he remained in critical condition, hooked up to a respirator. Sylvain is gravely ill with AIDS; his condition worsened significantly during the three months he spent in Haiti. The INS internal audit office began an investigation on May 12 into the error, after having previously said there would be no such probe. Sylvain was born in 1978 in the Bronx (New York City), son of a Irish-American mother and a Haitian immigrant. He was detained for three months at Krome in Miami and deported in late January because he had a prior criminal conviction and the INS believed he was an immigrant. He was never represented by an attorney while in INS custody. In a statement issued after his return to Miami, the INS said Sylvain had been provided with "all legal due process given to anyone, including illegal criminal aliens, with whom the burden of proof of citizenship lies." But lawyers and advocates argue that the burden of proof did not lie with Sylvain. "Once you tell INS you're a citizen, they're duty bound to prove you're not before they deport you," explained Cheryl Little, lead attorney at the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center (FIAC) in Miami. Kelley Spellman, spokesperson for the INS Miami office, said on May 11 that Sylvain had claimed to be a Haitian citizen while at Miami-Dade County Jail and Krome, and in sworn statements to an immigration judge. "Based on his statements, the immigration judge established his alienage," Spellman said. Sylvain says he asserted on several occasions before his deportation that he was a US citizen. In January and December, he gave statements to Little and to fellow Krome detainee Lulseged Dhine in which he asserted his US citizenship. Both passed his statements to supervisors at Krome. Spellman said INS is not aware of Sylvain's statements to Dhine or Little. Sylvain's family tried to convince the INS that Sylvain was a US citizen by showing his birth certificate and an expired US passport, but the INS said the documentation "arrived in the hands of the INS much later than was necessary to avoid deportation." [MH 5/12/99, 5/27/99; ENH 5/8/99] |
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