Mumbai man who flew to US 24 years ago on visitor visa deported
HE IS AMONG 161 ILLEGAL MIGRANTS ABOARD A HIGH-RISK DEPORTATION FLIGHT FROM THE UNITED STATES
ARRIVING AT AMRITSAR ON TUESDAY EVENING
CHANDIGARH: More than two decades ago after he arrived in the United States on a visitor visa, never to depart, the American dream of Susai Manickam Francis, 57, an Indian national from Mumbai, has come to an end.
Francis is among the 161 illegal migrants aboard a high-risk deportation flight from the United States arriving at Amritsar on Tuesday evening, according to information shared by the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) with New Delhi.
The story of this illegal migrant and many other deportees on board the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) chartered flight is a grim reminder for thousands from India who put their lives and resources at stake to illegally cross over into the US every year. ICE records showed that Francis was in custody at Buffalo federal detention facility in Batavia, New York, before boarding the flight to India.
ARRIVED IN US IN 1996, RAISED FAMILY
Francis entered the United States in New York in 1996, on a B-2 visitor visa, which allowed him to remain in the United States for a period not to exceed six months. However, he did not leave the US as required by the visa and resided on Long Island in New
York for more than two decades.
As per documents of the appellate division of Supreme Court of New York state, Francis has two children, one of whom is a citizen of the United States. On March 25, 2015, Francis was served with a notice to appear in an immigration court, and he became the subject of removal proceedings.
But before he was packed into an ICE detention facility in the state of New York, Francis had become an ironic part of the US jurisprudence.
In 2017, he challenged his detention by a local sheriff’s department for civil immigration violations in the appellate division of the New York Supreme Court. Francis had been detained on the purported authority of a detainer request issued by ICE and an accompanying administrative (not judicial) warrant.
Though the court sustained the writ filed by Francis in 2018, he could not get relief as he was no longer in the sheriff’s detention.
“Determining only the narrow issue before us, we conclude that the sheriff’s policy of December 2, 2016, directing the retention of prisoners, who would otherwise be released, pursuant to ICE detainers and administrative warrants is unlawful, and that Francis’s detention by the sheriff on December 11, 2017, which commenced after the termination of Francis’s court proceeding that day, was thus unlawful,’’ the court ruled.
“The second department of the NY Supreme Court ruled that New York law does not authorise state and local authorities to arrest persons whose sole alleged infraction is being in the United States without documentation, conduct that federal immigration law treats as a civil violation.
In fact, New York’s criminal procedure law permitted police officers to arrest a person only in response to a judicially issued warrant or for a misdemeanor or felony or a crime or any other conduct punishable by imprisonment or a fine, the court said,” said a communication from New York attorney general Letitia James.
The New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) who had rendered legal assistance to Francis in the case termed the court judgment as a victory.
His former NYCLU attorney Jordan Wells, when asked about his deportation, said that he hasn’t worked on his case in a long time. Wells has left the NYCLU and now works for American Civil Liberties Union in California.