RangerRick
11-24-2006, 11:57 AM
URL: http://www.knoxnews .com/kns/ state/article/ 0,1406,KNS_ 348_5155060, 00.html
Noncitizen criminals triggering questions
By Associated Press
November 19, 2006
NASHVILLE - Deporting criminals who are citizens of other countries sounds like a no-brainer, but what happens when their home countries won't take them back?
Abbas Nejat, an Iranian citizen, shot a man in a south Nashville bar and pleaded guilty to manslaughter. Local officials thought he would be deported, but after Iran refused to take him, immigration authorities released the 24-year-old and he returned to Music City .
Nejat's case is not unique. Iranians, Cubans and many Palestinians who are ordered deported from the United States cannot be returned to their homelands, experts said, and the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled they cannot be held indefinitely.
"There are countries that will not provide travel documents for their citizens to be returned," said Temple Black of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Nejat has been arrested eight times since February 2002 and is on probation for burglary and drug charges. He struck a plea deal on the manslaughter charge and was given five years' probation and the year in jail that he had already served, court records show.
"He is deported," said Rehim Babaoglu, a Memphis-based immigration attorney. "He's just paroled temporarily out into society right now ... but he can never get a green card."
Local officials said they were upset Nejat was not deported, but the worst part is that federal authorities did not tell them he would be released.
"The problem I'm seeing," said Davidson County Criminal Court Judge Steve Dozier, "is you can't get (federal immigration officials) to cooperate with us - when they deport, who they deport and at what point they deport. We're in the dark."
Noncitizen criminals triggering questions
By Associated Press
November 19, 2006
NASHVILLE - Deporting criminals who are citizens of other countries sounds like a no-brainer, but what happens when their home countries won't take them back?
Abbas Nejat, an Iranian citizen, shot a man in a south Nashville bar and pleaded guilty to manslaughter. Local officials thought he would be deported, but after Iran refused to take him, immigration authorities released the 24-year-old and he returned to Music City .
Nejat's case is not unique. Iranians, Cubans and many Palestinians who are ordered deported from the United States cannot be returned to their homelands, experts said, and the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled they cannot be held indefinitely.
"There are countries that will not provide travel documents for their citizens to be returned," said Temple Black of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Nejat has been arrested eight times since February 2002 and is on probation for burglary and drug charges. He struck a plea deal on the manslaughter charge and was given five years' probation and the year in jail that he had already served, court records show.
"He is deported," said Rehim Babaoglu, a Memphis-based immigration attorney. "He's just paroled temporarily out into society right now ... but he can never get a green card."
Local officials said they were upset Nejat was not deported, but the worst part is that federal authorities did not tell them he would be released.
"The problem I'm seeing," said Davidson County Criminal Court Judge Steve Dozier, "is you can't get (federal immigration officials) to cooperate with us - when they deport, who they deport and at what point they deport. We're in the dark."