a1975L Ashcroft Orders Haitian Deported (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Stanley  Lucas <slucas@iri.org>

washingtonpost.com
Ashcroft Orders Haitian Deported


By Cheryl W. Thompson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 9, 2002; Page A05



Attorney General John D. Ashcroft announced yesterday that he has reversed an immigration appeals board decision and ordered the deportation of a Haitian woman convicted seven years ago of fatally beating a 19-month-old child.

Melanie Beaucejour Jean, 45, of Plaisance, Haiti, has exhausted her appeals and is being held in the Camden County Jail in New Jersey pending deportation proceedings, a Justice Department official said.

"Aliens arriving at our shores must understand that residency in the United States is a privilege, not a right," Ashcroft wrote in the opinion that reversed the immigration board decision. "For those aliens . . . who engage in violent criminal acts during their stay here, this country will not offer its embrace."

Jean was conditionally admitted to the United States as a refugee in November 1994. Four months later, she was charged with punching and shaking a child in her care who, an autopsy revealed, died from blunt force trauma to the head. Jean, who was living in Rochester, N.Y., pleaded guilty in August 1995 to second-degree manslaughter and was sentenced to two to six years in state prison.

Upon her release, Jean asked the Immigration and Naturalization Service for a status change from "refugee" to "lawful permanent resident." An immigration judge denied the request and Jean was ordered deported. She appealed to the Board of Immigration Review, which reversed the judge's decision.



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