This morning the Centro Sin Fronteras and Adalberto United Methodist Church announced the petition against the deportation of Elvira Arellano was filed with the US Supreme Court. That the announcement was held in Chicago was no surprise, given that it is the home of Sra. Arellano. Nor was it a surprise that the press conference was conducted in equal parts Spanish and English as the issue is widely perceived as being one affecting Latinos. The immigration rights movement however, extends far beyond Central and South Americans. CIMC had the opportunity to speak with Jean Montrevil, a 38-year-old Haitian under threat of deportation who is taking sanctuary in NYC’s Judson Church, while he was in Chicago to speak in favor of immigration regulations that would prevent the deportation of the parents of US citizens.

Mr. Montrevil came to the US in 1986 and received a Green Card. He is married to a US citizen and has four children, ranging from 3 months to 19 years old. He runs a 30-year-old family business and lives in Brooklyn. He started off talking about the current conditions in Haiti, and the possible repercussions of being deported there.

It’s very terrible in Haiti right now. Even Haiti itself refused to accept deportees and the US government is putting pressure on them to accept. This is why they didn’t get a chance to deport me, I was in detention and they had to release me. When you get deported to Haiti, you go to jail; this is something most people don’t even know about. And the conditions in jail, have been classified by the US government as being, “in hell”…and the US is still deporting people there; knowing that they will be going to jail there and tortured and possibly die.

I asked him how he relates to the US and Haiti, given the time he’s spent here and the historical relationship between the two countries.

I live here, I’ve been living here for twenty-one years and I have children here, my wife she is from here, she was born here. I have a business here, I own properties in this country, so, this is the country that I know. And now I’m seeking sanctuary in this country, refusing to go back to Haiti, because of the conditions in Haiti. Yes, the US has invaded Haiti many times, even right now we have an occupation force in Haiti…It’s very tough for me, and my family; we don’t want to go there because of the conditions in Haiti, and we want to stay here in the country that make it like that, in Haiti, and make it better.

As someone who came with a Green Card, Mr. Montrevil shouldn’t be under threat of deportation. I asked him how his status got changed.

[Smiling] I was hoping nobody would ask me but - it’s a good question because I am a Green Card-holder. People always saying, “Wow! You’re a Green Card holder, why are you getting deported?”…The way the law is right now, if you get in any type of trouble, you get deported. So in 1989, almost 19 years ago, I have a drug conviction. There was the “War on Drugs”…and I was a casualty of that war. I was young, stupid and me and some friends went to jail, we got arrested. And I served eleven years in prison for that crime, for drugs. I have no violence in my record, never hurt anyone…but possession with intent to distribute landed me in jail for eleven years. And now, I have to be deported to go back to jail again in another country, for something that I did eighteen years ago.

CIMC: So this would be like three punishments [jail, exile, jail] for the same crime?

[Laughs] I even argued that in court, that it’s double jeopardy, but they, they never addressed the issue.

Anything else you'd like to add?

What I really want to add you know, the problem with immigration, it’s not just Latins, not just Hispanics, My friend Joe, he is from China, and he took sanctuary also in New York. And I know a family that’s from India, Jamaica, Trinidad, the whole Caribbean, we don’t come up because reporters always put Hispanics on the front of the news. But it is not [just a Latino issue], and I want people to know that. In my community in Brooklyn where I have a business, I have a religious store, where people come to me all the time, and tell me they’re gonna be deported. And these are not Hispanics; these are black, Caribbean people from all over.

People interested in supporting Jean Montrevil's efforts to remain with his family in the US can contact Judson Memorial Church in New York City, where he has taken sanctuary, at the link to the right.