Records Ignored in US Man's Deportation

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Records Ignored in US Man's Deportation

AOL News posted: 4 HOURS 16 MINUTES AGO

Charlotte Observer / MCT Mark Lyttle, 32, was deported to Mexico in December even though he was an American citizen. He speaks no Spanish, is mentally ill and has a learning disabilty.

(Sept. 1) - The federal government has admitted it mistakenly deported a North Carolina native in 2008, but it continues to insist the man is to blame for the mess, even though newly released documents show officials ignored FBI records and other evidence that proved he was an American citizen. The Charlotte Observer reported Sunday on the tangled odyssey of Mark Lyttle, 32, a mentally ill man who was kicked out of the country — twice — in December and ended up being sent to prisons in Honduras and Guatemala before he was finally able to convince authorities there that he was, in fact, an American. According to the Observer, documents from the Department of Homeland Security show that before the deportation, immigration officials had Lyttle's Social Security number, the names of his parents and information on him from criminal records checks. And they knew that he was bipolar and had a learning disability. Convicted of more than a dozen crimes, including assault and sexual battery, Lyttle came to the attention of immigration officials while he was in prison late last year, the Observer said. His country of birth was listed as Mexico, though he told the newspaper that he never claimed to have been born there. But he also said he didn't argue with an immigration agent about the birthplace error because the agent seemed convinced he was in the country illegally. When the North Carolina media first reported on Lyttle's case in April, officials from Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Lyttle triggered his deportation by saying he was from Mexico. "I tried to tell them I was a U.S. citizen born right here in Rowan County," Lyttle told the Observer recently. "But no one believed me." The agency continues to stick to that position, the newspaper reports, even though the documents show officials had ample opportunity to check such a claim against official records. But they didn't try to check Lyttle's birth certificate or contact his family before deporting him, according to the Observer's examination the paper trail. Lyttle made his way back to the United States in April and now lives with his mother in Georgia. The Observer has the full story on his case.

2009-09-01 14:34:04

Edited September 2, 2009 by enraptured