Pubdate: Wed, 07 Sep 2005
Source: New York Daily News (NY)
Copyright: 2005 Daily News, L.P.
Contact:  http://www.nydailynews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/295
Author: Melissa Grace

POLS HELP REV FIGHT DEPORT

A Park Slope minister who faces deportation because of an old drug 
conviction has the support of many city officials - but not that of the 
authorities who hold the key to his fate.

Two Brooklyn City Council members are drafting a resolution aimed at 
getting federal prosecutors to drop the case against Chibueze Okorie, who 
has devoted his life to helping ex-cons since his brush with the law.

"There is no need to deport him; he's not a threat but an asset to the 
community," said Councilman Kendall Stewart (D-Flatbush), chairman of the 
council's Immigration Committee, who is sponsoring the resolution that 
would allow Okorie and a Bronx woman to stay in the U.S.

Councilman Bill De Blasio (D-Park Slope) said federal prosecutors should 
listen to local officials.

"We're supposed to have a system where local government matters," he said. 
"We're clearly asking our federal government to be flexible here. We know 
this situation the best."

They said Okorie's work helping convicts and ex-cons at Gethsemane 
Presbyterian Church rebuild their lives has been invaluable.

The Council members are calling on officials at the U.S. Immigration and 
Customs Enforcement Agency to exercise prosecutorial discretion and allow 
Okorie and others in his extraordinary circumstances to stay.

A second case they pointed to was that of AIDS patient Andrea Mortlock. A 
Bronx mother of two who has lived here as a legal resident since 1979, 
Mortlock is being held on deportation charges for selling cocaine in the 1980s.

Mortlock, who is terminally ill, was in and out of trouble with the law 
until 2000.

Okorie, who came to New York from Nigeria on a tourist visa in 1989, was 
busted the same year for selling heroin in East New York. He served 18 
months in prison.

The resolution Stewart and De Blasio are preparing is not binding on 
federal officials - who so far have ignored pleas on Okorie's behalf from 
church leaders and powerful members of New York's congressional delegation.

"Mr. Okorie has no status in this country," said ICE spokesman Mark Thorn. 
He said a federal judge will review the case and determine if Okorie can 
stay. Thorn had no immediate comment on Mortlock's case.

Elected federal representatives, including Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and 
Congressman Edolphus Towns, considered a private bill to allow Okorie to 
stay, but decided it would not pass.

"Our hands are tied," said Towns' spokeswoman, Ruth Morrison. "Republicans 
are not going to address this because of the drug felony."
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