Pubdate: Thu, 21 Dec 2006 Source: Sarasota Herald-Tribune (FL) Copyright: 2006 Sarasota Herald-Tribune Contact: http://www.heraldtribune.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/398 Author: Jennifer Kay, Associated Press Writer HAITIAN IMMIGRANT STRIPPED OF U.S. CITIZENSHIP RELEASED TO FAMILY MIAMI -- A Haitian-American man stripped of his U.S. citizenship after being convicted of federal drug trafficking charges was released to his family Thursday, after U.S. authorities failed to find a country where he could be deported. Lionel Jean-Baptiste, 59, said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials let him know Thursday morning he would be released from the Krome Detention Center, about a week after an administrative review of his case. "I'm feeling happy, I'm with my family. I didn't even think they would release me," he said in a telephone interview from his Miami home. "I couldn't wait to get out." He had been held at Krome outside Miami since June. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that foreigners who cannot be deported cannot be held indefinitely, and set a six-month detention maximum. "He was released on an order of supervision while we continue pursuing his removal," said ICE spokeswoman Barbara Gonzalez. Jean-Baptiste became a U.S. citizen in April 1996. He served seven years in prison on a January 1997 conviction for conspiring to distribute crack cocaine - a crime he still insists he did not commit. "But for that one single incident, you have a man who was otherwise a legal, law-abiding citizen. He would be a candidate for a good, solid citizen in the community," his attorney, Andre Pierre, said. Jean-Baptiste, a former restaurant owner, is no longer a citizen of any nation. His native Haiti refused to take him because he gave up his citizenship in the Caribbean country to become an American; France also declined on the grounds he never lived there. His attorney said Jean-Baptiste could remain in the U.S. as a man without a country indefinitely. He must check in with immigration officials and will be permitted to work, but cannot leave the U.S., Pierre said. An immigration judge revoked Jean-Baptiste's U.S. citizenship and ordered him deported in September - the first time since 1962 that the U.S. government ordered a naturalized citizen deported after a drug conviction. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear Jean-Baptiste's case last year, after the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta ruled that the federal government could revoke his citizenship. The appeals court agreed with government attorneys who argued that Jean-Baptiste was not a person of "good moral character" before becoming a citizen. He arrived in the U.S. by boat in 1980. He went on to gain permanent residency, buy a restaurant in Miami's Little Haiti neighborhood and eventually brought his wife and three sons from Port-au-Prince; two daughters were born in Miami. - --- MAP posted-by: Elaine