Dominican immigrant Ramon Antonio Duarte-Ceri can stay in the country if he can prove time of birth
BY Erica Pearson
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Wednesday, December 8th 2010, 4:00 AM
The Dominican immigrant's mom took her oath of U.S. citizenship in 1991 on the very day he turned 18. But she was sworn in in the morning, and he was born at night.
The timing is crucial for Duarte-Ceri, now 37. He has spent the last five years in an immigration detention center in upstate Batavia awaiting deportation after pleading guilty and serving time on drug charges.
A Manhattan federal appeals court decided this week that he might be able to prove he is a U.S. citizen because he was technically still 17 when his mom was sworn in - "17 years, 364 days and 12 hours."
Minor children are granted citizenship along with their parents, but adult children are not.
The 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals judges sent Duarte-Ceri's case back to the Manhattan district court for a hearing but ruled, 3 to 2, that if Duarte-Ceri is able to prove his time of birth, he is a U.S. citizen.
"At least there's a light in the tunnel, God willing, for us," said his mom, Carmen Duarte, 56, who lives in Corona, Queens.
She said she remembers Ramon's home birth well.
Her labor started at 6 p.m., and Ramon was born three hours later. The midwife has made a sworn statement testifying to 9 p.m. as Duarte-Ceri's time of birth.
"It is important to the ends of justice to parse the day into hours, because the 'most precious right' of citizenship is at stake," wrote Judge Denny Chin in the decision.
Recognizing citizenship as a right was key to the case, said Jojo Annobil, supervising attorney of the Immigration Law Unit at the Legal Aid Society. "I think that it is a great victory," he said.
The Justice Department did not return a call for comment.
The dissenting judge said Duarte-Ceri, who was arrested for assault and drug dealing at least three times between 1989 and 1995 and again in 2004, should have resolved the issue of his citizenship right after his mom was sworn in.
Carmen Duarte said that she put Ramon down on her original citizenship application and believed the right would be extended to him. She hasn't seen her son, who has two kids ages 7 and 19, since he was sent to Batavia, but said he calls her nearly every day.
"I'm just hoping that my son can come home," she said. "When a future is uncertain, the whole family suffers."
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/12/08/2010-12-08_time_of_birth_his_defense_faces_deportation_if_born_too_early.html#ixzz17WyqmKnS
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