PASSPORT PROBLEMS HOLD UP MAN'S DEPORTATION

FLINT TWP. - Robert Berishaj is still in limbo, not allowed to work in
the United States but not yet allowed to leave.

"It's kind of like it's not sunny, but it's not raining," said
Berishaj, 27, who has lived in the United States since he was 9 but
faces deportation to his native Montenegro due to legal
entanglements.

Monday was supposed to be a day of reckoning for Berishaj, who went to
U.S. immigration offices in Detroit, where he was scheduled to receive
a passport that would allow him to be deported.

Instead, he got a one-month reprieve, allowing him to temporarily stay
in the U.S.

Joe Berishaj, Robert's brother, said because Montenegro doesn't yet
recognize Berishaj as a citizen, the passport paperwork is held up for
unknown reasons.

Robert was born in the former Yugoslavia but moved with his parents to
the United States as a child. He doesn't speak or write Serbian, the
official language of Montenegro, and he has no known relatives or
friends there.

But he has been denied residency here. Days before an immigration
judge was to hear his case in 2003, Robert was arrested on a
misdemeanor marijuana case. An immigration judge wrote in his opinion
that the arrest was a factor in a decision to deny Robert residency.

Meanwhile, his entire family, including his parents and brothers, are
legal U.S. residents. His brothers married U.S. citizens, allowing
them to stay here. His parents were granted permanent residency
because their sons married citizens.

Berishaj had been working 14-hour days as a manager at the Courtyard
Family Restaurant, 5015 S. Saginaw Road, Grand Blanc Township. The
restaurant closed after Berishaj had to surrender his working papers
and Social Security number to the federal government in April.

Robert said to keep busy he's helping out his brother, Joe, who owns
Captain Coty's Restaurant in Flint Township.

When he does receive a passport, Robert expects to petition Canada to
become a resident there. If Canada accepts him, he would perhaps live
in the Windsor area so he could still be close to his family.

Robert said he was disappointed to see immigration reform die in
Congress.

"I think maybe that could have helped me," Robert Berishaj said. "Who
knows?"