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.