CONVICTED DRUG DEALER CAN STAY

Walked across border: Judge overturns deportation due to procedural error

The Federal Court of Canada has prevented immigration officials deporting a
convicted Honduran drug dealer because he was not told why he was deemed a
danger to the Canadian public.

Jose Orland Navarro Zuniga, who was deported three times from the United
States after serving three jail terms for trafficking cocaine, walked across
the border into British Columbia from Washington State with no travel or
identity documents in March 1997.

Five days later, Mr. Navarro reported to an immigration office in Vancouver
and applied for refugee status. Initially, he was allowed to file a refugee
claim. RCMP inquiries later uncovered Mr. Navarro's criminal background, and
after learning of his criminal record in 1999, Canadian immigration
officials ruled Mr. Navarro posed a danger to the Canadian public. The
decision meant Mr. Navarro was not eligible to apply for refugee status, and
was subject to deportation.

Mr. Navarro appealed, and in a decision released last week, Justice Denis
Pelletier, of the Federal Court Trial Division, set aside the "danger
opinion" on the grounds that Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) had
never presented Mr. Navarro with the reasons for their decision.

"After reading the document, one cannot say why the [Immigration] Minister's
Delegate formed the opinion [that Mr. Navarro is a danger to the public],"
wrote Judge Pelletier. "It may be that the Minister's Delegate thought that
trafficking in drugs is so disruptive of social order ... that those who
engage in it endanger the public, but the Minister's Delegate has not said
so. For these reasons, I find that Mr. Navarro was not accorded procedural
fairness."

Mr. Navarro, who now lives in Winnipeg, was convicted of trafficking cocaine
in 1994 while using the name Santos Flores, according to court documents. He
served 18 months of a three-year sentence at the San Quentin prison in
California. Two other convictions in 1992 for the same offence, committed
under the name Juan Soto, resulted in jail terms of six months and one year.
U.S. authorities deported Mr. Navarro to Honduras after each sentence, but
he repeatedly slipped back into the United States and ultimately crossed
into Canada.

The government has appealed Judge Pelletier's decision and the case will now
move to the Federal Court of Appeal. If it upholds the current decision, Mr.
Navarro will eventually have his refugee claim heard.

"What's important is that this was the first case of its kind," said David
Matas, Mr. Navarro's lawyer. "If the current decision is affirmed by the
Federal Court of Appeal, it's going to have significance for other cases
across the board." Mr. Matas said his client feels he would be in danger of
persecution.