U.S. ORDER CALLED SENTENCE OF DEATH

After Helping With Drug Case, Colombian Faces Deportation Despite
Near-Certain Vengeance

No one disputes that Maria Rosciano is likely to be murdered by drug dealers
if she ever returns to her native Colombia.

Rosciano, after all, helped federal agents investigate a Colombian heroin
ring. And a sister in Colombia who tried to help her is already dead, killed
in a car accident shortly after receiving a threat.

But the Justice Department is moving to deport Rosciano to Colombia because
she was convicted of drug trafficking herself -- even though her arrest was
the result of an elaborate sting federal agents organized to gain her
cooperation.

To the government, at issue is its power to deport non-citizens who have
been convicted of a serious crime. To Maria Rosciano, what is at issue is
her life.

"I have no faith now,'' Rosciano, 46, said in a telephone interview, with a
translator, from the INS jail in Arizona where she is being held. "When I
began to cooperate, I believed in the system, I believed in justice.''

For now, her deportation has been blocked by a federal district judge. The
judge, Frederick J. Martone, made the stakes clear in his order:

"The government does not contest the universal finding that, if removed to
Colombia, petitioner faces a grave risk of death as punishment for having
assisted the government in its investigation.''

But the Justice Department has told the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in
San Francisco it intends to appeal the order.

Rosciano's attorney, Robert Jobe of San Francisco, said courts intervened to
protect Rosciano only because the government, which has discretion in such
cases, took steps to deport her.

"Her life is in danger only because she tried to help the government,'' Jobe
said. "What kind of message does this send to people who may be willing to
cooperate? 'If you help us, you may risk your life.' ''

'Not A Simple Matter'

Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Schneider, who heads the criminal division
of the U.S. attorney's office in Arizona, where Rosciano lived, said he
could not comment on why the government had decided to pursue deportation.

He said the government had to consider both Rosciano's situation and the
larger impact on the government -- whether Judge Martone's ruling, if
unchallenged, would limit the Immigration and Naturalization Service in
future cases. "This is not a simple matter,'' he said.

Some details of Rosciano's case are unclear, because many court records in
the case are sealed. But the records that are public, together with her
interviews, provide a picture of how Rosciano became caught in a web spun by
government agents to break a major heroin ring.

Rosciano came to the United States in 1982 and gained resident status in
1984. Settling in Los Angeles, she married and had the first of two
daughters. She divorced and remarried, moving first to Redwood City and then
to Arizona.

A younger brother followed Rosciano to the United States and Arizona, where
he worked for her husband. But, she said, her brother was bored there and
moved to New York to join friends. There he became involved in drug
trafficking.

'He Never Listened'

"He was my brother, what can I do?'' Rosciano recalled, switching to English
as she told the story. "I tell him many, many times, 'Don't do that,
something bad is going to happen.' He never listened to me. Exactly what I
say happened.''

According to court papers, her brother was killed when a drug deal went bad.

When she learned of her brother's death, Rosciano said, she called home to
Colombia to report the news. Her mother, she said, had a stroke and died the
next day.

Not long after, a Colombian couple moved next door to Rosciano in Arizona.
Soon the couple became good friends with her. They expressed interest in
buying and selling wheels and other auto parts; Rosciano told her new
friends that another brother, in Colombia, was in the same business. She
made the connection for them.

After a few months, the couple's business interests progressed from wheels
to heroin; ultimately, the couple conducted a drug deal at Rosciano's house
and paid Rosciano a commission for helping to introduce them to the sellers.
In June 1997, federal agents arrested Rosciano for heroin trafficking. Her
neighbors, it turned out, were undercover agents; they had befriended her as
part of an elaborate sting operation as they pursued the New York drug
dealers with whom her brother was involved.

Rosciano quickly agreed to cooperate with authorities, who wanted to know
the identity of a drug dealer known to them as "El Indio.''

She contacted her brother in Colombia, who refused to become involved. A
sister in Colombia, however, provided El Indio's name. Soon after, she was
killed in a car accident after receiving a threatening call.

Because of her cooperation, Maria Rosciano was sentenced to only 33 months
in prison in April 1998. U.S. District Judge Earl Carroll noted that
Rosciano had "put herself at risk for the government.''

A year later, the INS began proceedings to send Rosciano back to Colombia.
She turned to the administrative immigration courts to seek protection.

In October 1999, immigration judge Carol A. King of San Francisco ruled that
"there is a very good chance that the respondent would suffer harm if she
returned to Colombia.''

But, King ruled, Rosciano's conviction made her ineligible for asylum. And
because the threat came from drug-cartel members, not a government, she was
not eligible for protection under the international treaty against torture.

Seven months later, the appellate immigration board upheld that decision. By
then, she had been released from prison but put in an INS jail.

At that point, lawyers for Rosciano turned to the U.S. District Court,
resulting in Judge Martone's order in September blocking the government from
deporting her until officials can "show that she is not likely to be
murdered there.''

A Duty To Protect

In his decision, Martone acknowledged that the INS has the authority to
deport non-citizens who have committed serious crimes.

But, he ruled, the government has a duty to protect people it has placed in
danger, and the government is responsible for the plight that Rosciano
faces.

Not only had the government undertaken the sting to force Rosciano's
cooperation; the government then failed to honor the protection recommended
by the sentencing judge, Martone wrote.