Queens family man in danger of being deported because of a youthful indiscretion (New York Daily News)

Queens family man in danger of being deported because of a youthful indiscretion

Thursday, August 20th 2009, 4:00 AM

Jorge Mesa, a loving father and successful businessman, is in imminent danger of being deported because of a youthful indiscretion he paid for years ago.

Expelling Mesa, a Woodside resident for the past 43 years, would be a grave injustice that is apparent to his many friends in the community.

Yet, since last Thursday, the native of Colombia has been imprisoned at the Monmouth Correctional Institute, in Freehold, N.J., hoping for a stay of a deportation order and deeply worried about his family's future.

"My life is here," he said in a telephone interview. "I have nothing in Colombia, I have lived here, on the same Woodside block, since I was 8."

Mesa, his parents and six siblings arrived in the U.S. in 1966 as permanent residents. His case is a further example of our absurd immigration laws.

This was made clear in an avalanche of e-mails sent to the Daily News from his friends who say they are willing to do whatever it takes to help Mesa return to his fiancée, Olga Lucía Celis, a U.S. citizen, and their 15-month old son, Christian Enrique.

"I am writing you on behalf of Jorge Mesa. He is in the process of being deported and needs help," reads one e-mail. "I am a former U.S. Marine with service in Vietnam. I am also a retired FDNY lieutenant. I have known Jorge for more than 20 years and I know him to be a man of character, a man I trust and a man I am proud to call 'Friend.'" Signed, Dan Finegan.

Celis vividly remembers the moment Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents took him.

"It was 7 a.m. and Jorge was about to go to work. The baby and I were still in bed," said a distraught Celis. She recalled Mesa's voice calling from the living room saying three policemen were coming into the house.

"I thought they were friends of his. He has many friends and they come by all the time - policemen, firefighters, our neighbors," said Celis.

But the men were ICE agents and they had come to detain him for a 1991 deportation order he had appealed, but was never resolved.

"I have to go with them," Mesa, 53, told his wife.

Still in disbelief, Celis called Mesa's siblings and friends. The response was immediate and unanimous. Besides sending out e-mails, they contacted U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer, Rep. Joseph Crowley and City Councilman Eric Gioia, who, according to Christina Hall, Mesa's attorney, are trying to help.

"Jorge is a good man," said another e-mail from Wyatt Gibbons, a childhood friend. "As an attorney in Queens County for 20 years, I have seen the worst humanity has to offer and so I have a frame of reference - Jorge is the best humanity has to offer and in addition to his family and many, many friends being devastated by his loss, this country will be diminished without his presence."

It is a fact that from 1981 to 1983 Mesa served a two-year sentence for drug-related felonies. But it is a much more relevant fact that in the 26 years that have gone by, Mesa has earned the love and respect of all who know him. In addition he has created his own business, J.E.M. Painting, and became a loving partner and father.

Hall said she had never seen so many people eager to testify in behalf of one of her clients.

It is clear that Mesa is a decent man who should be allowed to go home to his family and his community. Doing otherwise would be a grave injustice.