Deportation hangs heavy over Roseville family (Star-Tribune)

Deportation hangs heavy over Roseville family
A Lebanese man facing deportation fights to stay with his wife and son in Minnesota.

By LORA PABST, Star Tribune
Last update: February 10, 2010 - 11:42 PM

Like many immigrants, Assaf Mhanna wanted to build a life for himself in America. After fleeing Lebanon's political turmoil, he entered the United States in 1998. He married a woman from Minnesota and worked 14-hour days at his family's convenience store in St. Paul. He and his wife planned to have children and move to a bigger house in Roseville.

But all of those plans are now on hold. The U.S. government ordered Mhanna, 37, to return to Lebanon in December. For the past 43 days, he has sat in the Ramsey County jail. While his family continues the legal fight, they know that any day could be his last on American soil.

"It's like waiting for a death every single day," said Tammy Mhanna, who married Assaf in 2004.

On Thursday, Assaf Mhanna will ask a federal judge to temporarily delay his deportation while he presses his case for asylum. If he fails, he could be barred from returning to the U.S. for at least 10 years.

Most foreigners who marry U.S. citizens are allowed to remain in the country. In fact, the number of foreign-born individuals who received permanent resident status after marrying an American has doubled since 1999, reaching 265,671 in 2008, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. The government rejected 12.5 percent of the 741,851 individuals seeking residency on family grounds in 2008, records show.

But Assaf Mhanna's case is different. When he walked up to the U.S-Mexico border seeking asylum, he mistakenly told a customs officer that he was American, according to his court testimony. Though he quickly corrected himself and told the officer he was Lebanese, the brief encounter has plagued his battle to remain in the country. Government officials accuse him of intentionally lying about his citizenship to gain entry to the U.S.