Deported from US, adoptee struggles in Brazil скачать в хорошем качестве

Deported from US, adoptee struggles in Brazil

(5 Jun 2019) Paul Fernando Schreiner paces around a sparsely furnished room, swatting mosquitoes from his arms and neck as he wonders if today will be any different from all the others. The heavy, dense air of this city across the bay from Rio de Janeiro feels insufferable, nothing like the dry heat of Phoenix, where the 36-year-old had been living when he was deported last year. Conversations are rare for Schreiner as he speaks no Portuguese and few people here speak anything but Portuguese. But language is only one issue: The food and even the sports Brazilians follow, Schreiner likes American football more than soccer, don't feel right. "It's the only culture I know, it's the only people I know," he says. Inside his head, every day is a fight against boredom, loneliness and desperation. The US government disagrees, underscoring the increasingly hard line the Trump administration is taking with legal residents deemed deportable. US immigration authorities went to such lengths to remove Schreiner that they may have broken Brazilian law and have made it virtually impossible for him to exercise his supposed Brazilian citizenship. "He shouldn't have to suffer a second time," his mother, Rosanna Schreiner, said through tears from her home outside Seward, Nebraska. Schreiner was never naturalized a US citizen but lived as an American for 30 years. He was legally adopted at age 5, had a Nebraska birth certificate, a Social Security number and paid taxes. US adoption groups estimate that between 35,000 and 75,000 adoptees in the United States could be in such a situation today, many incorrectly believing they are already citizens. The Child Citizenship Act of 2000, signed by President Bill Clinton, aimed at streamlining the process by making citizenship automatic for children adopted from overseas. But there was an exception: For children already in America, only those under 18 when the law went into effect qualified. Six weeks too old, the law didn't apply to Schreiner. Applying for citizenship based on eligibility as a green-card holder was also out: When he was 21, Schreiner was convicted of statutory rape for having sex with a 14-year-old. After spending nearly eight years in prison in Nebraska, Schreiner got his life together. He moved to Arizona and started pool-cleaning and carpenter businesses. Then at 5 am on Oct. 23, 2017, agents surrounded Schreiner's truck as he left for work. Schreiner wasn't totally surprised. Soon after his legal troubles began, in 2004 he had been notified there was a deportation order against him. But that didn't always lead to removal during the administrations of Presidents George Bush and Barack Obama. Schreiner also had the backing of Brazil. In 2017, Brazilian authorities again denied the US government's request for documents to deport him. Nevertheless, on June 12, 2018, Schreiner was awakened in detention and told he was being deported. "They'll let you in," Schreiner said an agent told him about the fact that he didn't have a passport. In a statement, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement said only that Schreiner had been deported and declined to comment further. In handcuffs and accompanied by two agents, Schreiner said he was flown on a commercial flight from Phoenix to New York, where American Airlines officials didn't want to let him on the flight to Rio de Janeiro. The only documentation ICE agents had for Schreiner was a "certificate of nationality" issued by the Brazilian Consulate in Los Angeles that gave only one name, "Fernando," and the arbitrary birth date Schreiner was given upon adoption. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...