A man lived in the USA for 34 years, received a green card, and now he is being deported: what happened

After more than 30 months in detention centers, Kelvin Silva was deported last week by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement to the Dominican Republic. His mother, children and siblings continue to live in the US, according to ABCNews.

Photo: Shutterstock

Silva, 45, legally moved to the United States when he was 11 years old. His father lived in the US as a naturalized citizen and Silva became a legal permanent resident. He had a Social Security card and paid taxes until an immigration judge stripped him of his status.

“I believed I became a citizen through my father,” Silva said earlier.

But it's not. Silva, whose parents were unmarried, never became a US citizen. At the time he immigrated, the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1940 was still in effect. He forbade children like Silva, whose parents were never legally married, from receiving citizenship status through their fathers.

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This law was repealed by Congress in 2000, but the new law did not apply retroactively to those over the age of 18, which Silva was at the time.

“There is a group of people who, in our opinion, are being unfairly punished under the old rule,” said Peter Isbister, one of Silva's lawyers and a senior lawyer for the Southern Poverty Law Center's Southeast Freedom Initiation.

After his father died when he was a teenager, Silva said he became involved in illegal activities. In 2013, he was convicted of possession with intent to distribute marijuana and cocaine and sentenced to 127 months in federal prison. He got his GED behind bars and went through a drug program.

But two days before he was tentatively due to be released from custody, ICE began expulsion proceedings. It was July 16, 2019. Since then, Silva has remained in ICE custody, continuing to fight for retroactive citizenship. Until last week.

Silva, whose deportation proceedings began under former President Donald Trump, believed that the Biden administration would be his "salvation." Silva stayed in the US.

But several times Silva thought he was going to be deported. According to Isbister, he was "played" with on several occasions. According to his lawyer, several times he was put on a bus or plane while awaiting deportation, only to be taken back to the detention center.

"He was on edge the whole time," Isbister said of those moments.

But after more than 30 months in ICE custody, Silva's hope faded. He was deported on February 15th.

Silva, who has not been to the Dominican Republic since he was 11, has no immediate family in the country, his family says.

ICE previously reported that Silva entered the US legally but violated the conditions of his entry due to multiple drug convictions.

The agency said Silva is "an aggravated offender who falls under the current administration's current arrest and removal priorities under civilian immigration requirements."

According to an ICE spokesman, people who "pose a threat to public safety" are the first to be deported.

Isbister said Silva, his family and his lawyers are frustrated by the Biden administration, which left him in discretionary custody as his case continued to be heard.

"The discrepancy between the Biden administration's racial justice rhetoric and the positions they took when they had a choice in this case is what's frustrating," Isbister said.

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Despite his deportation, Silva's attorney says he will continue to fight to have him recognized as a US citizen as his case is pending before the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.

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