Akron man faces deportation

Akron man faces deportation

AKRON, Ohio (AP) - A northeast Ohio man adopted as a 9-year-old faces deportation to Brazil because of a drug trafficking charge, the Akron Beacon Journal reported yesterday.

Joao Herbert is not a U.S. citizen because his parents decided to leave the choice up to their legally adopted son.

Herbert, 20, was arrested two months after graduating from high school in June 1997. Instead of prison, he and a friend arrested with him were ordered to enter residential drug treatment programs and placed on probation.

While serving time at the work-release program in Summit County, Herbert learned through his attorney that he faced deportation.

The reason is a 1996 federal law passed in the wake of the Oklahoma City bombing. The law makes any non-citizen convicted of all but the lowest drug offenses subject to detention and mandatory deportation.

The legislators who passed the 1996 Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act said the law was designed to make it easier to throw foreign drug traffickers out of the country. The statute makes no exception for aliens who were adopted as youngsters.

Herbert said it isn't fair to treat him as a foreigner.

"I was like any normal American kid growing up," Herbert said. "I had my Nintendo, I ate pizza."

He said he no longer speaks Portuguese and doesn't know anyone in Brazil.

His parents brought Herbert to the United States in October 1987, after finding him in a Sao Paulo orphanage.