exposing the dark side of adoption
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Joao Herbert

public
1999 Apr 5
Joao Herbert was born in Brazil and spent much of his early childhood as an orphan on the streets of Sao Paolo. He was adopted by an Ohio couple at the age of eight. When he was seventeen, his parents discovered that he had not automatically become a U.S. citizen upon his adoption, and submitted a naturalization application. However, Herbert turned eighteen before the processing of the application was complete. Soon after his eighteenth birthday, he pleaded guilty to attempting to sell marijuana and was sentenced to probation and participation in a drug treatment program. Despite the fact that he was a first-time offender who had served no jail time, he was placed in immigration detention for twenty months and then deported to Brazil as an “aggravated felon.” Herbert had no friends or family in Brazil and no longer spoke any Portuguese. Once in Brazil, he began teaching English and became known as "the English professor." His father, who is quadriplegic, was unable to travel to Brazil to visit him. In May of 2004, Herbert was shot and killed in the industrial city of Campinas, 60 miles northwest of Sao Paolo.

Status: Deported, and murdered

Documents

Title Publication date
How does an adoptee get deported? More easily than one might think 2012 May 29
BRIEF OF AMICUS CURIAE, POST-DEPORTATION HUMAN RIGHTS PROJECT 2007
Foreign adoptees try to avoid deportation 2005 Sep 13
LOVED ONES HONOR LIFE OF MAN DEPORTED, KILLED 2004 Jun 16
3 HELD IN DEPORTEE'S SLAYING 2004 Jun 10
Newsbrief: Ohio Man Deported for Minor Marijuana Conviction Found Murdered in Brazil 2004 May 28
Couple mourn deported son, 26 Man gunned down in native Brazil; he was adopted at 8 2004 May 28
JOAO HERBERT SHOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN DEPORTED 2004 May 28
Deported first offender dies in a homeland he never understood 2004 May 27
DEPORTED MAN SHOT TO DEATH IN BRAZIL 2004 May 27
Once a criminal, always a criminal? Unconstitutional presumptions for mandatory detention of criminal aliens 2001 Aug
BILLS WOULD RELAX TERMS OF DEPORTATION LAWS 2001 Feb 11
Cold Empire of Law 2000 Dec
Deportee begins new life as stranger in a strange land 2000 Nov 18
WADSWORTH MAN RETURNS TO BRAZIL 2000 Nov 17
Brazilian adoptee returns to country he left 14 years ago 2000 Nov 17
SON'S DEPORTATION DUE TODAY 2000 Nov 16
FATHER FEARS HE HAS SEEN ADOPTED SON FOR LAST TIME 2000 Nov 4
CITIZENSHIP BILL TOO LATE FOR INMATE 2000 Oct 19
JUDGE ORDERS MAN, 22, DEPORTED 2000 Jun 16
Drug Sale Instigates Deportation 2000 Jun 16
LAWYER LISTS REASONS NOT TO DEPORT MAN 2000 May 27
ADOPTEE IS CLOSER TO BEING DEPORTED 2000 Apr 29
FOREIGN ADOPTEE FIGHTS DEPORTATION WHILE IN JAIL 2000 Mar 1
'THEY CAN'T TAKE ME. . . CAN THEY?' 2000 Feb 6
Akron man faces deportation 1999 Apr 5