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French resident granted 1-year stay

Yet, convoluted process exists to rescind order for her deportation
Fighting back tears, Sonia Wyatt described her ordeal as she deals with possible deportation to France.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Monday granted French immigrant and Durango resident Sonia Belouniss a 12-month stay of deportation.

This means the former U.S. Pro Tour Ski star and Four Corners Health Care nurse cannot be deported for another year. Belouniss is the wife of U.S. citizen David Wyatt.

“As the former removal order was not vacated, this is a temporary 12-month fix, and we’ll have to deal with it again in a year. Nevertheless, it sure feels like a tremendous victory for Sonia and David,” Belouniss’ lawyer, Jessica Kunevicius, wrote in an email.

In a telephone interview on Tuesday, Wyatt said he and Belouniss were elated.

“We’re just so relieved. It’s been hard. Hard on both of us. Everyday, Sonia’s been afraid she’s going to get arrested, shaking.”

He said when they found out about the stay of deportation on Monday, “Sonia got so excited she was crying. She spent the whole day on the phone, talking to family. I didn’t get the chance to call anyone back.”

For now, Belouniss and Wyatt are enjoying a happy ending, or at least, a happy middle, to an immigration nightmare story that began innocently, when Belouniss followed her longtime boyfriend Wyatt to Durango in 2013. At the time, she entered the country through the Visa Waiver Program, which allows citizens of participating countries to travel in the United States for business or pleasure for up to 90 days without applying for a visa.

Before her 90 days were up, Belouniss and Wyatt married at the La Plata County Clerk and Recorder’s Office.

A lawyer told them Belouniss should apply for permanent residency, and they started the paperwork. But the lawyer “did not make her situation seem urgent,” said Kunevicius, and the Visa Waiver Program deadline got swallowed up in the Christmas holidays.

The newlyweds’ troubles started a few weeks later, in January 2014, when police arrested Belouniss for domestic violence and harassment and fingerprinted her: Belouniss had inadvertently overstayed by 22 days.

All charges were dismissed against Belouniss the next day. Yet, she was incarcerated for 27 days before ICE granted her a one-year stay of deportation.

Then, last month, ICE denied Belouniss’ request for another 12-month stay, plunging the couple into crisis.

Wyatt’s health plummeted, and Belouniss cried daily out of fear ICE officials would seize her.

ICE’s decision brings a temporary close to the couple’s ordeal.

In a phone interview Monday afternoon, Kunevicius said the couple was “over the moon. I talked to them this morning. They know it’s just a temporary stay – but they’re so excited and relieved. They’re thrilled.”

Kunevicius said she didn’t know what caused ICE to reverse its ruling.

“We didn’t submit anything that ICE didn’t already know. They were asking for information that they have readily at their fingertips, like her travel history in the United States – they’re ICE. They could just use their keyboards and pull it all up within seconds,” she said.

News of Belouniss’ plight attracted offers of help from powerful friends, including U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton and U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet.

“I’m not sure exactly what the deciding factor was,” Kunevicius said. “I got a call from Sen. Bennet’s office this morning. I don’t know whether it was that or getting splashed on the front page of The Durango Herald.”

Kunevicius said until ICE lifts the original order of deportation, Belouniss can’t apply for permanent residency in the U.S.

“That’s the mind-blowing thing. There really is no way for her to adjust her status here without going back to France for at least six months, at a minimum, and applying through the Embassy in Paris for a waiver of deportation and a waiver for unlawful presence. That removal order really is screwing everything up,” she said. “She isn’t even allowed to see an immigration judge. People don’t realize that if you enter this country through the Visa Waiver Program for a super innocent trip and things go sideways, you really have no rights.”

Kunevicius said that Wyatt and Belouniss “are sort of building their lives on sand here. They can plan their lives only 12 months in advance. You can’t even really sign a lease. It’s super unfair for them. They’ll have to go through this every 12 months – unless there’s a change in the law.”

Wyatt said, “I feel good. It’s just, you know, now we have to start again hopefully. But who knows what will happen next year. But that’s next year. We’re together now.”

Belouniss, who couldn’t be reached by telephone, communicated through a Facebook message, in which she wrote how grateful she was to everyone who’d helped her in all capitals, and ended by exclaiming, “What a relief!!!”

cmcallister@durangoherald.com

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