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WASHINGTON – Spring Valley resident Neomie Pierrilus last heard from her brother, Paul, months ago. A U.S. federal official called. He wanted her to talk to her brother and calm him down. I can t believe they did this to me! I don t belong here! she recalled a distraught Paul Pierrilus screaming. There was so much fear in his voice, she said during a virtual press conference Wednesday hosted by U.S. Rep. Mondaire Jones.
The congressman who represents Rockland County and parts of Westchester has advocated for the Pierrilus family and pointed to the case as an example of a cruel and continually broken immigration system that targets Black and brown immigrants.
Rockland/Westchester Journal News
Eight ICE officers surrounded Paul Pierrilus as he crossed the tarmac at Alexandria International Airport in Louisiana on Tuesday, heading to a Haiti-bound plane.
Shackled at the wrists, ankles and waist, the Spring Valley resident continued to insist that he wasn’t a Haitian national and shouldn’t be sent to a country where he had never been.
Pierrilus was to be the last to board one of the final, rushed deportation flights in the dwindling days of the Trump administration.
Then, his lawyer Katrina Bleckley recounted this week, another ICE officer came over and said Pierrilus wouldn t be boarding the flight and would instead be returned to New York.