FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WISH) — Rebekah Hubley is fighting to stop her adopted son with special needs from being deported back to Haiti.

Jonas Hubley, 17, is blind, has cerebral palsy, and suffers from seizures.

The Hubleys brought Jonas to the United States in 2008 on a medical visa and legally adopted him in Indiana in 2010. They’ve been taking care of him ever since.

The family told I-Team 8 they’ve been trying for years to finalize his citizenship so that he can get a Social Security number. That would allow him to get benefits to increase his quality of life.

In the fall, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services told the family the last thing they needed to do was to send in a list of documents that included information proving he’s lived with them for more than two years. The family sent the federal agency officially stamped documents from his school district showing just that.

“All the way back to 2009, it shows what school he went to. It shows that he lived with us. Exactly what they wanted,” said Rebekah Hubley.

Several months later, as the holiday season began, Citizenship and Immigration Services told them they were denying his request to become a citizen.

“It said the reason for denial was that we did not prove we did not send in enough information to prove two-plus years physical custody because we only sent in the ’23-’24 school record. They only read the first page.”

“Yeah, it goes all the back; it has every single year and what school he went to all the back to 2009. It wasn’t like this was a 60- to 100-page document. All they had to do was turn the page,” Hubley said.

The consequence of that denial was something out of a nightmare. “Then they said, ‘He’s going to be deported.’ Like, ‘He’s here unlawfully,’ and, ‘He’s got this window of opportunity to voluntarily leave,’ which is completely asinine,” Hubley said.

The Hubleys believe if he were deported, he would likely die in his home country of Haiti, which is a very dangerous place to live right now.

“A Level 4 travel warning from the U.S. They’ve closed our embassys down there. They’ve told all Americans to leave. I mean, it’s so dangerous,” Hubley said.

Jonas’s mom began fighting for him to stay. She wrote a letter to President Joe Biden. National media picked up the story and spread it far and wide. Someone came forward and paid for an attorney who petitioned immigration authorities to reopen the case, which is happening.

However, Friday is another deadline. “If they do not approve this by his birthday Jan. 14, then he will have to wait an additional five years for naturalization, which I don’t understand that whole process, but just knowing that he would have to wait five more years without benefits and everything: Hell, no.”

On Monday afternoon, Jonas went through a medical examinations that the family will send overnight to immigrant authorities so they can potentially complete their case and allow Jonas to be a citizen; otherwise, he’ll technically be in the United States illegally.

Jonas’s mom told I-Team 8 that, no matter the outcome of her sons case, she will fight for immigration reform to prevent something like this from happening to another family.

“This is not a human error. This is a blatant disregard for human life, and I won’t accept it, and there has to be change, and I will shout till I lose my voice to say that change needs to happen. No family should ever have to go through this like we did,” Hubley said.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services declined to comment on Hubley’s case, instead, issuing a general statement.

Statement

“USCIS adjudicates each request for immigration benefits fairly, humanely, and efficiently on a case-by-case basis to determine if they meet all standards and eligibility criteria required under applicable laws, regulations, and policies, and the agency remains committed to promoting policies and procedures that break down barriers in the immigration system, increasing access to eligible immigration benefits, and upholding America’s promise as a nation of welcome and possibility with fairness, integrity, and respect for all we serve.”

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services

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