Newsweek: ICE detains dad after green card was revoked due to teenage crime—Lawyer

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents detained a Texas father whose green card was revoked due to charges from when he was a teenager, his lawyers and wife told Newsweek.

Roman Surovtsev, now 41 years old, immigrated to the United States from the Soviet Union when he was 4 years old. When he was a teenager, his green card was revoked after he pleaded guilty to charges including carjacking and burglary, NPR reported.

But he was not deported after his prison sentence. Surovtsev is technically stateless, as neither Russia nor Ukraine, the two countries to which the U.S. government initially sought to deport him, has been able to prove him as a citizen, his lawyers Eric Lee and Christopher Godshall-Bennett told Newsweek.

“The Trump administration is trying to send him to a country where he will be drafted into the army and sent to front, where there is a very, very high likelihood of death,” Lee said. “This is somebody that has lived in the United States since he was a child. Yes, he’s made mistakes. He’s paid the price through the criminal process, but he has two young U.S. citizen daughters, a U.S. citizen wife He’s got a job and reformed himself. There’s absolutely no reason why he’s being detained.”

https://www.newsweek.com/ice-detains-dad-after-green-card-revoked-teenage-crime-lawyer-10910015

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/ice-detains-dad-after-green-card-was-revoked-due-to-teenage-crime-lawyer/ar-AA1OTkwM


He’s not deportable — neither Russia nor Ukraine will accept him as their citizen — and he’s kept his nose clean for over 20 years. He also has 3 family members (wife, 2 daughters) who are U.S. citizens.

Sometimes people deserve a second chance, and he’s done well. Let him stay!

Leave a Reply