Excerpt from The Greenpoint Gazette:
Pablo Airaldi, founder and owner of fledgling bike shop Greenpoint Bikes, is now under the threat of deportation after a string of unusual events, two years of detainments and continuous court dates and ten years of trying to move past a mistake he made when he was eighteen years old. Now, the Greenpoint community is rallying around him to raise money for legal fees, provide a comprehensive support system and do everything in their power to make sure he stays in the United States, and in the neighborhood.
Airaldi was born in Uruguay and moved to the United States when he was seven years old, along with his mother, who married a U.S. citizen. Since then, Airaldi has lived as a legal resident here. In 2002, Airaldi pleaded guilty to a crime upon the counsel of a public defender without understanding the possible ramifications to his status as a legal resident. Upon pleading guilty, he was issued two years probation and a 545-day jail sentence, which was subsequently suspended indefinitely. Since 2002, Airaldi has had a clean record, lived in several cities throughout the United States and opened his own business on Manhattan Avenue. However, in 2008, when Airaldi tried to travel to Canada with friends, he was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and told that his status as a legal resident was in jeopardy. He was incarcerated, but released on a $3,000 bond. Since then, he has had mandatory court dates every three months, and is now being held in a detention center in New Jersey awaiting a trial that may or may not result in his deportation. If deported, Airaldi—who is considered under immigration law to be an aggravated felon, making him vulnerable to deportation—will be sent back to Uruguay, a place where he has no friends or family, and does not speak the language.
More info on Pablo's case can be fond on Pablo Airaldi Updates.
And in his own eloquent words on Dearly Deported.
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