Monroe County woman wins fight against looming deportation

SCIOTA — She’s free, out of jail and back home with her family in Sciota. Rukie Paputchi was facing certain deportation back to her native Bulgaria as her application for political asylum had been denied back in 2003. Her attorney, Ted Murphy, reported that Paputchi was released from jail last Wednesday, March 5. One day she was in jail facing certain deportation and the next day she was free. Sometimes the wheels of the government move slowly and at other times the wheels move so fast you just have to hang on. Rukie Paputchi, a Bulgarian immigrant, came to the U.S. legally in 1992 to join her husband, Zack, who had also come here legally in 1990. She applied for political asylum at that time. Over the course of the next 16 years they gave birth to two U.S. citizen children and operated their own pizza business. Her application for political asylum was approved in 1997 but later the approval was reversed by the government. She filed another appeal which was once again denied and the denial became final in 2003. She was asked to leave the country, her husband, her two children, their mortgaged home, and their pizza business, The Old Mill Pizzeria. The pizzeria supported their family; they paid their own medical insurance, life insurance, federal, state and local taxes and sent their children to public school like other “Americans.” On Jan. 7, 2008 agents of the Immigrations & Customs Enforcement, known as ICE, arrested Paputchi. They arrived at her home in the early morning hours while she was still in her pajamas. She was handcuffed, taken away and has been detained at the Pike County Correctional Facility in Lords Valley awaiting deportation back to Bulgaria until her release last week. On Feb. 6, the Courier visited Paputchi at the Pike County Correctional Facility. She was depressed and confused as to all that had happened. She didn’t have much to say at that time except for, “In two days I’ll be here a month. I miss my children very much. I miss kissing them good-night.” She went on to say, “We never expected this. They just knocked on our door early one morning and arrested me.” The tears were welling in her eyes and she stared mostly at the floor during the visit and avoided eye contact. Her attorney detailed what happened to prompt her release. Murphy has been fighting the deportation in separate actions before the Board of Immigration Appeals and a federal appeals court. “I also had a long discussion with the attorney from the (ICE) Office of Litigation on March 3 and brought up other cases which have occurred that were very similar to Rukie’s case,” in which the petitioner was granted review and relief from deportation, he said. He suggested that they should follow their previous decisions in other cases as it related to Rukie. Following that discussion, the Board of Immigration Appeals agreed to release Rukie while reviewing her case. “Meanwhile, the federal appeals court decided to review my motion and stay Rukie’s deportation. The federal court ordered Rukie to be released on Wednesday Mar 5. They didn’t even know about the agreement with the Office of Litigation that had just been finalized,” Murphy said. On Tuesday March 11, the attorneys for ICE agreed to re-open Paputchi’s case before an immigration judge where both she and Zack will be able to present their applications for “green cards.” If their green card application is approved they will be lawful permanent residents of the U.S. In five years from getting their green cards they can apply to become U.S. citizens. While this hasn’t all happened yet, two months ago Paputchi was facing certain deportation as her “flight papers” back to Bulgaria were being prepared. “Zack and Rukie are awful happy now and the sunshine is back in their life,” her lawyer happily reported to the Courier.