Minn. man's deportation to Haiti put on hold

The deportation of a Minnesota man from Haiti has been put on hold because of the devastating earthquake in that nation.

President Obama halted deportations to Haiti because of the chaos there. Shoodley Cherichel lost an immigration ruling this week and was in line for deportation.

He was convicted of criminal vehicular homicide in Minnesota in 2005, but the government began deportation efforts against him before that. It appears he entered the U.S. without documents when he was three or four years old.

Cherichel's attorney, Kim Hunter, argues Cherichel would be indefinitely jailed in brutal prisons in Haiti.

"This practice of indefinitely detaining criminal deportees from the United States persists," Hunter said. "And it's been the policy and practice of Haiti for at the past decade."

She says that nation's jails are so bad they essentially practice torture.

"I think it's rather tragic frankly that it's taken the death of 50,000 or more Haitians at the hands of Mother Nature to spare my client's life at the hands of the Haitian government," she said.

Hunter wants Cherichel granted supervised release. He's been in jail for 32 months while awaiting resolution of his deportation case.