HIS name is Learie Daly.

Thirty-five years of age, he is stockily built and sports a bald head.

Agreeing to an interview, he sat down with the Sunday Mirror at The Pavilion in Arouca to tell his story.

Deported from the States in December of 2004, he faced the same discrimination as others like him.

However, he managed to bounce back and is now fighting.

Originally from Arouca, he immigrated to America in 1976 at the age of five with his parents and older brother.

Eventually, they settled in the city of Baltimore, Maryland.

“I grew up watching movies that showed the Marine Corps as a respectable unit that was tough and honourable.

“I knew at a young age I wanted to be one.”

Joining the Marines at the age of 17, he served one year of inactive duty before graduating and going active in June of 1989.

DALY’s daughter displays a photo
of him in Marine kit.

“After training, I served one year in Okinawa, Japan.

“I was stationed in Pohang, South Korea for three months of that same year.

“I then finished my enlistment in Camp Pendleton, California, for nearly three years with the 7th Engineers Support Battalion there.

“I didn’t get to go to Kuwait, so I stayed back in support units to get the proper gear to the engineers who went.

“I had been injured in Korea (the injury was caused by not drinking enough water to compensate for the hard work in extreme cold temperatures).

“I had planned a career of 20 years.

“I was a Combat Engineer, trained in construction, demolition, mine-warfare, hazardous materials storage, safety and handling and I only planned on being good at my job.

“I believe I was.”

It was in Camp Pendleton that he met his then wife, Tonya Glover, a White woman who was also a Marine.

They got married 11 months later during a one-week vacation in Guam in November of 1990.

In time they had three children.

A boy, now 14 and two girls, now ages 13 and 11.

He admitted that in time, though, he and his wife grew apart, mainly because they wanted different things in life and had incompatible goals.

His legal troubles began in September 1996 when he left his wife for another woman she knew.

“She got even by hurting the ones I cared for more than hers,” he said.

“She stopped feeding my dog and started abusing the children since they were the centre of my heart.”

He stated that Tonya was already neglected and started to beat the girls who were only four and two at the time.

“My son was five and he used to hit her back, so he wasn’t beaten by her too often.”

When asked why he even left his wife in the first place, he answered: “We married because I already made her pregnant and I wanted to be there for my child.

“We stayed together trying to make things work without the love I never had for her.

“It fell apart when I found the woman who made me realise how unhappy I was.”

It was a matter of time before he was imprisoned for battery in August of 1997.

“I got locked up for beating our daughters and never got the chance to prove my innocence.

“US Immigrations picked me up from prison and after four unsuccessful years of trying to beat me in court, they drugged me and put me on a plane to Trinidad.”

He also adds: “By the time I went to prison for my wife’s crime against our children, she was a prison guard.

“She convinced the Parole Board to keep me as long as possible because she and the kids didn’t need me.

“I served three years and three months when I could have been released after 17 months. She also convinced them (Immigration and Naturalisation Services) to deport me for the same reasons.

“They removed all my military service from my files, knowing that I was already a national of the United States who was supposed to be granted citizenship due to active service during the Gulf War.

“They denied my papers court review by ensuring the same judge got all my petitions and denied them repeatedly for over three and a half years.

“Then I was sedated to keep me from fighting deportation or telling people I was illegally deported so the government could cover their tracks.”

Appealing his sentence, he nearly got his conviction overturned in Criminal Court.

“But since I was in INS custody, they refused to take me to court because with no conviction, they would have to release me and they didn’t want that. “After years of illegally holding me and breaking the laws, they didn’t want people to find out, so they refused to let me clear my name.”

As soon as he returned to Trinidad, he immediately looked for employment.

“I had no identification, so I started to worked construction from January to August 2005, until I was hired by HCL as a driver.

“I now drive for Arawak.

“I was a tractor trailer driver before my legal troubles so I am striving to return to that work.”

He admits, though, that when he tells others that he is a deportee, many assume that he was selling drugs or living on a wrongful life.

“They have a hard time believing that I was a US Marine who served during wars and still got deported.

“I let them know my situation and let them realise that not everything can be assumed just by knowing a person was deported, because everyone reacts to obstacles differently if God is in their life.

“They normally walk away with a new opinion of deportees after meeting me.”

As for his parents’ reaction to his present situation, he answered: “I was not close with my father, so he wasn’t a part of my life before or now. They (his parents) separated in the ’80s.

“My mother was devastated by what went on, but since it was the government behind it, she was too scared to really help much.”

Despite all that had happened to him in the past, he says he is still motivated not to give up hope, for justice one day, and that God still has a plan for his future and his reunion with his children.

Even though he has no contact with his children, he does have knowledge of their whereabouts.

“My son lives with his mother in Baltimore City,” he said.

“After refusing to go back to live with their mother and waiting for me to come home, my daughters remained in foster care for more than seven years. They were finally adopted and their last names were changed.”

As for his opinion on the local government’s treatment of deportees, he admits, “Deportees aren’t given the necessary help to begin new lives here. “They (most) have criminal pasts and, without real support, can only resort to what got them in trouble.”

Learie states that he is still fighting his case and that his Immigration Attorney has not given up.

“But since INS is now Homeland Security and has more power now as the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, they have used unlawful methods to stall the services of my case and have prevented the criminal courts from vacating the conviction crimes I never committed against my children, who have suffered severely from all that I went through and my separation now.”

Finally, when asked if he could return to the states and could regain custody of his children, he states, “Yes, I would go back. I would definitely fight to get all three back and try to become a father to them again.”

In my criminal case, when my wife was questioned about my daughter’s bruises, she accused me and gave a fake address so I couldn’t be questioned. I still have the hospital records that prove me innocent and that the police officer lied to close the case quickly.

They assumed that since my innocent looking White wife said she didn’t do it, the Black man had to. I was charged with hitting my child and causing her to get stitches along with bruises from a beating over a two to three-day period, but she had fallen and got a cut, receiving stitches and was with her mother.

I have hospital records showing no bruises on Sunday, September 29, 1996, but was charged for two to three-day-old bruises on Monday by an officer who lied on the police report to get a quick case closure after meeting my wife and getting a false address for her.

“Hospital records 1-4 show that the mother was with the daughter at the hospital and less than 24 hours later, she was seen at the same hospital and the doctor wrote that she had two-three-day-old bruises to accommodate the police officer when the records show no bruises less than 24 hours ago.

But the children had been with their mother.

The legal system failed me because I was a young Black man, then hid the truth by keeping me in jail until I could be removed quietly to hide what happened.