CONCORD, N.H. (AP) - A federal appeals court has declined to act on the case of an immigrant from Brazil who faces deportation from New Hampshire and says the United States isn’t honoring an agreement allowing him to remain in the country.
A three-judge panel of the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston reviewed the case of Renato Filippi, of Nashua. In its judgment Friday, the panel agreed with a 2017 ruling from a federal judge in New Hampshire that the court lacked jurisdiction over his case.
The Board of Immigration Appeals denied Filippi’s appeal in 2015. Filippi’s lawyer, Robert McDaniel, said he would meet with his client Monday.
“There are steps available at this point, and I intend to take them,” he said in an email.
Filippi said he entered the U.S. through Mexico in 2002 with the help of smugglers. He was arrested, but said U.S. authorities recruited him to serve as a confidential informant on the people who assisted with his entry.
He said he was promised he could stay in the U.S. permanently. He said he’s facing death threats from Brazil and fears going back.
Filippi said he worked inside a Texas detention facility for nearly a year. He later was relocated to New Hampshire and was required to report periodically to Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. He was able to get a Social Security card and a driver’s license and found work. He brought his wife and daughter to New Hampshire.
During a routine appointment with immigration authorities in September, he learned he had to leave.
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