Deported and defamed - Jamaican rejects US immigration authorities’ characterisation of ‘criminal history’, says charges were dismissed

A Jamaican man deported after 12 years in the United States is rejecting allegations by immigration authorities there that he is a violent criminal, insisting that serious criminal charges brought against him were fabricated and ultimately dismissed by a judge.

Four days after Altiman Peterkin’s son was born, agents from United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained him on June 25 in the parking lot of a bank he was visiting to withdraw funds.

Peterkin said he was there to get cash for a Home Depot run to pick up supplies to complete a project for which a client had paid him.

He was a well-established carpenter and businessman, running his company, Cape Cod Pro Builders and Remodeling LLC, in Hyannis, one of the largest communities in Barnstable, Massachusetts.

Still, he was undocumented.

“By the time I drove into the bank, I saw blue lights keep flashing... . It just came on, on the private cars,” Peterkin recalled in an interview with The Sunday Gleaner.

“And by the time the guy came over to me, they said, ‘Oh, this guy’s a very big one’. And I should put my hand through the window. I said, ‘Okay, no problem, man. That’s no problem for me to stretch my hand out for you. If it is my time to go home, I’ll go home’.”

Peterkin said he was handcuffed, processed and taken into federal custody, abruptly separated from his newborn son, four-year-old daughter and spouse.

Following his arrest, he found himself in the spotlight after the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) listed him, along with others, on its website as an illegal alien.

DHS said the group included paedophiles, drunk drivers and violent assailants.

For Peterkin, DHS said his criminal history included “a conviction for assault and battery of family/household member, and arrests for rape and threatening to commit murder”.

The 44-year-old Montego Bay man said the publication of the information, which was reported by local and international media, painted him as a dangerous criminal.

A search of the Barnstable District Court records listed eight cases involving Peterkin — three civil matters and five small claims.

A search of the neighbouring Orleans District Court records revealed a small claims matter involving Peterkin.

The Sunday Gleaner could not find court records relating to assault and battery or rape.

Local media in Massachusetts reported that the criminal case brought against Peterkin was dismissed.

Criminal complaints

According to Hyannis News on March 30, 2022, criminal complaints were issued against Peterkin for three counts of rape and one count of assault and battery on a family or household member. The alleged offences were dated September 25, 2021. The case had been transferred from Barnstable District Court to Orleans District Court.

The local media outlet reported that a probable cause hearing was held on October 21, 2022. According to court notes, witnesses, including a Barnstable police officer, testified and exhibits, including photographs, were entered. The court’s final notation states: “No PC (probable cause) found after hearing”.

Peterkin said the “false” information has made life difficult for him, his family in the US, and his 16-year-old daughter and mother in Jamaica.

K-1 fiancé visa

His decade-long ordeal began in 2014, when he left Jamaica on a K-1 fiancé visa. Working day-to-day in construction in St James on what he described as a “hand-to-mouth” income, Peterkin said he gave away all his furniture and belongings, believing he was moving to start a permanent life. He arrived in California on a one-way ticket with US$70 given to him by a friend, he said.

However, upon arrival, he said he discovered that his then-fiancée had brought him to the US under false pretences.

“I went there on a fiancé visa. I didn’t even know that this person who brought me into the US had somebody else there that they didn’t even tell me that, ‘Listen, I am in a relationship here’,” Peterkin said.

“They brought me to America knowing that they had a relationship here. Not even a week after she bought the ticket and I was up there, she leave me alone in the house to go to Las Vegas where she had a boyfriend, which I found out,” he added.

When she returned, a confrontation ensued.

“I said, ‘Well, then why would you let me come here? You know you were in a situation. Don’t let me come into a country… I gave away all my stuff. And I come here thinking that I’m coming to a life,” he recounted.

Thrown out into

the street

Within two weeks of arriving, law enforcement was called, and Peterkin was thrown out into the street.

“The police get involved. When the police came... she throw all my clothes through the window. Now I’m stuck in a country with no money, no nothing to buy food, nothing at all,” he said.

Stranded and penniless at age 32, Peterkin relied on his church upbringing. A local pastor took him in for three days before explaining that, due to his own family living in the home, he could no longer host a stranger.

He then travelled to West Virginia after a cousin bought him a Greyhound bus ticket. What followed was a traumatic, three-day cross-country journey through a blizzard.

“Things were so hard there because, you know, in West Virginia, it is not that populated with even black people. It’s more like a white racist place there... . So I was, honestly, I was very traumatised. I had to stay in the house almost three months, couldn’t go outside; couldn’t eat,” Peterkin recalled.

Unable to afford a flight back to Jamaica, he said he took a dishwashing job at a restaurant paying US$8 an hour.

“Because I had my daughter here in Jamaica, I had my mom to take care of... so I started sending money for them, you know what I mean, so that at least they can survive,” he explained.

Determined to rebuild, Peterkin said he learned through friends about opportunities for carpenters in Nantucket and Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Taking another two-day bus trip north, he landed a job with a contractor and later teamed up with a fellow Jamaican tradesman who mentored him.

By 2019, he said he had established his own carpentry business. He secured commercial insurance, hired an accountant to manage his estimates, launched a company website and paid taxes. He also made it a point to employ fellow Jamaicans who came to the US looking for work.

“I started getting my own jobs. I went ahead and I was paying my taxes there. I would employ them because everybody needs a piece of bread. I didn’t have any, and at least I try to make everybody survive,” he stated.

Undocumented status

However, even as he established himself in the US, he could not change his undocumented status while remaining in the country.

“My status was what it is. There was no way for me to get married. Yes, I was still illegal,” Peterkin said when asked if he had made any attempt to change his status.

Under Section 245(d) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, a K-1 visa is granted solely to enter the US and marry the original petitioner within 90 days of arrival.

If the relationship breaks down and the visa holder does not marry the original petitioner, they cannot adjust status to a permanent resident through marriage to a different US citizen or permanent resident.

A K-1 status cannot be transferred to a new partner while inside the US. If the visa holder remains in the US and marries another US citizen, USCIS will deny their application for a Green Card based on that new marriage.

A K-1 visa holder begins accruing unlawful presence as soon as the 90-day period expires.

To lawfully marry a new partner and obtain a Green Card, the applicant would generally have to leave the US and have their new spouse file a fresh CR-1/IR-1 Spousal Visa petition through a US embassy or consulate in their home country.

Relationship fallout

In 2021, a relationship fallout triggered the legal charges that would later haunt Peterkin in public reports. He told The Sunday Gleaner that he decided to end the relationship to focus on returning to church, an action he claims angered his ex-partner.

After she unsuccessfully sought a restraining order, police arrived at Peterkin’s house approximately three weeks later, informing him of criminal allegations including rape and assault.

“I had done a surgery which I had removed haemorrhoids. So I had the proof of the time when I had done the [surgery] to the time when that person went ahead and talk about I assaulted her,” Peterkin said.

“So the police said to me, ‘Mr Peterkin, you know what you do? I’m not even gonna lock you up, as this makes no sense. You cannot be here, just come out of the hospital not even two days ago, and you can’t walk, and somebody’s gonna tell a lie like that on you? That doesn’t make any sense. Go back inside your house and lay down’,” he recounted.

Peterkin said that, during a probable cause hearing, the judge reviewed the evidence, including text messages stored on his phone, and dismissed all the charges.

“On the first day of the trial, the judge realised that all this was fabricated... . Everything was fabricated, so the judge dismissed everything out of the court,” Peterkin stated.

However, his undocumented status left him vulnerable when ICE agents intercepted him outside the bank.

While in federal custody at Plymouth County Correctional Facility, Peterkin said he saw fellow detainees who had spent months or years attempting to appeal their deportation orders, only to be denied.

“I said to them, ‘Listen, I need to go to my house’. They said to me, “Listen, they cannot send me off because they want me to appeal the case. I said, ‘Listen, I am not going to appeal a case. I don’t need to appeal anything. If you guys want to send me home, send me home,’” he said.

He signed his deportation paperwork and was subsequently returned to Jamaica in August.

Now home, he expressed deep pain over how public allegations and online commentary have affected his family.

“I want the truth to be out; my story. People don’t stop to think or to try to know the type of person that they are talking about,” he lamented, asserting that he could not reside in Massachusetts if he was truly a criminal.

He noted also that, had he committed any serious crime, he would likely have served time in a US prison before being deported.

“Jamaicans are quick to run with the first thing that they got, and they put a damp not only just on me, but they put a damp on my kids, they put a damp on my mom, they put a damp on my whole family... . People do not need to run with everything they hear,” he stressed, adding that church members here have read the news and are passing judgement.

kimone.francis@gleanerjm.com