High-level push wins teacher a reprieve
Kerry, others stall deportation
The threatened deportation of popular Fenway High School teacher Obain Attouoman has been put off until early 2007 after a late-inning lobbying effort by Massachusetts politicians, US Senator John F. Kerry announced last night.
The reprieve was triggered by a request by Kerry to Senator John Cornyn, a Texas Republican who chairs a key immigration subcommittee, for a background report on Attouoman from the federal Citizenship and Immigration Services agency. That automatically delays deportation proceedings until the end of the current session of Congress, Kerry's office said.
Kerry has also filed a bill intended to allow Attouoman to stay here permanently.
The last-minute maneuvers ended a day of furious lobbying by Kerry, US Senator Edward M. Kennedy, and Governor Mitt Romney. At one point, it appeared the Ivory Coast immigrant had won a delay of just a week.
Reached at his home last night, Attouoman said he was grateful to his supporters, including a delegation of six students and two parents who were in Washington yesterday to meet with Kerry and other leaders.
''I feel overwhelmed at what's happening," said the 43-year-old math teacher, a US resident since 1992. ''I really cannot believe it yet. I feel like I'm dreaming . . . It's just an incredible feeling to have children express such a high sense of responsibility."
Attouoman's lawyer, Susan Cohen, who has been working on the case pro bono, said she was on her way to his house with several bottles of champagne.
''I was starting to worry that I might not see Obain again after tomorrow," Cohen said. ''But we just didn't let up our efforts."
Last night, Russ Knocke, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, said Attouoman was scheduled to be deported to Ivory Coast March 11. Knocke had not heard about the longer postponement but confirmed that a request from Cornyn would bring about a delay.
The first hopeful news for Attouoman yesterday came after Romney sent a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.
''I have heard from scores of Mr. Attouoman's students who are concerned that the loss of their teacher in the middle of this school year will not only impact their education, but also will take from our community a man who has been willing to mentor young men who lack a prominent role model in their lives," the letter said.
Attouoman has been fighting to stay in the United States since he missed an immigration hearing in 2001, after misreading the handwritten date on the official letter. A judge ordered him deported; Attouoman lost an appeal. He has said he would be in danger in his homeland because of his political affiliations in the early 1990s.
Attouoman's students delivered a letter of support to Romney's office Wednesday morning, prompting the governor to write to Chertoff.
The teacher's supporters have rallied outside the John F. Kennedy Federal Building twice in the past month, most recently Wednesday afternoon. Several students visited Kerry yesterday in Washington.
''This is the right way to end a day spent by so many people fighting to keep Obain Attouoman at home in Boston," Kerry said in a statement.
''It took . . . genuine bipartisanship to overcome the Washington stalemate and make a difference, not only in the life of a teacher, but in the lives of the students who cherish their time with him. It's a simple matter of doing what's right for students and working to fix our broken immigration system."
US Representative Edward J. Markey has filed a bill aimed at granting Attouoman permanent US residency, according to Romney's letter.
Scott Goldstein can be reached at sgoldstein@globe.com. 