USA : HIV Mom Deport Is Delayed

By RALPH ORTEGA and OWEN MORITZ

An HIV-positive mother of four won a reprieve from immediate deportation yesterday when the Immigration and Naturalization Service agreed to defer her case.

"I’m going straight home to hug my little boy," said an overjoyed Noemi Nagy of Queens. "At least I can enjoy Christmas with my kids. I can continue with my life."

Nagy had just emerged with her attorneys from the INS offices in Manhattan where she had gone to plead to be allowed to stay in this country. She was prepared to be deported.

The INS agreed to allow her to remain free on bond.

The agency agreed to defer Nagy’s deportation while she seeks a stay of the deportation order.

Her lawyers hope a stay will be approved in a week. Then Nagy would be able to remain in the U.S. while she pursues a federal lawsuit seeking to overturn the deportation order.

Nagy, 30, who has been a legal U.S. resident since she immigrated at age 9 from Hungary with her mother in 1977, faces deportation under a 1996 anti-terrorism law.

Nagy, who developed drug problems, hit bottom in 1993. She was HIV-positive, homeless, smoking crack and a prostitute.

But she kicked her drug habit through a rehabilitation program and turned her life around.

Then her past knocked in the form of a warrant for a 1991 drug charge. Nagy was convicted of attempted criminal sale of a controlled substance and served 10 months.

The 1996 law requires deportation of immigrants convicted of felonies, including most drug crimes.

Nagy’s attorneys said she has become a victim of a law aimed at hardened criminals and drug smugglers.

"She rehabilitated herself. She is a leader in HIV education and a mother to her children," said Daniel Bernstein of the Gay Man’s Health Crisis, one of her lawyers.

In addition, if she stays in this country, Nagy will have access to medicine that has kept her AIDS virus in check.

If deported, she would have to surrender custody of her kids, including an HIV-positive 2[product]-year-old boy.