Santa Monica Policeman Gets Reprieve on Deportation Order

Santa Monica Police Officer Ian Page, a former British Bobby, will not have to leave the country Friday as previously ordered, a federal immigration court judge ruled Wednesday.

Judge Ingrid K. Hrycenko ordered Page’s immigration case reopened and directed the Immigration and Naturalization Service to give the officer a new voluntary departure date.

INS Deputy District Director Joseph Thomas, however, said the new departure date will be June 15--nine days after Page was originally scheduled to leave the country.

The nine-day extension does not trouble Page’s attorney, David Ross, who said that INS officials must explain in writing why Page is not being granted a longer period.

Based on that explanation, he said, he will automatically be able to appeal the INS decision, and Page will be able to remain in the country until a court “decides his entire situation”--possibly in two years.

“The bottom line is the judge decided to let the man stay until he can get a green card,” Ross said. “The judge, in effect, is saying: ‘Why are you doing this to this man? You said you would let him stay. I’m going to reopen the case and let you do it again the right way. If you don’t let him stay, explain to everyone why you’re doing it.’ ”

Page said he was “very pleased” that the judge “recognized that INS acted unjustly and unfairly, and the decision reflects that.”

The decision, he said, is “just going to make me feel a lot more secure. When you have a deadline hanging over your head like that, every sentence you say is preceded by the word, ‘if’ . . . if we’re here next month. We can drop the word ‘if.’ ”

Thomas insisted that Page “is illegally in the United States and has been illegally in the United States since he accepted unauthorized employment from the Santa Monica Police Department.” He added that California law requires peace officers to be U.S. citizens or resident aliens, and Page is neither.

INS spokesman John Belluardo said the judge’s ruling merely means that Page’s original deportation date of June 6 will be extended.

“It’s only a question now of when he will leave,” Belluardo said. “The likelihood of him remaining until he’s eligible for a visa are fairly slim.”

In 1980, Page, his wife, Susan, and son, Leon, moved from England to California, and Page shortly received a two-year student visa to take classes at Rio Hondo Police Academy in Whittier.

The Santa Monica Police Department recruited him while he was attending the academy and the city promised to apply to the federal government for a permanent residency visa and work certificate, which would allow him to legally live and work in this country.

But the city made a mistake on its application for Page, and the officer was ordered last July to leave the country on June 6.

Page was caught in a predicament in which he would have had to leave the country for 12 to 24 months to qualify for a new visa. Had he left the country for more than one year, he might have lost his job, Santa Monica police officials said.

The department is not allowed to grant anyone a leave of absence for more than one year.

And without a job waiting for him in this country, it is possible that the INS might not issue him a permanent visa, one of Page’s attorneys said.