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Cuban-born immigrant's
arrest related to intelligence training
Associated Press. Posted
on Fri, Sep. 03, 2004 in the The
Charlotte Observer, NC.
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - A hospital translator
faces a federal immigration hearing after
federal agents arrested him on allegations
he failed to disclose he once worked for
Cuba's intelligence service.
Juan Manuel Reyes-Alonso, 36, who lives
in Chatham County, was held without bond
in the Forsyth County jail while awaiting
a meeting with an immigration judge in Atlanta.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents
led him away in handcuffs Thursday outside
UNC Hospitals, where Reyes-Alonso works
in the pediatrics department.
Reyes-Alonso, who was born in Cuba, failed
to disclose that he "intelligence office
training in June 1994 under the command
of the Cuban Directorate of Intelligence,"
said Sue Brown, a spokeswoman for the immigration
and customs enforcement office. He failed
to disclose that training as required by
the Foreign Agent Registration Act, Brown
said in a news release.
"This man had extensive training and
a long career as a Cuban Intelligence officer,"
Ken Smith, Atlanta special agent-in-charge
of the Raleigh office, said in the statement.
"Failing to disclose foreign intelligence
activities is a violation of the law. It's
that simple."
The law describes "agents" as
people who continue to act at the order
or request of a foreign government, organization
or individual.
His wife, Amber Harmon, a horticulture
student at N.C. State University, called
the arrest "insane."
"He has been honest about his background
since day one of his visa application,"
she said.
Reyes-Alonso entered the United States
in August four years ago on a visa he obtained
because of his plans to marry Harmon. They
married in September 2000.
Her husband quit working for the Cuban
government in November 1997, Harmon said.
After that, he tried to win permission from
Cuba to leave but was unable to, she said.
Reyes-Alonso ultimately ended up in the
United States after fleeing to Nicaragua
and Harmon asking for assistance from the
offices of North Carolina's two U.S. senators.
Harmon said her husband has tried to follow
immigration procedures but added he was
not aware that he had to register with the
Justice Department.
In the summer of 2003, investigators who
identified themselves as FBI agents stopped
Reyes-Alonso outside UNC Hospitals, Harmon
said.
They took him to their Wake County offices
for questioning, Harmon said, and told him
then that they suspected him to be a spy.
"My husband is not a spy," Harmon
said. "The Cuban government is not
his friend."
The two met in 1997, when Harmon was in
Cuba for the XIV World Students and Youth
Festival, a gathering of students and young
people from 154 countries sponsored by the
Socialist Congress of Youth. They kept in
touch after that.
The green card that allowed him legal residency
in the United States was to expire last
year, Harmon said. He was able to remain
in the country due to an immigration case
backlog, she said.
Reyes-Alonso has applied for U.S. citizenship,
Harmon said.
Information from: The News
& Observer, http://www.newsobserver.com
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