Only 12 days before his scheduled deportation to the Philippines, a Filipino man who was held on an outstanding deportation order was released back to his family in New Jersey on Sept. 6, after his Filipino-American lawyers successfully argued a technical flaw leading to the reopening of his case.

"My body felt numb as I was led outside [the Elizabeth Detention Center]," said Arthur, 41, of Cherry Hill, N.J., who requested that his last name be withheld. "Minutes later, I found myself grinning from ear to ear, as I looked at the cars passing by the highway and waited for my family to pick me up."

Arthur, an emergency room nursing assistant, was arrested by two immigration officers on February 1, 2007, during his appointment to change [immigration] status on the basis of having married an American citizen in 2006.

Arthur told the Filipino Reporter he was placed in handcuffs, from waist to ankle, shortly after he and his then lawyer arrived at the Cherry Hill immigration office for an interview.

It turned out Arthur has an outstanding deportation order from a political asylum application that was denied, after the court said he abandoned it and which his past lawyer failed to find out.

"I was crying in jail every night thinking of my wife and my nine-year-old daughter, who was never separated from me since she was born," said the Manila-born Arthur, who spent seven months in the slammer with other detainees – about a dozen of them Filipinos.

In March, he hired a Newark lawyer to reopen his case in Virginia, but the appeal was denied.

"I was so depressed, desperate, especially [since] some of the detention officers treated me like a dog, as if I was a criminal," he told the Reporter. "Although some of them were also helpful and friendly."

Among those helpful jail employees was a fellow Filipino who suggested that Arthur call the Abad, Constancio &Mallonga law firm, based at the Empire State Building, which has successfully worked for the release of several other immigration detainees, Filipinos and non-Filipinos.

Lawyers J.T.S. Mallonga and Jason Nielson conducted a thorough review of Arthur's case and immediately discovered a technical flaw.

"The notice to appear at a scheduled hearing in November 1994 was not properly served," Mallonga told the Reporter. "We pointed out to the [Board of Immigration Appeals] that our client was sent notice of the hearing by certified mail to his old address in Dunn Loring, Virginia, which was returned undeliverable."

Mallonga said under a provision in the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) that existed at that time, the immigration notice must have been served in person or by certified mail to the respondent or the attorney of record, if any.

"The term ‘certified mail' was defined in law to mean ‘certified mail, return receipt requested,'" Mallonga said. "Therefore, in order to accomplish service, the certified mail receipt must have been signed by the respondent or a responsible person at the respondent's address. The certified mail receipt was not signed by anyone as the notice of hearing apparently was returned undeliverable."

The immigration law that replaced the old INA law in April 1997 no longer requires signatures of receipt for removal proceedings and regular mail is sufficient.

"Our client's case, however, is not governed by this provision of law," said Mallonga's co-counsel Nielson.

Nielson cited in court papers factors entitling Arthur to relief of cancellation of his removal in the United States such as his clean police record, his filing of income taxes and steady employment through the years, his marriage to a U.S. citizen that bore a U.S. citizen child, his more than 17 years of residency in the United States with the presence of his family and relatives who are all American citizens.

Arthur, who is turning 41 on Oct. 14, said he is very thankful to God for giving him another chance to be with his family.

"If life really begins at 40, then I'm about to begin a new life in America as a free man," said Arthur, a Born Again Christian, who studied engineering at the merchant marine in the Philippines.

"I might go back to school to study nursing,” he said. "I will. I'm excited.”