The family, all of whom have come to Utah from Haiti over the years, is close — and big. All the aunts, uncles and cousins get together. They laugh, they dance.
For the past four months, 27-year-old Mackenley Montfleury has been locked up in an immigration detention center after he pleaded no contest to a marijuana and a domestic violence charge.
And while he is a lawful permanent resident in the United States, these low-level convictions could result in his deportation back to Haiti — a country he hasn’t been to since he was 10.
But Mackenley didn’t know when he took a plea deal in September that it could affect his immigration status.