Wrongly deported Filipino reunites with family in California

Gideon Baena was wrongfully convicted and deported to the Philippines. He is seen here with his mother, Rose Baena. (Gideon Baena Photo)

After 20 years, Gideon Baena, who was wrongfully convicted of a crime and deported to the Philippines, was finally reunited with his family in California last week, thanks to his family’s persistence and his U.S. lawyer.

Two decades ago, Baena was deported from Arizona while his family was in California and didn’t really know what was happening. He was put on a plane and dropped off at the airport in the Philippines, a country he barely knew.

“And that was it,” he told Here & Now’s Deepa Fernandes of WBURBoston. “I kinda just stood there at the airport. Most of (my family) were citizens. I didn’t even know I wasn’t a citizen.”

He was homeless for a year in the Philippines, he said, and hardly knew Tagalog then. Communication with family was difficult as the Philippines was just starting to get the internet. (His current Facebook page describes him as self-employed, residing in Marikina and shows pictures of his wife and two kids.)

By 2005, his parents in California started going “from lawyer to lawyer” to no effect. Some two years ago, however, Baena saw an internet video on Shan Potts’ law practice and how he successfully pursued a client’s case. Baena hired Potts.

His case reached the California Superior Court, which ruled his conviction unconstitutional and voided it. Potts’ team then successfully petitioned the Department of Homeland Security to reopen his case and restore his status as a green card holder.

Back in California, Baena told WBUR, “I want to spend as much time before going off finding work. I kind of just want to spend a few weeks with family, just going from family to family, letting them know I’m home.” They barely know him, he said.