{"id":194009,"date":"2026-03-16T21:17:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T21:17:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/194009\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T21:17:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T21:17:07","slug":"former-north-miami-mayors-partner-had-final-order-of-deportation-in-2000-ice-says-nbc-6-south-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/194009\/","title":{"rendered":"Former North Miami mayor\u2019s partner had final order of deportation in 2000, ICE says \u2013 NBC 6 South Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"

New details were released on Monday after North Miami Mayor Philippe Bien-Aime’s partner was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. <\/a><\/p>\n

According to ICE, Sarahjane Ternier, who is from Haiti, was arrested on March 11 in Miami for a final order she was issued on July 31, 2000.<\/p>\n

ICE said she entered the country illegally on June 12, 1994, and on Oct. 23, 2002, the Board of Immigration Appeals dismissed an appeal and affirmed the final order. <\/p>\n

She currently remains at the Broward Transitional Center. <\/p>\n

Her partner, Bien-Aime, was accused by federal authorities of lying during the naturalization process to become a U.S. citizen<\/a>, <\/p>\n

NBC6 exclusively reviewed a 13-page civil complaint filed by the U.S. Department of Justice that claims Bien-Aime \u201cwillfully misrepresented his identity and immigration history throughout the naturalization process.\u201d<\/p>\n

Court documents state that Department of Homeland Security records \u2014 including fingerprint comparisons \u2014 show that the person who naturalized as Philippe Bien-Aime is the same individual who was previously ordered removed from the United States under the name Philippe Janvier.<\/p>\n

The complaint alleges that on July 31, 2000, an immigration judge determined that Janvier gained entry into the United States by fraud, specifically through the use of a photo-switched passport. The judge ordered him removed to Haiti.<\/p>\n

However, the filing states there is no indication he ever left the United States as ordered.<\/p>\n

The complaint further alleges that Bien-Aime was not eligible to obtain a visa as the spouse of a U.S. citizen because his marriage was invalid.<\/p>\n

Federal prosecutors accuse him of bigamy, claiming his Haitian divorce certificate was counterfeit and fraudulent.<\/p>\n

Bien-Aime, originally from Haiti, was elected mayor of North Miami in 2019. Most recently, he ran unsuccessfully for the Miami-Dade County Commission.<\/p>\n

North Miami\u2019s city code states that candidates seeking office must be qualified electors \u2014 meaning they must be citizens eligible to vote and registered at the time.<\/p>\n

To register to vote, a person must be a U.S. citizen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New details were released on Monday after North Miami Mayor Philippe Bien-Aime’s partner was detained by Immigration and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":191957,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1841,123,125,124],"class_list":["post-194009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-immigration","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194009\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}