Mark Middleton, the stepfather of murdered school girl Karla Cardno, has applied to the Government to have his deportation order revoked.
Middleton was confronted by Immigration officers at his work place last week and told he was an overstayer. They threw him into a police cell for 36 hours.
He has lived in New Zealand for the past 56 years, having been brought to New Zealand in 1962 as a four-year-old.
His case is now before Associate Immigration Minister Kris Faafoi, whose is the final arbiter on personal cases.
Middleton told the Herald earlier today Immigration New Zealand said it had no record of him having lived here before 1986.
He and lawyer Keith Jefferies were trying to get hold of his file and he said if his pleadings to Immigration New Zealand failed, he would take it to the minister.
He had found the admission form from his primary school in Eastern Hutt from 1962 and was looking for old health records to prove he had lived in New Zealand.
The minister's office confirmed this afternoon it had received a request to review the case.
READ MORE:
• Stepfather of murder victim Karla Cardno kept in cell and issued deportation notice
• Lawyer's plea for Govt to halt deportation of Mark Middleton
• Karla Cardno's stepfather 'humbled' by outpouring of support
• Kate Hawkesby: Plan to deport Karla Cardno's stepfather Mark Middleton is callous and heavy handed
Middleton was sentenced to nine month's imprisonment in 2001 for threatening to kill Karla Cardno's killer, Paul Joseph Dally, but the sentence was suspended and he did not serve time.
Karla Cardno was aged 13 when Dally snatched her from Lower Hutt in 1989, and raped and tortured her, then buried her alive.
Dally is still in prison.
Middleton says he has been overwhelmed with support since revealing his plight in the Herald on Sunday.
Earlier today Act leader David Seymour said Immigration NZ's actions were outrageous.
"Instead of contacting him by phone or email, Immigration NZ burst into his workplace, threw him in jail and gave him no access to the phone," said Seymour.
With about 10,000 overstayers in this country, Immigration knows full well there are far more serious cases it should attend to.
He said Labour had been up in arms when Australian began deporting New Zealanders who had lived in Australia for most of their lives.
