Sept. 11 worker facing deportation is freed from detention

NEW YORK — A onetime Sept. 11 World Trade Center cleanup volunteer who faces possible deportation over a 1990 drug conviction but was pardoned by the governor was freed from immigration detention on Wednesday.

Carlos Cardona was released from custody and will be required to check in periodically pending the outcome of his immigration case, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said.

Cardona entered the U.S. illegally in 1986 from Colombia and was convicted in 1990 of attempted criminal sale of a controlled substance.

Cardona, a co-owner of a construction business in Queens, helped clear out rubble at the trade centre after the 2001 terrorist attacks. He had been detained since February at the Hudson Correctional Facility in Kearny, New Jersey.