Shocking 'Little People, Big World' Deportation Scandal: What Really Happened?

Buried among many other events during the first two episodes of this season of Little People Big World, we learned that Matt and Amy's assistant/farmhand, Camerino, was being deported.

On the show, it appears to be a routine deportation. But according to sources, it's much more than that.

The story told in the first episodes of Little People Big World was that Camerino, who had been working on the farm for more than a decade, got summoned for deportation -- and this wasn't the first time.

Amy Roloff talked about how the family tried to get their lawyer involved, but there was nothing that could be done.

Little People Big World Deportation Shockers

Recently, Matt posted a petition seeking 10,000 signatures to keep Camerino in the country. In it, he explains what happened in more detail:

Camerino was hired by Roloff Family Farms and was essentially adopted by the Roloff Family...He has been gainfully employed for 17 years in this position. During that time he raised his two young girls - both U.S. citizens and honor students.

...

[Although he didn't have proper documentation] he was allowed to live, work, pay taxes and raise his family in Oregon all the while reporting to the Immigration office. Unfortunately he didn't always receive good legal advice.

...

Then nine years ago Camerino was falsely accused and convicted of drug possession. New evidence has since come to light that will overturn his conviction if only the immigration officials would review his case. But ICE doesn't seem to want to investigate or know the facts or care that how this attorney negatively affected his right to fair consideration.

So Camerino was convicted of drug posession? That's not what was implied in the show.

But there's more to this story: A Roloff fan site called Spirits Wander found what they claim is Camerino's case document.

In the document, it says that Camerino "was convicted of unlawful possession of cocaine, driving under the influence of intoxicants, and reckless driving, arising out of an incident in which he drove his car into a ditch."

The document says that Camerino drove his car into a ditch, and when the police came to investigate, they found the substances.

It further says that Camerino tried to suppress the evidence because he didn't understand his Miranda rights (because he doesn't speak English well).

Camerino later claimed that his lawyer "provided him with constitutionally inadequate representation."

But where it gets really interesting is this part (bold added):

Petitioner had called Roloff for assistance after crashing into the ditch; Roloff arrived at the scene after the police, but observed the position of the car before it was towed. In his petition, petitioner argued that his trial counsel was ineffective in failing to argue that the evidence obtained by the police should be suppressed because it was obtained through an invalid inventory search. Petitioner contended that his trial counsel should have argued that petitioner's car was not a hazard and did not need to be towed, therefore, no inventory search needed to be performed.

Essentially, Camerino was trying to get the case thrown out on a technicality: the car didn't need to be towed, so the police shouldn't have searched it, and if they didn't search it, they wouldn't have found the illegal substances.

Is this what Matt Roloff claims is "new evidence [that] has since come to light that will overturn his conviction if only the immigration officials would review his case"? It's unclear. But if it is, it would explain why the judge made the ruling he did.

If the "new evidence" is something else -- something that really would change the outcome of the case -- we urge Matt to bring it to light.

However, we believe that it's unlikely that Matt would be keeping such evidence quiet.

One thing we do know: it appears that the family was not telling the whole truth to either the TV audience or the readers of the petition.

Given Matt's own history with the law and being tried for driving while intoxicated, that is somewhat unsurprising.

Wanna read more on this? Check these out: Little People Big World: What Has Molly Been Up To? (more); Little People Big World Scandal: Just How Accepting are Jeremy and Audrey Roloff? (more); Who Is Chris Marek? Little People Big World's Amy Roloff's New Boyfriend (more); 'Little People, Big World' Season 11 Episode 8: Life is About to Change (more).

And here are some more related articles: 'Little People, Big World' Season 11 Episode 7: A Compound? (more); 'Little People, Big World' Season 11 Episode 2 Recap: The Disasters Continue (more); 'Little People, Big World' Season 12 Episode 1 Recap: The Shocking Departure of a Family Member (more).

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