Genital-mutilation Woman Freed

...but she'll be deported
August 13, 2003 -- A Ghana woman, convicted of lying to immigration authorities when she claimed her genitals would be mutilated if they sent her home, was sentenced to time served for perjury and passport-fraud charges.

Regina Norman Danson, 33, spent 29 months in the custody of immigration officials when she first came into the United States, in March 1997.

Yesterday, Brooklyn federal Judge Charles Sifton agreed Danson had done enough time after she begged him for mercy.

Danson was granted political asylum by the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in July 1999, after drumming up support from then-First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and actress Julia Roberts.

Immigration officials are expected to initiate deportation proceedings