Orlando Boquete, a Mariel refugee erroneously convicted of sexual assault and threatened with deportation to Cuba, is now trying to become a permanent U.S. resident, which would make him eligible for citizenship.

A Miami attorney who represents Boquete, a Cudjoe Key resident, has filed papers with a Department of Homeland Security immigration agency and is hopeful his client will eventually receive a green card.

If the effort succeeds, it would end Boquete's immigration limbo. As long as he remains deportable, Boquete cannot travel abroad, get a green card or citizenship, and could find himself on a deportation flight to Cuba if relations with Havana were normalized.

Though Cuba deportations are currently limited to special cases, the advent of President Barack Obama's efforts to cool tensions with Havana have spurred thousands of deportable Cubans to shield themselves legally against removal.

``I am optimistic, because I believe Immigration will show compassion toward me and will afford me the opportunity to become a permanent resident and be able to organize my life better,'' Boquete told El Nuevo Herald on Wednesday.

Tal Winer, Boquete's attorney at Miami-based Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center, began the green card process this past weekend.

Winer sent to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services by overnight mail two separate applications designed to help his client regularize his status.

The applications include a request for permanent residence under the Cuban Adjustment Act and a request for a waiver of the grounds under which Boquete could be deported. Those include convictions for crimes he allegedly committed after escaping from prison where he was doing time for the sexual assault conviction.

Winer's package included a letter on Boquete's behalf signed by former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno.

``While no official action can give him back those years, allowing him to earn a living and rebuild his life in his adopted country as a permanent resident without facing continued uncertainty about the risk that he will be deported, is an important step,'' Reno wrote.

Winer said he expects U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to take several months to decide Boquete's case.

The case hit the headlines in 2006 when DNA exonerated Boquete of the 1983 sexual assault conviction. He was freed with the help of the Innocence Project -- only to be detained again by immigration authorities.

He was eventually freed from Krome detention center after his lawyers struck a deal with federal officials that deferred deportation and required periodic reporting to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

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