NEW YORK — A federal judge who ordered authorities to immediately release a detained immigrant on the grounds that he hadn’t been given enough time to say goodbye to his family expressed “grave concern” over allegations that the man was targeted for deportation because of his political activities.
Ravi Ragbir, a citizen of Trinidad and Tobago who leads the New Sanctuary Coalition of New York City, a coalition of 150 faith-based pro-immigrant groups, was among a number of activists who have been detained in recent weeks as President Donald Trump’s administration has stepped up efforts to deport people with criminal records.
In a statement, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said it “does not target unlawfully present aliens for arrest based on advocacy positions they hold or in retaliation for critical comments they make. Any suggestion to the contrary is irresponsible, speculative and inaccurate.”
ICE denied that politics had anything to do with its efforts to remove Ragbir, who it labeled “an aggravated felon.”
Ragbir was taken into custody on Jan. 11 after a routine check-in with immigration officials in New York. He previously served 30 months in prison for wire fraud because of work he did for a crooked mortgage company.
The week before his arrest, another leader of the New Sanctuary Coalition, Jean Montrevil, was arrested in the street and a few days later deported to Haiti. Montrevil served an 11-year prison sentence for selling cocaine.
ICE this month also detained the husband of an immigrant activist in Boulder, Colorado, who got media attention after seeking sanctuary from deportation in a church. An activist and unauthorized immigrant in Bellingham, Washington, also said she was put into deportation proceedings despite not having any criminal record.
During a hearing Monday, U.S. District Judge Katherine B. Forrest ruled that Ragbir’s sudden detention was “unnecessarily cruel” and ordered his immediate release. She also refused a government request to halt her order for a possible appeal.
“It ought not to be — and it has never before been — that those who have lived without incident in this country for years are subjected to treatment we associate with regimes we revile as unjust, regimes where those who have long lived in a country may be taken without notice from streets, home, and work. And sent away.”
In a footnote, Forrest wrote, “The Court also notes with grave concern the argument that petitioner has been targeted as a result of his speech and political advocacy on behalf of immigrants’ rights and social justice.”
Pro-immigration activists have also raised concerns about political payback in other cases.
ICE agents this month detained, Eliseo Jurado, the husband of an immigrant activist in Boulder, Colorado, who got media attention after seeking sanctuary from deportation in a church.
Maru Mora Villalpando, an activist and unauthorized immigrant from Mexico living in Bellingham, Washington, who said she got a letter from ICE putting her in deportation proceedings despite her not having any kind of criminal record.
In both of those cases, ICE has denied any retaliation. Jurado, the agency noted, entered the U.S. illegally from Mexico and has four criminal convictions, including driving while impaired in 2007.
Ragbir’s lawyer, Alina Das, claimed in a court filing that ICE moved to deport him because its deputy field office director in New York, Scott Mechkowski, felt personal “resentment” over public protests that occurred during his last annual check-in with immigration officials last March.
Hundreds of demonstrators escorted him to a federal building in Manhattan and chanted while he was inside.
Dias said Mechkowski told her he had heard statements that Ragbir made to the press, saw him occasionally at prayer vigils outside his office, and was angry that his cause had been taken up by Democratic members of New York’s congressional delegation.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Brandon Waterman labeled the claim that Ragbir was targeted as “pure speculation” and said the government had seen no evidence in support of that contention.
U.S. Rep. Nydia M. Vel?zquez, a New York Democrat, said she hopes Ragbir will go to Washington for Tuesday’s State of the Union address. His wife, Amy Gottlieb, had already accepted Velazquez’s invitation.
