Hundreds of people demonstrated in Manhattan's Washington Square Park yesterday to protest the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention of two of the city's most prominent immigrant activists: Ravi Ragbir and Jean Montrevil. The two run the city's New Sanctuary Coalition, a group that helps families fight deportation. Immigrant advocates say ICE is retaliating against the two men for speaking out against the federal government. The day Ragbir was detained, 18 protesters were arrested for civil disobedience, including New York City Council Members Ydanis Rodriguez and Jumaane Williams.
But while New York City's activists have rallied in the streets all week to fight what they say are inhumane and discriminatory tactics, Miami has largely not noticed the two men are being held at ICE's Krome Service Processing Center
Reached via phone last night, Janay Cauthen, Montrevil's ex-wife and the mother of their four children, said that ICE has been tightlipped with information but that when she last spoke to Montrevil, he warned her he would be kicked out of the country Tuesday. "He called me maybe two days ago," she said. "He called me and told me that they’re shipping him out tomorrow."
Krome has attracted quite a bit of media attention already this winter: In December, ICE agents allegedly shackled, beat, and verbally abused 92 Somali immigrants during a deportation flight from Louisiana to Dakar, Senegal. After arrival, the plane took off*URGENT* Our beloved congregant and immigrant rights activist, Jean Montrevil needs our support! We fear that he might be deported tomorrow, but we are not giving up!! Here's how you can help:
— judsonchurchnyc (@judsonchurchnyc) January 16, 2018
#FREEJEANNOW pic.twitter.com/j7oM0ejB13
Montrevil's and Ragbir's detentions appear to be
According to the Voice, Montrevil moved to the United States from Haiti with a green card in 1986, but after a cocaine arrest in 1990 (what he calls a "mistake" that he's atoned for), he was sent to prison. While he was serving his time in 1996, the United States passed a law mandating green-card-holders who commit felonies be deported — he's had an open case with the U.S. Board of Immigration Appeals since then. But in the meantime, Montrevil launched his own transportation company, had four children, and cofounded New Sanctuary. He was detained once in 2010 but released thanks to a fluke: One of his fellow deportees came down with a fever, according to the New York Times.
Days later, the infamous 2010 earthquake hit Haiti. Montrevil told a crowd that year that he could have easily died in the disaster had he been forcibly sent back to Port-au-Prince.
He also spoke to multiple media outlets about his case, including Democracy Now:
Eight days after ICE detained Montrevil this year, Ragbir, the Sanctuary Coalition's executive director, was arrested at a routine immigration
“If you are hearing this or listening to this, it is because I was taken in by ICE," he said.
According to the New York Times, Ragbir, age 53, immigrated legally to the United States from Trinidad in 1991 but was convicted of wire fraud in 2000 and ordered deported in 2006 after serving his sentence. He was granted multiple stays of removal, but his time had been scheduled to end January 19. According to the Times, Ragbir fainted last Thursday when ICE agents told him he was being kicked out of the country.
"It seems really clear to us that this is an escalation of retaliation, not just against individual rights leaders, but against the right of the movement to exist,” Mary Small, the policy director for the nonprofit Detention Watch Network, told the Times.
Ragbir was also shipped to Krome, but his lawyers won another temporary stay of removal. A hearing is scheduled for today to determine whether he'll be sent back to New York from Miami, and another is set for January 29 to determine whether ICE agents had the right to detain him.
Montrevil might not be so lucky. He has been granted no such stay so far, and Cauthen, his ex-wife, told New Times last night that ICE has prevented his sister from bringing him clean clothes while he sits inside Krome.
During Martin Luther King Jr. memorial services yesterday, Cauthen stood alongside her son in a New York City church demanding President Donald Trump do something to stop the deportations.
"We all make mistakes," she said. "If Virginia forgave him by giving him a certificate of release, why can't Number 45?"
In the meantime, Montrevil and Cauthen's 14-year-old son, Jahsiah, has circulated his own petition begging ICE to release his father. As of 11 last night, more than 10,400 people had signed. He mentioned that, because of Haiti's corrupt prison and governmental systems, Montrevil would likely be forced to pay off officials during his entry interview in Port-au-Prince or be thrown in prison. (In part because of this concern, legal experts, including advocates from the University of Miami School of Law's Immigration Clinic, have tried for years, unsuccessfully, to stop the United States from deporting people to Haiti until conditions improve.)#JaniCauthen former wife of #JeanMontrevil speaking out with their son #FreeJean #FreeRavi #EndDeportations #EndDetention pic.twitter.com/6px8jfFT3m
— YaliniDream (@yalinidream) January 15, 2018
"He had to go to annual
