Opinion: I thought Trump’s defeat meant ICE would stop targeting my husband. Why is it no different under Biden?
Opinion: I thought Trump’s defeat meant ICE would stop targeting my husband. Why is it no different under Biden?
Originally Published in The Washington Post
Opinion by Amy Gottlieb - May 25, 2021
Amy Gottlieb with her husband, Ravi Ragbir. (Amy Gottlieb)
Amy Gottlieb is an immigrant rights lawyer and an associate regional director with American Friends Service Committee.
I met my husband, Ravi Ragbir, in 2008, when he interviewed me for a radio show. A native of Trinidad and Tobago who had been a lawful U.S. resident since 1994, Ravi was active in the immigrant rights movement, of which I had long been a part. We eventually fell in love and married; over time, Ravi become a well-known and respected activist. We could not foresee that under the Trump administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) would target immigrant leaders, including Ravi, for “removal” from this country. Nor could we foresee that today, under the Biden administration, ICE would continue to seek to deport him.
ICE arrested my husband on Jan. 11, 2018, after blatantlysurveilling our home and his office at the New Sanctuary Coalition in New York City for more than a week. ICE claimed that it detained my husband because he had a criminal conviction.
There was one problem with that justification. That conviction was in 2001 — a wire fraud case for which Ravi served his 30-month sentence. It was the reason ICE initially had him placed in removal proceedings — in 2006. But it then released him from immigration detention, returning him to the community in 2008.
Thus he became one of the 1.05 million immigrants who have received final orders of deportation but are granted permission to stay and work in the United States. These peopleoverwhelmingly pose no threat to the community. Ravi spent the years of the Obama administration fighting for a more humane immigration system — and there is no question in my mind: That’s why ICE targeted him in 2018, a year into Donald Trump’s presidency.
Ravi Ragbir of the New Sanctuary Coalition speaks at a rally in New York City in July 2018. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
In Ravi’s case, a federal court ordered his release soon after the 2018 arrest, but ICE continued to pursue his deportation. We filed a lawsuitarguing that the threat of deportation against people who challenge unjust immigration policies strikes directly at the heart of the First Amendment, forcing them to make a choice between speaking out or risking their ability to stay in the United States. In 2019, a federal appeals court concluded that my husband had a viable First Amendment claim, but the government sought review of whether thatcourt has the power to intervene, and the legal fight has continued. So has the constant terror that ICE could detain Ravi again, and this time possibly deport him.
We thought things would change after Joe Biden won the presidency in 2020. The Democratic platform had promised to prevent immigration officials “from retaliating against individuals for their political speech or activity, or because of their efforts to advocate for individuals’ rights.” The pit that lived at the bottom of my stomach throughout the Trump administration began to ease a bit.
But here we are, a few months into the Biden administration, and ICE continues to pursue my husband’s deportation, citing the original removal order. But first they would have to deal with Ravi’s First Amendment lawsuit, so they filed a brief seeking its dismissal with the federal appeals court last month. When I read the brief, my heart sank; the pit in my stomach returned. It was as if nothing had changed from one administration to the other.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has rightlyemphasized that the Trump administration “gutted” the immigration system: Hundreds of regulatory and policy changes were put into effect that drastically reduced protections for immigrants, creating obstacles toward legal status and criminalizing people who were not born in the United States. Mayorkas is also right that responding to those changes will take some time.
But time is a luxury my family does not have. ICE is not waiting. Even as President Biden has issued new priorities for immigration enforcement, detentions and deportations continue, especially for people who have past criminal convictions, regardless of when that conviction happened and how they have lived their lives since. Ravi has been recognized for his work by elected officials, faith organizations and community groups; the judge’s 2018 release order said it was “uncontested” that he has “lived a life of a redeemed man.“
Ravi’s activism should not have put a bull’s eye on his back. If anything, it is one of the many positive contributions that he and other immigrants make to our nation. Lacking the vote, noncitizens participate in democracy through their voices. Ravi’s voice is one of many — a uniquely important one. The Biden administration has the power to order ICE to change its tactics and recognize the value Ravi, and immigrants like him, bring to our society. It should do so.
Leave a Reply