Reactions to release of Ravi Ragbir from ICE detention

TT-born US immigration rights activist Ravi Ragbir says, “If people in TT know someone up here in a similar crisis, don’t just hide, speak up.”

“This is not about an individual. There’s noting to be ashamed about. When you have a president talking about s***hole countries, while he didn’t mention TT, we all need to step up and connect with each other to ensure that all of us are standing together and protecting each other’s human and immigration rights.”

Ragbir was speaking with Newsday yesterday, several hours after being released from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention on Monday evening after a federal court decision calling for his immediate release.

Ragbir was detained during a routine check-in in NYC on January 11. He then spent a week in a Florida facility before being transferred back to NY on January 18.

Asked how his family here was handling things, Ragbir said, “My mom is happy I’m out. While she doesn’t want to see me going through this, my mom understands my fight for human rights and in my case, immigration rights.”

Ragbir, executive director of the New Sanctuary Coalition of New York City, became a green card holder in 1994 but faces deportation because of a 2001 wire fraud conviction.

His wife Amy Gottlieb said while she’s “really happy to have Ravi home, we still have a lot of work to do on his case.

“His next hearing is on February 9, about extending his stay of deportation but Ravi has also been told to report to Immigration on February 10 for deportation. So we’re not close to being out of the woods yet,” Gottlieb told Newsday.