Ravi Ragbir's Allies Pledge Continued Fight As Deportation Looms

GREENWICH VILLAGE, NY — Ravi Ragbir wasn’t surprised when Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested him last Thursday at a routine meeting.

"I do expect that they will try to get me out of this country very quickly," Ragbir said in a video recorded Jan. 10, the night before his arrest sparked a chaotic protest on Federal Plaza that led to 18 more arrests. "... I don't expect to be here more than two weeks."

But Ragbir still wants members and allies of the New Sanctuary Coalition of New York City — the immigrant-rights advocacy group he co-founded — to help bring him back to New York City from Miami, where ICE is holding him before deporting him to Trinidad.

ICE arrested another co-founder, Jean Montrevil, on Jan. 4. He could be deported to Haiti as early as Tuesday, said his lawyer, Joshua Bardavid.

Nearly 300 New Sanctuary Coalition members and other activists gathered in Greenwich Village on Monday, pledging to fight the deportations of Ragbir, Montrevil and every other immigrant targeted by President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration.

"They didn’t realize they were burying two seeds, and the tree that’s growing is going to be stronger, more powerful, more empowered," Sarah Gozalo, the coalition’s supervising coordinator, told the crowd during the Martin Luther King Jr. Day rally at Judson Memorial Church.

The protesters marched silently around Washington Square Park before entering the church singing a version of the song "Go Down Moses" with the refrain, "Let my people stay."

ICE moved to deport Ragbir last week under a 2006 deportation order issued following his 2001 federal conviction for wire fraud conspiracy. His lawyers continue to fight his conviction and deportation. ICE said last week that he has exhausted all his appeal options and lacks a "legal basis" to stay in the U.S.

Montrevil, the a father of four children, has fought deportation since the mid-1990s, according to news reports about his case. Bardavid said he is working to get an emergency stay on his deportation as ICE holds him in Miami.

Both Ragbir and Montrevil have lived in the United States for more than two decades and have long worked to protect immigrants through the New Sanctuary Coalition. The organization's volunteers accompany immigrants to court appearances and sometimes help them take refuge from authorities in churches, where ICE agents cannot go.

The activists’ allies believe it’s “no coincidence” that their arrests occurred so closely together, given that they were two of the New York City area’s highest-profile critics of federal immigration enforcement tactics, said the Rev. Kaji Dousa, a New Sanctuary Coalition leader and a senior minister at Park Avenue Christian Church.

"He was carted away in what we believe to be direct retaliation for his activism," Dousa said.

ICE did not immediately respond to an email Monday seeking the latest details on Ragbir’s and Montrevil’s cases and whether their activism played a role in their arrests.

Both Ragbir and Montrevil have lived in the U.S. for more than two decades and have children who were born here. Montreal’s 14-year-old son, Jahsiah, started a petition last week asking ICE to free his father that now has more than 10,000 signatures.

Ragbir wife, Amy Gottlieb, traveled Sunday to the immigrant detention center in Miami, where she spoke to Ragbir for an hour through a glass pane. The experience was “dehumanizing,” she said, but it reminded her that Ragbir is an “amazing human being.”

Advocates praised the 18 protesters who were arrested last Thursday trying to stop an ambulance carrying Ragbir away from the U.S. Customs and Immigration Services building. Among them were City Councilmen Ydanis Rodriguez and Jumaane Williams, who pledged to keep up such protests as a form of resistance to Trump.

Rhiya Trivedi, who works on Ragbir's legal defense team, read a letter he wrote his supporters from the Miami detention center. In it, he called on immigrants to reach out to the New Sanctuary Coalition for protection, and for activists to continue to "accompany them at every step."

"They will fight for you as they do for me," Ragbir wrote.

(Lead image: Protesters march in support of Ravi Ragbir outside Washington Square Park on Monday. Photo by Noah Manskar)