Ravi Ragbir Comes Home, Goes To Washington For Trump Speech

NEW YORK, NY — Ravi Ragbir has gone from an upstate immigration jail to the nation's capital in less than 24 hours. The Brooklyn immigrant-rights activist headed to Washington, D.C. Tuesday afternoon ahead of President Donald Trump's State of the Union address after his release Monday from Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention.

Ragbir's supporters welcomed him home to New York City on Monday evening at Judson Memorial Church in Greenwich Village after he was processed by immigration officials at Federal Plaza, where ICE arrested him Jan. 11. ICE planned to deport him to Trinidad and Tobago based on a 2001 wire fraud conviction.

He was first jailed in Miami and then brought to the Orange County Correctional Facility in Goshen, New York.

"I am thrilled to be home with my family and loved ones, and I know that it is due to the extraordinary community and legal support that I am privileged to have," Ragbir, who has lived in the U.S. since 1991, said in a statement Tuesday. "We have a struggle in front of us, but it is through our collective commitment to justice that human rights and happiness will persevere."

Ragbir has maintained that ICE targeted him for his activism as executive director of the New Sanctuary Coalition of New York City, a group that helps protect immigrants from deportation. ICE has denied claims that it targets activists.

Ragbir and his wife, Amy Gottlieb, went to the seat of the government that locked him up for more than two weeks until a federal judge ordered him freed on Monday. U.S. District Judge Katherine B. Forrest ICE trampled Ragbir's constitutional rights by detaining him without justification, even though federal law allowed his detention.

Gottlieb, herself an immigrant-rights advocate, headed to the House of Representatives chamber Tuesday evening for Trump's first State of the Union speech. She was a guest of Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-Brooklyn). Ragbir could not be in the room for the speech because it was too late to get him on the guest list, a spokesman for Velazquez said Monday.

Trump, a Republican, was expected to discuss his administration's proposal for a path to citizenship for immigrants known as "dreamers" who were brought to the U.S. as children, alongside $25 billion in funding for a Mexican border wall and an end policies allowing immigration based on family ties and diversity.

"As we travel to Washington, DC, we are aware of the need to push even harder for fair and humane immigration laws that allow people to remain with their families in the United States, and we are committed to that effort," Gottlieb said in a statement. "Attending the State of the Union with Congresswoman Velazquez is an important step that we hope will help raise awareness of the need for change."

Ragbir could still be removed from the U.S. under a 2006 deportation order. He is appealing to have his criminal conviction vacated in a New Jersey federal court. ICE has said it's considering an appeal to Forrest's ruling ordering Ragbir's release.

Gottlieb wasn't the only person with a personal connection to immigration issues brought to Trump's speech. Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-Long Island, Queens) invited Nelson Melgar, a dreamer who was brought to the U.S. from Honduras as a child, Newsday reported.

Trump's guest list includes five people whose stories illustrate the dangers of MS-13, a Latin American gang that counts immigrants from El Salvador and other countries among its U.S. members. The president has vowed a crackdown on the gang.

One of Trump's guests was Celestino Martinez, an ICE special agent credited with targeting and dismantling several MS-13 groups in the New York City area.

"We find it tremendously gratifying that the President realizes the enormous sacrifices made by Celestino and all ICE personnel on behalf of public safety," ICE Deputy Director Thomas Homan said in a statement.

Trump also invited Elizabeth Alvarado, Robert Mickens, Evelyn Rodriguez and Freddy Cuevas, relatives of two teenage girls whom MS-13 members allegedly killed on Long Island in 2016.

(Lead image: Ravi Ragbir embraces his wife, Amy Gottlieb, on Monday evening after his release from an immigrant detention center. Photo courtesy of Alina Das)