Activist Ravi Ragbir Freed, ICE Detention Ruled Unconstitutional

LOWER MANHATTAN, NY — A federal judge ordered immigrant-rights activist Ravi Ragbir released from jail Monday afternoon in a ruling comparing the Trump administration's immigration crackdown to the tactics of an authoritarian regime.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials denied Ragbir his constitutional rights to due process and liberty when they abruptly arrested him for deportation on Jan. 11, U.S. District Judge Katherine B. Forrest ruled in her Manhattan courtroom.

ICE’s arrest of Ragbir was technically allowed by what Forrest called a "corn maze" of federal immigration rules. But shackling him without notice at a routine check-in and “plucking” him from the life he created in the U.S. over the last two decades was "unnecessarily cruel" and unconstitutional, Forrest said.

“There is, and ought to be in this great country, the freedom to say goodbye,” Forrest said from the bench before a tearful crowd of Ragbir’s supporters. “... It ought not be — and it has never before been — that those who have lived without incident in this country for years are subjected to treatment we associate with regimes we revile as unjust, regimes where those who have long lived in a country may be taken without notice from streets, home, and work.”

"We are not that country, and woe be the day that we become that country under a fiction that laws allow it," Forrest added.

Lawyers for ICE said they will consider appealing the ruling. Forrest denied their application for a stay on her order of Ragbir’s release that would keep him jailed. The government lawyers indicated they would also appeal that denial.

ICE is preparing Ragbir for release, spokesman Khaalid H. Walls said in a statement Monday evening. Ragbir’s family and lawyers planned to travel to the upstate Orange County Correctional Facility, where he’s being held, on Monday to bring him back to New York City, said one of his attorneys, Alina Das.

"It's extraordinary to hear a judge say that, wait a minute, these regulations may say that we can do this, but I don't think it's right," Amy Gottlieb, Ragbir’s wife, said outside the courthouse Monday.

Walls said ICE "is actively exploring its appellate options."

ICE is "concerned with the tone of the district court’s decision, which equates the difficult work ICE professionals do every day to enforce our immigration laws with 'treatment we associate with regimes we revile as unjust,'" Walls said.

The U.S. Department of Justice did not respond to an email seeking comment.

The ruling was a victory for immigrant-rights activists who have rallied around Ragbir for the last two weeks. He’s been in the United States since 1991 and co-founded the New Sanctuary Coalition of New York City, which aims to protect immigrants from deportation.

It was also a rebuke from Forrest, an appointee of then-President Barack Obama, of President Donald Trump's approach to immigration enforcement. She cast it as coldly adherent to what immigration law allows but violative of the Fifth Amendment's protections, which she called "North Stars that must guide our actions."

Forrest acknowledged that ICE can deport Ragbir at any time. But there's no evidence that he needs to be locked up, or that he wouldn't leave on his own if ordered to, she said.

"I think it both supports a growing recognition that ICE's cruel practices deprive people of their liberty and will not be tolerated by the courts, while also hopefully setting a ground that will be helpful to others," Das said.

Forrest also expressed "grave concern" that ICE targeted Ragbir for his activism, giving credence to advocates' contentions that the agency has recently acted aggressively toward its critics who happen to be immigrants.

A week before Ragbir's arrest, ICE detained Jean Montrevil, another co-founder of the New Sanctuary Coalition, and deported him to Haiti less than two weeks later. ICE has denied, though, that it targets immigrants because of their public positions.

Ragbir came to the U.S. from Trinidad and Tobago in 1991 and got a green card in 1994. He lost it after a 2001 federal conviction for wire fraud, which led a judge to order him deported in 2006.

ICE freed him from immigration jail in 2008 under a "supervised release" program, allowing him to stay in the country as long as he checked in periodically with immigration officials. ICE revoked that release agreement at Ragbir's Jan. 11 check-in and moved to deport him, lawyers said in court.

Brandon Waterman, the assistant U.S. attorney representing ICE, said the agency was allowed to jail Ragbir because his deportation was "reasonably foreseeable." ICE officials had gotten documents from Trinidad allowing for Ragbir's travel there, which was reason enough to detain him under the law, Waterman said.

Waterman also argued that the Fifth Amendment's due process protection does not apply to these kinds of cases. Even if it did, he said, "to the extent that Mr. Ragbir was subject to any process, he received that process."

But lawyers for Ragbir argued ICE flouted its own regulations when its agents detained him. Ragbir received no formal notice outlining the reasons why ICE was revoking his release and never got a chance to respond to them, said Jeremy Cutting, a law student who presented arguments on Ragbir's behalf.

Additionally, the ICE official who ordered Ragbir's arrest was not legally empowered to do so, even if higher-level officials tried to delegate the job to him, Cutting said.

It's not certain Ragbir will be able to stay out of jail. An appellate court could put a hold on Forrest's order, meaning he could be detained while an appeal is argued.

But Ragbir's lawyers hope to prevent his deportation while they challenge his criminal conviction in a New Jersey court.

Ragbir's case has drawn significant interest locally and nationally. His arrest sparked chaotic protests on Federal Plaza at which 18 people were arrested, including two City Council members. Several more rallies followed, including one near the courthouse Monday morning.

U.S. Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-Brooklyn) plans to bring Gottlieb to Trump's State of the Union address on Tuesday. Though he can't attend the speech, Gottlieb said she'll bring him along to Washington, D.C.

"He’s coming home and that’s what I care about right now," Gottlieb said.

Read Forrest's full court ruling below.

(Lead image: Ravi Ragbir pictured shortly after his Jan. 11 arrest. Photo via the Immigrant Defense Project)