A few years ago, a Black immigrant sought refuge in the United States when the dangers of his work in security put his life at risk and led to his sister’s murder by a criminal gang.
He went through the legal immigration process and was permitted to enter and stay in the United States. Here, he worked multiple jobs, cared for young ones, paid taxes, and supported his family.
Then he was arrested on serious but false charges. Although the charges were eventually dismissed in a Massachusetts criminal court, he remains in ICE custody today, where he has been detained for over a year. (For purposes of this piece, I will call him Jean to protect his identity so that the government cannot continue to harm him.)
In Immigration Court, the government argued to prolong his detention indefinitely and send him back to a country where his life is threatened: “We submit that he is a danger to the public because of this criminal case. We acknowledge that all charges have been dismissed, but that does not change our position.”
It did not matter that Jean has no criminal record. It did not matter that the criminal court found him not to be a danger and released him, or that the prosecution dropped the charges. It did not matter that he was entirely cooperative with the police while the complaining witness was intoxicated, belligerent and gave a false name.
It did not matter that DNA evidence proved his innocence.
The government is leveraging the mere fact that he was arrested to argue...
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