Ragbir, Executive Director of New Sanctuary Coalition, Was Detained By ICE And Scheduled To Be Deported
NEW YORK, NY – Earlier this afternoon, Ravi Ragbir, immigrant rights leader and Executive Director of New Sanctuary Coalition, was released from detention by a federal judge, while a larger legal case pends.
Ravi Ragbir was detained on January 11, 2018, while reporting for a routine check-in at the New York field office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and taken to an immigration detention facility in Miami. Ravi's arrests comes alongside multiple similar detentions of immigration activists across the country, including his colleague Jean Montrevil what was detained a week before Ravi and who has since been deported to Haiti.
Ragbir is the Executive Director of the New Sanctuary Coalition of New York City, a faith-based coalition devoted to immigrant rights, and a venerated, nationally recognized immigrants rights activist. Ragbir, a Trinidadian native, has lived in the United States since 1991, and with the threat of deportation for nearly a decade.
In response, Steven Choi, Executive Director of the New York Immigration Coalition, said:
“We are relieved that Ravi Ragbir has been released from detention and reunited with his wife and community while his legal case continues. Ravi and other immigrant rights leaders have been viciously targeted by ICE for speaking out against the injustices of our immigration system. This is a naked attempt to intimidate us into silence, but we will only get louder.”
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