Gay Jamaican asylum-seeker fighting extradition to Jamaica
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Durrant Pate/Contributor
A 40-year-old Jamaican asylum-seeker, Rickardo Anthony Kelly, who fled to the United States in 2021 after being nearly shot to death in Jamaica for reportedly being gay, is fighting extradition to his homeland.
Kelly, who works as a security guard in New York City, claims he was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on August 4 this year before a routine immigration appointment in Lower Manhattan. His lawyers say the arrest was part of the Department of Homeland Security’s broader nationwide strategy of arresting non-citizens immediately following their hearings in immigration court.
Immigrant rights groups have flagged the controversial tactic as one that discourages attendance regarding the mandatory check-ins. In fact, federal authorities were previously directed not to make these arrests near immigration courts for that very reason.
Habeas corpus petition
Kelly has filed a habeas corpus petition, a legal filing to challenge the legality of a detention or imprisonment. He is seeking a temporary restraining order to free him from ICE custody, fearing that his detainment may be fatal if he’s not allowed to access his diabetes medication while imprisoned.
When asked about Kelly’s case, Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin claimed that Kelly entered the U.S. in 2016 (five years before his lawyer claims). “All his claims will be heard by a judge. Why does the media continue to peddle sob stories of these criminal illegal aliens?” she said.
LGBTQ Nation reported that Kelly fears he’ll be killed if he is returned to Jamaica, contending that at his arrest on ICE agents “offered him $1,000 to self-deport, but he refused.”
Because Kelly has a pending misdemeanour third-degree assault charge from a prior domestic dispute, a charge which is set to expire in a month under its statute of limitations, he was apprehended under the Laken Riley Act, a recently passed bipartisan law allowing the deportation of noncitizens accused of crimes, Courthouse News Service reports.
“I told the ICE officers that Mr. Kelly does not pose any risk of danger or flight,” his asylum attorney, Peter Schuur said. “I explained that he is a hard-working man whose consistent goal since I began representing him in 2021 has been to remain in New York and be a productive member of society…. I believe that, if Mr. Kelly returns to Jamaica, he faces a grave risk of being killed or severely injured because he is gay.”
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