ICE has agreed to transfer Immigrant-rights activist Ravi Ragbir back to the New York area pending his deportation case,
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Ragbir, 53, was detained by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents last week during a routine check-in and transferred to a facility in Miami.
Hundreds took to the streets to protest his detention, including two councilmen, Jumaane Williams and Ydanis Rodriguez, who were arrested during a melee.
Lawyers for Ragbir asked a Manhattan Federal Judge on Tuesday to allow Ragbir to be transferred back to New York while he fights his deportation order. ICE voluntarily agreed to transfer Ragbir, according to papers filed in Manhattan federal court Wednesday.
Ragbir’s wife, Amy Gottlieb, said in a statement, “The government took my husband away from me, and for a time, no one would tell me where he was. When we learned he was taken to an immigration prison over a thousand miles away, I was both heartbroken and outraged.
“They never should have taken him away from his community in the first place, and I will not rest until he is free,” Gottlieb added.
Ragbir, who heads the New Sanctuary Coalition of New York City, is an immigrant from Trinidad and was ordered deported in 2006 after he was convicted on wire fraud and conspiracy.
He has successfully fought that order with a stay of removal, which he claims is valid through Jan. 19.
