He fled Jamaica after surviving an anti-gay shooting. U.S. is trying to send him back.
Jamaican asylum-seeker was nabbed when he showed up at U.S. immigration court.
Immigration agents are seeking to deport a 40-year-old Jamaican asylum-seeker who fled to the United States in 2021 after being nearly shot to death in Jamaica for being gay, according to court records.
Courthouse News Service reported:
In a habeas corpus petition filed [Aug. 6], Rickardo Anthony Kelly claims Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents offered him $1,000 to self-deport to the same country where he suffered “severe persecution” for his sexual orientation.
“Petitioner’s persecution culminated in a violent attack on May 2021, during which he was shot 10 times — a terrifying act that prompted his flight to the United States,” Kelly says in the petition.
Kelly, who works as a security guard in New York City, claims he was arrested by ICE agents on [Aug. 4] 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 noncitizens immediately following their hearings in immigration court.
Immigrant rights groups have panned the controversial tactic as one that discourages attendance to the mandatory check-ins. In fact, federal authorities were previously directed not to make these arrests near immigration courts for that very reason.
LGBTQ Nation reported that Kelly fears he’ll be killed if he is returned to Jamaica. It stated further:
At his arrest on Aug. 4, ICE agents “offered him $1,000 to self-deport, but he refused.
Because Kelly has a pending misdemeanor 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.” …
Kelly has filed a habeas corpus petition, a legal filing to challenge the legality of a detention or imprisonment. He seeks a temporary restraining order to free him from ICE custody. He also worries 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) and said, “All his claims will be heard by a judge. Why does the media continue to peddle sob stories of these criminal illegal aliens?”
[The LGBTQ+ rights database] Equaldex reports that in addition to same-sex marriage being illegal, homosexuality among men remains outlawed in Jamaica and can be punished with up to seven years in prison. Homosexuality among women is not explicitly illegal, but sodomy between any two humans is punishable with up to 10 years in prison. The country also does not legally recognize transgender identities.
A 2023 report found that LGBTQ+ Jamaicans face “horrific violence, discrimination, and persecution and lack the most basic protections under the law” and that the situation is getting worse. Activists have called on the country to repeal its antiquated sodomy laws, saying that even though they are rarely enforced, they contribute to the stigma surrounding LGBTQ+ people.
Other reports of homophobic attacks in Jamaica include the following, all of which were reported in Erasing 76 Crimes:
