...I moved to the U.S. from Nigeria eight years ago. I’ve been here in ICE detention for two years because I pled to charges of conspiracy to commit fraud and mail fraud, not knowing what the immigration consequences would be to not fighting the charges. Now, as coronavirus infections begin to ravage prisons nationwide, I fear it will turn my detention into a death sentence. That’s why I joined 16 others facing similar grave risks in the detention centers of Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi to file an emergency petition for release, brought by the Center for Constitutional Rights and the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild. A judge in New Orleans dismissed the petition last week on a jurisdictional technicality, and now we have to figure out our next steps as quickly as we can. ...
Common Dreams
April 17, 2020