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Thursday, February 27, 2025

Ravi Ragbir, TT-born immigration activist, granted clemency

by

Kejan Haynes
39 days ago
20250119
FILE- Immigration activist Ravi Ragbir, listens during a news conference at New York City Hall called by city council members on his behalf, Jan. 31, 2018. AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews, File)

FILE- Immigration activist Ravi Ragbir, listens during a news conference at New York City Hall called by city council members on his behalf, Jan. 31, 2018. AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews, File)

Bebeto Matthews

Ke­jan Haynes

Ravi Rag­bir, an im­mi­gra­tion ac­tivist from Trinidad and To­ba­go, who co-found­ed the New Sanc­tu­ary Coali­tion in 2007 has been grant­ed clemen­cy by US Pres­i­dent Joe Biden on his fi­nal day in of­fice. 

Ac­cord­ing to a White House state­ment, Biden said Amer­i­ca is a coun­try built on the promise of sec­ond chances. He said he was us­ing clemen­cy pow­er to par­don 5 in­di­vid­u­als and com­mute the sen­tences of 2 in­di­vid­u­als who have demon­strat­ed re­morse, re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion, and re­demp­tion. 

As for Rag­bir, the White House State­ment said, "Rag­bir was pre­vi­ous­ly con­vict­ed of a non-vi­o­lent of­fense in 2001. He was sen­tenced to two years and six months in prison. Since his re­lease, Mr. Rag­bir has ad­vo­cat­ed for vul­ner­a­ble im­mi­grant com­mu­ni­ties and fam­i­lies in New York and New Jer­sey. Pre­vi­ous­ly, he served as the Ex­ec­u­tive Di­rec­tor of the New Sanc­tu­ary Coali­tion, an in­ter­faith net­work of con­gre­ga­tions, or­ga­ni­za­tions, and in­di­vid­u­als that sup­port im­mi­grant com­mu­ni­ties.

He has re­ceived nu­mer­ous awards, in­clud­ing from the New York State As­so­ci­a­tion of Black and Puer­to Ri­can Leg­is­la­tors, the Cen­ter for Con­sti­tu­tion­al Rights, and the Epis­co­pal Dio­cese of Long Is­land.

Ad­vo­cates, re­li­gious or­ga­ni­za­tions, and law­mak­ers com­mend his ef­forts to pro­mote jus­tice and hu­man dig­ni­ty. "

Ravi Rag­bir, who im­mi­grat­ed to the U.S. from Trinidad and To­ba­go in 1991, be­came a law­ful per­ma­nent res­i­dent in 1994 but faced a 2006 de­por­ta­tion or­der af­ter a mort­gage fraud con­vic­tion. Fol­low­ing two years in im­mi­gra­tion de­ten­tion, he be­gan ad­vo­cat­ing against de­por­ta­tion through his work with Fam­i­lies for Free­dom.

Rag­bir was a vo­cal crit­ic of ICE, lead­ing to ten­sions. In 2018, ICE ar­rest­ed him dur­ing his check-in, prompt­ing pub­lic out­rage. Rag­bir ar­gued that the ar­rest re­tal­i­at­ed against his ac­tivism and vi­o­lat­ed his First Amend­ment rights. A court agreed, grant­i­ng him a three-year stay of his de­por­ta­tion or­der.


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