Immig activist can’t be deported: court

Immigration activist Ravi Ragbir can remain in the United States for now because it’s possible ICE tried to muzzle his advocacy by kicking him out of the country, the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Thursday.

The midlevel appeals court in Manhattan ordered that a lower court reconsider whether ICE violated Ragbir’s First Amendment rights by taking him into custody for deportation in January 2018. The move sparked protests in Lower Manhattan.

“Ragbir’s speech implicates the apex of protection under the First Amendment. His advocacy for reform of immigration policies and practices is at the heart of current political debate among American citizens and other residents,” the court wrote in a 2-1 decision.

Ragbir (photo), of Trinidad, was convicted 17 years ago of wire fraud, making him eligible for deportation.

But statements by ICE officials indicating they saw Ragbir differently than other immigrants weighed heavily in the ruling. In one example, Scott Mechkowski, ICE’s deputy director in New York, told Ragbir’s allies in a meeting days before he was detained that it “bothered him” that “everybody knows this case,” according to papers.

“A plausible, clear inference is drawn that Ragbir’s public expression of his criticism, and its prominence, played a significant role in the recent attempts to remove him,” the court wrote.

The decision indicates that had Ragbir been treated like a typical immigrant facing deportation, he would have been allowed to stay in the country until January 2020.