U.S. citizen sues sheriff, says he was jailed and threatened with deportation on request of ICE
A U.S. citizen was allegedly illegally detained by ICE and almost deported to Jamaica — a country he had visited once in his life.
On Monday, Key West, Fla., resident Peter Sean Brown, 50, filed a complaint with the U.S. District Court against Monroe County Sheriff Rick Ramsay, saying he was jailed for weeks on orders of ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and threatened with deportation to Jamaica, according to the Miami Herald.
While jailed, the restaurant worker and father, who was born in Philadelphia and raised in New Jersey, kept insisting he was a U.S. citizen. However, guards allegedly ignored him, saying “Mon” in a faux Jamaican accent and singing the theme song to “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” which contains the line, “In West Philadelphia born and raised….”
“Mr. Brown was terrified,” says the lawsuit. “As a gay man, he feared that he would be subject to abuse in detention once he arrived in Jamaica.” Brown has no connection to Jamaica aside from stopping there once on a cruise years ago.
The Miami Herald reports that on April 5, Brown turned himself in to the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office in Key West for violating probation after testing positive for marijuana. The offense was related to a December 2016 arrest that involved him resisting officers while refusing to leave a Key West bar. As a result, Brown was ordered to complete a 2 1/2-year drug offender probation.
The claim, filed by Brown, the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Florida, the Southern Poverty Law Center and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, states that Brown’s Fourth Amendment rights were violated, meaning he was unreasonably seized without probable cause.
After Brown turned himself in, he was jailed and informed that he would remain in custody for an additional 48 hours, at the request of ICE, which had faxed over a “Basic Ordering Agreement” for Brown’s detainment — paperwork introduced in January that offers jails $50 each time a person is “held” for an ICE interrogation after their release date. Per the Southern Poverty Law Center, immigration detainers, with or without these agreements, are controversial because some courts have found that they violate a person’s Fourth Amendment rights.
The Southern Poverty Law Center also reports that the majority of people detained have “little to no” criminal records and in the past, ICE has wrongly issued detainers on U.S citizens.
Brown begged for his release, called ICE offices, and tried to prove his status as a U.S. citizen, even having his employer verify the information; however, he was allegedly told by the sheriff’s office, “It is not up to us to determine the validity of the ICE hold. That is between you, your attorney and ICE.” The lawsuit also states that Brown’s paperwork didn’t have his correct birthday or height.
On April 26, more than three weeks after his arrest, a state judge ordered Brown’s release, followed by a 12-month period of probation; however, the following day, Brown was sent to a Miami immigration detention center on a bus, reportedly without food, water or use of a restroom, with one passenger allegedly forced to defecate on the bus.
At Krome Detention Center, an ICE agent finally agreed to look at Brown’s birth certificate, which was emailed by his roommate and confirmed his citizenship. Brown was immediately released, hours away from his home, without transportation.
Amien Kacou, a staff lawyer for the Florida chapter of the ACLU, tells Yahoo Lifestyle that local law enforcement dismissed the facts on Brown’s birth certificate. “They didn’t think it was their problem — ICE had requested Peter’s detainment and their duty ended there.”
Local agencies are under no duty to comply with ICE, especially since immigration detainments are civil, not criminal, and therefore aren’t a public safety matter. However, Kacou points to politics as motivation, saying, “Sometimes it’s to signal support for the national agenda and Trump’s anti-immigration policies.”
According to Kacou, Brown was told that the incident was a case of “mistaken identity” — allegedly involving a Jamaican unauthorized immigrant in the U.S.
Brown is now trying to move on with his life, having landed a job at a deli. A representative from the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office did not return Yahoo Lifestyle’s request for comment. However, spokesman Adam Linhardt told the Miami Herald that the office “does not comment on pending litigation.”
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