A US-based Guyanese who was convicted of attempted robbery 17 years ago, faces deportation and has been held without a bail hearing since November simply because he was nabbed at an airport.
According to the New York Daily News, Rafeik Baksh, 40, of Queens, New York, who has lived there since his teens and has a green card, was returning from a vacation in Guyana when the feds flagged his 1994 attempted-robbery conviction.
The construction worker was labelled an “arriving alien” with no right to a bond hearing. Because he was caught at JFK Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has authority over him – not a judge, the newspaper report says.
Saul Brown, lawyer of the father of seven told the NY Daily News: “Let’s say they just picked him up on the street one day, instead of at the airport, then it would be a completely different situation.”
Baksh reportedly said he’s had to borrow money because he can’t support his seven children while he’s locked up at the Monmouth County Jail.
Meanwhile, his petition for release on humanitarian grounds was rejected by ICE.
According to the newspaper, legal experts say Baksh’s situation is becoming more common as the government moves to deport longtime resident immigrants with any criminal history. They travel out of the country, never imagining they could get tossed into detention without the right to bail upon their return.
“It is standard for legal permanent residents who have lived here almost all their lives to be treated as ‘arriving aliens’ when they take a short trip,” it quoted Nancy Morawetz of NYU Law School’s Immigrant Rights Clinic as saying.
Baksh had reportedly travelled three times in the past to his wife’s native Trinidad and Tobago and successfully renewed his green card two years ago.
ICE would not comment, the newspaper said.
