Ravi Ragbir Wins Last-Minute Presidential Pardon
On January 11, 2018, immigrant-rights leader Ravi Ragbir reported to Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) headquarters in Lower Manhattan for a regularly scheduled check-in. Ragbir’s 2001 conviction for wire fraud and his subsequent activism made him a target for deportation. He was accompanied up to the building’s front entrance by 250 supporters including faith leaders and several city council members determined that he not be removed from the country.
Within an hour, a crowd that had gathered in a park across the street was stunned to learn that ICE had detained Ragbir, the co-founder of the New Sanctuary Coalition, and was fast-tracking him for deportation. City Council Speaker Corey Johnson urged people to hurry to a driveway on the other side of 26 Federal Plaza, where the feds were planning to spirit Ragbir away in an ambulance.
The crowd arrived just in time, and the ambulance was slowed to a crawl as it emerged from an underground parking garage. The Indypendent was on the scene. “Sensing this was their last chance to prevent Ragbir from being delivered into the government’s deportation machinery,” our reporter wrote, “demonstrators standing on both sides of the driveway began trying to block the ambulance by stepping in front of it. Department of Homeland Security police and, later, members of the NYPD, repeatedly shoved members of the crowd out of the way only to have other protesters leapfrog ahead of the ambulance.”
On a day when the Resistance was actually resisting, this wild scene would continue as the ambulance turned onto Broadway and was repeatedly confronted by roving bands of protesters. The police would arrest about a dozen people including two City Council members, Jumaane Williams and Ydanis Rodriguez, for sitting down in the street and obstructing traffic.
The ambulance eventually escaped from the crowd, but a judge would subsequently rule that Ragbir’s detention had been illegal and the case would drag on for seven more years. Until today when Ragbir received a presidential pardon that finally freed him from ICE’s clutches.
“We are breathing deeply and freely now,” Ragbir and his wife Amy Gottlieb wrote in a message to supporters, “knowing that we can move forward with our lives, we can plan beyond a few weeks ahead, we can fully experience joys and sorrows.”
Going back to 2011, we were the first media outlet in New York to cover Ragbir’s saga and have stayed on top of the story ever since. Here are some of the highlights of our coverage from over the years.
Ravi Ragbir Photo Essay (May 2011)
Text by Renée Feltz. Photos by Sophie Forbes
Note: See Page 4 of the issue 164 PDF.
Teach-ins Turn Immigrant Anxiety into Action (December 2016)
By Renée Feltz
Walk With Me (February 2017 Cover Story)
By Renée Feltz
Arrest of NYC Immigrant Rights Leader Ravi Ragbir Prompts Mass Civil Disobedience (January 2018)
By John Tarleton
Ravi Ragbir Wins a Reprieve But Deportation Threat Looms
By Peter Rugh
Immigrant Advocate Ravi Ragbir Receives a Two-Month Reprieve But His Future Remains Unclear
By Tanya Raghu
Independent Media When We Need It Most
With Trump and his MAGA movement returning to power tomorrow, we’re going to need movements that act with the boldness and clarity of the activists who confronted Ragbir’s would-be kidnappers seven years ago. And we’re going to need fearless grassroots media outlets like The Indy to tell these stories and keep us grounded in these difficult years ahead. We aren’t owned by oligarchs. The only thing that could silence us is a lack of money. We are halfway to our winter fund drive goal of $50,000. Please donate today if you would like to see this kind of journalism survive and thrive when we need it most.
Thank you, and onward!
