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New York: Haitian Immigrant Jean Montrevil Detained by ICE

HeadlineJan 04, 2018

In New York City, the daughter of Haitian immigrant Jean Montrevil says her father was arrested Wednesday by ICE agents outside his home in Far Rockaway, Queens, and was taken to the Essex County jail in New Jersey. Jean Montrevil came to the U.S. from Haiti with a green card in 1986 at the age of 17. Last June, when he went to his first check-in under President Trump, Montrevil was detained, handcuffed, processed to be deported, until calls from his supporters apparently prompted his release. Speaking on Democracy Now! last summer, Jean Montrevil described the dangers he could face if he’s deported to Haiti.

Jean Montrevil: “Once you get deported from here as a criminal alien, there’s a process you’ve got to go through in Haiti. You’ve got to be interviewed by the Haitian government, and then you have to have a family member to come and sign you off. I have no family in Haiti. All my family lives over here now, you know. And if you can’t get out, you’ve got to pay money to get out. They are making money off of criminal deportees in Haiti. And people have died in the Haitian jails.”

Montrevil’s arrest by ICE on Wednesday came after the Trump administration said it is revoking a special immigration program for nearly 60,000 Haitians, including many who came to the United States after a devastating earthquake in 2010. Their temporary protected status, or TPS, will now end in July 2019.

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