Judge orders immediate release of gay Jamaican asylum seeker detained by ICE

A federal judge in Manhattan has ordered the immediate release of a gay asylum seeker from Jamaica, finding that ICE violated his right to due process.

U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres ordered the agency to release Rickardo Anthony Kelly, 40, more than two weeks after he was detained while waiting for his asylum hearing at a courthouse accompanied by his attorney. Agents reportedly offered him $1,000 to self-deport, and apprehended him when he refused.

"In light of the undisputed facts, there is no doubt that [ICE's] ongoing detention of [Kelly] with no process at all, much less prior notice, no showing of changed circumstances, or an opportunity to respond, violates his due process rights," Torres wrote in her ruling, issued Friday.

Kelly said in his initial writ of habeas corpus petition that he came to the U.S. on a tourist visa in 2021 shortly after he was the victim of a violent attack motivated by his sexual orientation, during which he was shot ten times. He warned that deporting him to Jamaica would put him at risk, and that keeping him in custody could cause him to experience “severe and quite possibly fatal” medical complications as a diabetic.

Kelly described the conditions of the ICE facility he was detained at as “unconscionable,” “inhumane,” and “horrific.” He claimed he was kept in a room with nearly 100 other detainees that had only three toilets, no doors, and no showers, and that he was not provided with “clean clothes, toiletries, or any other way to maintain basic hygiene.”

Kelly said he was forced to sleep on the floor without a blanket, and was only provided with food twice per day — “freeze-dried rice and beans, often cold.” He also claimed that he was denied access to his diabetes medication, and instead given a substitute that had previously caused him adverse effects.

Kelly currently works as a security guard in New York City. He was arrested under the Laken Riley Act, which mandates detention without bond for non-citizens charged with or convicted of theft, assault, or other violent crimes. Kelly has a pending third-degree assault charge that he said stems from a domestic dispute which prosecutors have not moved forward with. The case is expected to expire this month under the Speedy Trial Act.

“The suggestion that government agents may sweep up any person they wish and hold that person in the conditions in which Kelly was held without consideration of dangerousness or flight risk so long as the person will, at some unknown point in time, be allowed to ask some other official for his or her release offends the ordered system of liberty that is the pillar of the Fifth Amendment,” Torres concluded.