Manhattan judge orders release of gay Jamaican asylum-seeker detained by ICE

A Manhattan federal judge has ordered the immediate release of a gay Jamaican man who said immigration authorities violated his rights by detaining him during a routine check-in earlier this month.

The asylum-seeker, 40-year-old Rickardo Anthony Kelly, fled Jamaica in 2021 after he was shot at 10 times during what he described as an anti-gay attack, according to court documents.

Kelly's case is part of the Trump administration's strategy to detain undocumented people for expedited removal around their immigration court hearings and check-ins, including at 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan. The building is currently being used as a temporary immigration detention site.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and other state officials this week called for the return of a young girl and her mother who were deported to Ecuador after being detained during an immigration hearing at 26 Federal Plaza. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have detained at least three other New York City public school students at immigration court this year, including a 20-year-old high school student from Guinea. Federal officials have defended the stepped-up enforcement as upholding immigration law and prosecuting illegal border crossing.

Kelly’s case moved forward after U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres ruled Friday that his detention violated his Fifth Amendment rights. She granted his petition for release without a hearing. His lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

According to court records, Kelly entered the United States on a tourist visa in May 2021 and filed for asylum later that year. He received work authorization and took a job as a security guard.

In January, Kelly was detained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection while returning to New York from the Virgin Islands, and was served a notice to appear in immigration court. He checked in with ICE in February and was told to return on Aug. 4.

But in May, he was charged in Queens with third-degree assault and second-degree harassment, court records say. At his August check-in, ICE officers told Kelly he would be detained because of those charges, or he could pay $1,000 to self-deport to Jamaica.

He declined, according to court records, and was then held at 26 Federal Plaza for five days before being transferred to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. He was later moved to a jail in Orange County, about 70 miles north of the city.

Court filings describe the conditions Kelly endured as “unconscionable,” “inhumane” and “horrific.” He slept on the floor without a blanket, lacked access to his diabetes medication, and said the facility was overcrowded, unsanitary and under lockdown for long stretches.

Kelly's experience echoes a broader class-action lawsuit filed this month alleging “crowded, squalid and punitive conditions” at 26 Federal Plaza for detainees held there by ICE.