A federal judge has ordered Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to immediately release Rickardo Anthony Kelly, a gay Jamaican asylum seeker who says he fears being killed if deported. U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres, of the Southern District of New York, ruled that ICE violated Kelly’s due process rights by detaining him on August 4 while he awaited a routine asylum appointment in New York City.
In an eight-page ruling issued on August 15, Torres cited legal precedent in affirming that the Fifth Amendment entitles noncitizens to due process of law, “whether their presence here is lawful, unlawful, temporary, or permanent.” She added that noncitizens are also entitled to challenge the legality of their detention through habeas corpus.
“Respondents emphasize that ICE has the statutory, discretionary authority to detain noncitizens like Kelly,” Torres wrote. “But the question is whether, in exercising that authority, ICE is required to adhere to the basic principles of due process. There is no dispute that it is. Nor is there a dispute that it failed to do so here.”
As reported by Courthouse News Service, Kelly, 40, fled to the United States seeking asylum in May 2021 after being shot 10 times by a mob he says targeted him for his sexual orientation. Now working as a security guard in New York City, he arrived at the immigration court at 26 Federal Plaza at 11 a.m.
After waiting an hour, Kelly was questioned and then detained by ICE agents over a pending third-degree misdemeanor assault charge stemming from a domestic dispute. His asylum attorney, Peter Schuur, says the charge will expire at the end of the month under the statute of limitations. Still, agents cited the charge in deciding “on a discretionary basis” to apprehend Kelly under the Laken Riley Act, a law allowing the deportation of noncitizens accused of crimes.
Schuur and Kelly also allege that an ICE officer handed them a flyer offering Kelly $1,000 to “self-deport” to Jamaica, an offer Kelly refused.
After his arrest, Kelly said he was held in a room at ICE’s 26 Federal Plaza facility in Manhattan with nearly 100 other people and only three toilets — without toiletries, showers, or basic hygiene supplies. He claimed agents kept the lights on until 2 a.m., and detainees were fed only cold “freeze-dried rice and beans” twice a day. He also said a substitute medication for his diabetes caused harmful side effects.
Kelly was later transferred from the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn to the Orange County Jail in Goshen, New York, as federal authorities prepared to deport him.
Schuur filed a habeas corpus petition challenging the legality of Kelly’s detention. He requested a temporary restraining order to secure Kelly’s release, warning his client could die in custody without access to the correct diabetes medication.
Schuur described Kelly as a “hard-working man” whose goal has been to remain in New York and be a productive member of society. He believes if his client is returned to Jamaica, “he faces a grave risk of being killed or severely injured because he is gay.”
The government urged the court to deny the writ of habeas corpus, arguing that ICE had conducted an “individual assessment” by reviewing Kelly’s RAP sheet listing the May 2025 assault charge. Torres rejected that claim and agreed to issue the writ. She also found that the government unquestionably violated Kelly’s right to due process through its actions.
“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 considering dangerousness…offends the ordered system of liberty that is the pillar of the Fifth Amendment,” Torres wrote.
When asked about the ruling in Kelly’s case, Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told Courthouse News Service, “Why does the media continue to peddle sob stories of these criminal illegal aliens?”
If deported to Jamaica, Kelly could face persecution from both the government and extrajudicial vigilantes. The country is one of five in the Caribbean that still criminalize homosexuality, with penalties of seven to 10 years in prison for those suspected of being gay or engaging in same-sex relations.
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Graeme Reid will continue as the U.N.'s expert on LGBT rights for another three years, as 29 nations back the mandate despite opposition from China, Pakistan, and others.
The U.N. Human Rights Council has voted to extend the mandate of its LGBT rights expert, ensuring continued global oversight of anti-LGBTQ human rights violations for another three years.
Under the mandate, the U.N.'s Independent Expert on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity is tasked with identifying the root causes of anti-LGBTQ violence and discrimination, and advising U.N. member states on how to better protect LGBTQ communities.
The current independent expert, South African scholar Graeme Reid, will continue in the role for another three years. Reid is the third person to hold the position since it was established in 2016.
If you’ve been on social media this summer, those five words have been almost inescapable. Originally part of a British budget airline ad, featuring Jess Glynne singing a snippet of her hit "Hold My Hand," the soundbite has taken on a viral life of its own.
On TikTok alone, the sound has been used in over 2.1 million videos, scoring everything from bad flight experiences to cringe-worthy vacation blunders.
The Trump administration jumped into the Jet2 Holiday meme-a-palooza in its own way. On July 29, the official White House X account posted a video of Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees in restraints, set to the ad's soundtrack.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is cracking down on alleged "distractions" for drivers, taking particular aim at rainbow crosswalks.
In a letter to all 50 state governors, Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, and the governor of Puerto Rico, Duffy -- a former Republican congressman -- urged them to take part in the Federal Highway Administration's "Safe Arterials for Everyone through Reliable Operations and Distraction-Reducing Strategies," or SAFE ROADS, initiative.
The initiative targets non-freeway arterial roads, where more than half of U.S. roadway deaths occur -- often involving pedestrians -- according to data compiled by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
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