Tell New Orleans Field ICE Office Director Diane Witte: Free Karim Golding!

New Orleans Field ICE Officer Director Diane Witte, Deputy Field Office Director John Hartnett

HOW TO HELP FREE KARIM FROM ICE DETENTION:

  1. Sign and share this petition!
  2. Email ICE Field Director Diane Witte (diane.l.witte@ice.dhs.gov), and demand that ICE Free Karim immediately! (Use our script below or here)
  3. CALL Deputy Field Office Director John Hartnett at 225-892-4013 AND 318-992-1594 and demand that ICE free Karim immediately! (Use our script below or here)
  4. Watch the online rally on that took place on Tuesday 3/16/21 at 12pm EST, 9am PST
  5. Make a quick, automatic call to Deputy Director John Hartnett by going to this link


ABOUT THE CAMPAIGN

Karim Golding is a Muslim Jamaican immigrant who came to the United States when he was a child to reunite with his family. Karim has had COVID-19 two times while in ICE detention, where he’s been detained for over 4 years. Now, ICE wants to deport him to a country he has not known or been to since he was a child.

Will you join us in calling for his freedom from ICE Detention?

New Sanctuary Coalition, Shut Down Etowah, VietRISE, Adelante Alabama Worker Center, Al Otro Lado, National Immigration Project of NLG, and Family & Friends of Karim Golding, are among a growing list calling on ICE to release Karim from detention.


TWEETS TO SHARE

  1. Karim Golding is a Muslim Jamaican immigrant who was transferred prison to ICE after completing a 10-yr sentence for a conviction that the Courts said had a lack of evidence. Karim has now been detained by ICE for over 4 yrs & suffers from COVID. @ICEgov needs to Free Karim now!
  2. After serving over 10 years in prison, Karim Golding, a Jamaican immigrant, has been held in ICE custody for an additional 4 years. After getting COVID-19 in ICE custody, @ICEgov wants to deport Karim. @ICEgov @DHSgov #FreeKarim and keep families together!
  3. Despite being granted a stay of removal, ICE REFUSES to release Karim because they deem him a “threat to public safety.” Karim is ANYTHING BUT and that has long been proven by his community relationships & work in the community, and by the Courts! @ICEgov #freeKarim now!
  4. Karim Golding is a 36-year old Jamaican immigrant who has been detained by ICE for over 4 years. His continued detention is inhumane and Karim should be returned home to his family. @ICEgov Free Karim and let him return to his family NOW! #FreeKarim
  5. .@ICEgov has deported thousands of Black immigrants who like Karim came to this country to reunite with his family. This is WRONG and we demand that ICE release Karim immediately and allow him to return home to his family & so he can safely recover from COVID-19. #FreeKarim


ABOUT KARIM GOLDING:

As a 21 year-old living in New York, Karim was targeted and arrested in 2006 by a federal task force created to investigate hip-hop acts as part of the "War on Drugs." Following a mistrial, Karim sentenced to prison for charges related to possession of a gun and drug trafficking. Karim appealed his sentence and after the judicial system found a lack of evidence to support his conviction he was re-sentenced to time served. After completing his prison sentence of 10 years, instead of being able to come home to his family, Karim was transferred from federal prison to ICE detention. Karim has now been in ICE detention for over 4 years and faces deportation to Jamaica, a country he has not known or seen since he was 9 years old. He is now detained at the Etowah County Detention Center in Gadsden, Alabama, known to many as one of the worst migrant prisons in the country.

Karim is an uncle to five nieces and nephews, a brother to four siblings, and family member of 21 people who love and care for him deeply, and have been fighting for him to come home for over 14 years. Karim's good character has long been recognized by the Courts as well, which led to him receiving time-served. However, instead of being able to come home to his family and community, Karim was transferred to ICE detention where has been for over 4 years.

While in Etowah County Jail, (one of the worst in the country-need link) Karim tested positive for COVID-19 twice, and was sent to solitary confinement for almost 2 months for his activism in calling on the detention center to supply COVID-19 tests and PPE.

According to a study done by NYU Law’s Immigrant Rights Clinic and BAJI Black Alliance for Just Immigration, “The government’s increasing focus on immigrants with criminal records disproportionately impacts Black immigrants, who are more likely to be identified through interactions with local law enforcement, because of rampant racial profiling.”

Karim has gone from extremely healthy to suffering from liver disease, depression, anxiety, high blood pressure. Despite his rehabilitation and court orders to release detainees at high risk, ICE refuses to release him. We urge you to join us in our fight to return Karim to his loved ones and his community and free him from ICE detention.

ORGANIZATIONS LEADING #FREEKARIM: New Sanctuary Coalition, Shut Down Etowah, VietRISE, Adelante Alabama Worker Center, Al Otro Lado, National Immigration Project of NLG, and Family & Friends of Karim Golding

Sponsored by
Viet-rise-logo-final
VietRISE
Garden Grove, CA

To: New Orleans Field ICE Officer Director Diane Witte, Deputy Field Office Director John Hartnett
From: [Your Name]

To New Orleans ICE Office Director Diane Witt,

I am writing this to call on you to release Karim Golding (A# 206552755) from the Etowah County Detention Center in Gadsden, Alabama. Karim is a beloved and valued member of our community who should be reunited with his family, not indefinitely detained in a migrant detention center.

It is wrong for ICE to continue to detain Karim. He has contracted COVID-19 twice while in ICE detention and has gone from extremely healthy to suffering from liver disease, depression, and anxiety.

Karim has rehabilitated since his incarceration over 14 years ago which has long been supported by the court. Karim will continue to make a positive contribution to his community. He is a member of a large immigrant family and community who loves and cares for him and who want him to come home to New York.

I urge you to release Karim Golding immediately.