A recent ruling by the US Appeals Court in Manhattan could have serious implications for Caribbean nationals.
A panel of judges ruled that a Jamaican-born US citizen who was wrongfully detained by immigration officials for more than three years has no right to sue the government.
The majority of judges said Davino Watson’s imprisonment was improperly handled by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, (ICE). Nonetheless, the panel still concluded malicious prosecution and negligence claims had technical flaws and Watson’s false imprisonment suit was barred by the statute of limitations.
Chief Judge Robert Katzmann, the dissenter in the 2-1 ruling, said an immigration detainee’s chances of resisting deportation are five times greater with a lawyer. He laid responsibility for an injustice in Watson’s case at the feet of a system that provides no legal assistance to detainees.
Incarcerated on drug charge.
Watson, now 32, of Brooklyn, came from Jamaica to live in New York with his dad when he was 13. He automatically became a citizen when his father was naturalized. In 2008, immediately after his release from a term of incarceration on a state drug charge, he was detained by ICE.
$82,000 judgment quashed
Initially, ICE officials didn’t believe his claims that he was a citizen and misidentified his parents during their investigation. The court said, and the officials also erred interpreting new cases dealing with the interplay of New York, Jamaican and federal law on citizenship of a child of unmarried parents.
Finally released in 2011, Watson sued, and U.S. District Judge Jack Weinstein in Brooklyn federal court awarded him $82,000. But the Second Circuit ruling dismissed that award.
The court said Watson couldn’t sue for malicious prosecution because that requires a showing of malice, not just incompetence. A negligence claim for a bad investigation and ICE’s failure to follow its regulations is not recognized in New York State.
The three-year statute of limitations on false imprisonment began in 2008 — while Watson, who hadn’t finished high school, was in custody. He didn’t have a lawyer and was misinformed about the law by the government, The statute expired by the time he got out, got a lawyer and sued.
