Caribbean-American Democratic Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke has welcomed the pardon of immigrant rights advocate Ravi Ragbir by former President Joe Biden.
Ragbir, a Brooklyn resident, was convicted of a nonviolent offense in 2001 and had confronted the specter of deportation.
Clarke, the daughter of Jamaican immigrants, who represents the 9th Congressional District in Brooklyn, thanked Biden for his “ethical and simply resolution to subject Ravi Ragbir his long-deserved, long-awaited pardon.
“At a time when immigrants throughout America are fearing for his or her futures on this nation, it brings me nice reduction to know one among their most devoted champions will likely be permitted to proceed his important work that has, for years, bettered their lives and furthered their equitable therapy beneath the regulation,” Clarke, the newly-elected chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, instructed Caribbean Life.
“Regardless of struggling greater than 20 years of inhumane instability and uncertainty by the hands of our nation’s damaged immigration system, Ravi by no means wavered in his combat to make sure each immigrant in America is handled with the equity, dignity and respect they deserve,” she added. “Actually, his profession has been outlined in his unyielding advocacy and efforts on behalf of the rights of all immigrants throughout America.
“I used to be proud to function a longtime chief within the nationwide motion to safe his pardon, simply as I’m proud right this moment to say we’ve succeeded in that important mission,” Clarke continued.
“As Mr. Ragbir begins his subsequent chapter, free from persecution and free to proceed the important work that has improved the lives of numerous people and households on this nation, I sit up for witnessing the brand new heights he can obtain unburdened by this hardship that has too lengthy loomed above his head,” she mentioned. “I thank him for his service to our nation’s most weak communities, and I pledge to at all times stand at his facet and the facet of our immigrant neighbors when injustice threatens their American Dream.”
In pardoning Ragbir, Biden famous that he was sentenced to 2 years and 6 months in jail, and that, since his launch, he has advocated for weak immigrant communities and households in New York and New Jersey.
Beforehand, Ragbir served as the chief director of the New Sanctuary Coalition, an interfaith community of congregations, organizations and people that help immigrant communities.
Biden mentioned Ragbir has acquired quite a few awards, together with from the New York State Affiliation of Black and Puerto Rican Legislators, the Middle for Constitutional Rights and the Episcopal Diocese of Lengthy Island.
“Advocates, non secular organizations, and lawmakers commend his efforts to advertise justice and human dignity,” Biden mentioned.
Clarke has additionally welcomed Biden’s post-humous pardon of Jamaica’s first nationwide hero, Marcus Mosiah Garvey.
On the birthday of slain American civil rights chief, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and a day earlier than the subsequent President of the USA, Donald J. Trump, was inaugurated in Washington, Biden mentioned he was exercising his clemency energy by pardoning 5 people, together with Garvey, and commuting the sentences of two people “who’ve demonstrated regret, rehabilitation and redemption.
“These clemency recipients have every made important contributions to enhancing their communities,” Biden mentioned.
Clarke, who, through the years, has been within the vanguard in looking for Garvey’s exoneration for a 1923 conviction for mail fraud, expressed delight and gratitude with Biden’s pardon.
Simply final month, Clarke and a number of other of her congressional colleagues wrote a letter to Biden urging Garvey’s exoneration.
“As we strategy our nation’s observance of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, I’m terribly grateful for President Biden’s motion right this moment to posthumously grant clemency to a real nationwide hero of Jamaica, the Most Hon. Marcus Garvey,” Clarke instructed Caribbean Life.
She famous that Garvey was a Jamaican-born, Pan-Africanist chief, who led one of many earliest Black Civil Rights actions within the Americas, and based one among America’s first Black-owned transport corporations within the Black Star Line.
The congresswoman mentioned Garvey had “established a legacy that has persevered to today.
“His advocacy for civil rights and the financial development of the Black neighborhood constructed the inspiration of our fashionable civil rights motion and influenced lots of our civil rights leaders, together with Dr. King, who described Garvey as ‘the primary on a mass scale and degree to…make the Negro really feel he was someone…the primary man of shade within the historical past of the USA to guide and develop a mass motion,’” Clarke mentioned.
She famous that, in 1923, US President Calvin Coolidge had commuted Garvey’s sentence for mail fraud.
“Nonetheless, it’s no secret that Black individuals in America have at all times been subjected to a distinct commonplace of justice,” Clarke mentioned. “Though granting Mr. Garvey’s clemency will assist take away the shadow of an unjust conviction and additional the Biden administration’s promise to advance racial justice, Mr. Garvey’s household, myself, and numerous others throughout our nation and world wide will proceed to push in the direction of his full and unambiguous exoneration.
“We all know that Mr. Garvey was falsely convicted of against the law he didn’t commit. We all know the trail ahead should embrace congressional motion to utterly exonerate the Hon. Marcus Garvey,” she added.
“And so, I’ll proceed to take all obligatory motion to clear his identify, and to ship the justice and closure his descendants rightfully deserve,” Clarke continued. “At this time was a really important step in the direction of victory, however the combat for fairness and justice goes on.”
Nzinga Garvey additionally instructed Caribbean Life: “Within the phrases of my grandfather, Marcus Garvey, ‘The ends you serve which might be egocentric will take you no additional than your self, however the ends you serve for all, in frequent, will take you to eternity’.
“These phrases are greater than a name to motion; they’re an ethical compass, pointing us towards the form of justice that dignifies not simply the person, however a individuals, a nation and humanity itself,” she mentioned. “My grandfather’s conviction was not solely a miscarriage of justice however a reminder of how the overreach of energy could be weaponized to silence the voices that search equity, fairness and accountability.”
Nzinga Garvey mentioned her grandfather’s life was devoted to “uplifting humanity, urging us all to embrace a imaginative and prescient of justice that’s bigger than any single race or nation.
“His wrongful conviction is not only a narrative of the previous, it’s a reflection of the work that continues to be earlier than us,” she mentioned. “It underscores the deep want for a justice system that protects, not prosecutes, those that dare to encourage and empower.
“This posthumous pardon of Marcus Garvey is about greater than his identify; it’s about reclaiming the soul of a nation that believes in equity over concern, in dignity over division, in righting the wrongs of historical past so we will face the longer term with integrity,” she added. “Allow us to show that we’re a nation not afraid to confront our previous, as a result of we imagine so deeply in constructing a greater future for each one among us.”
Garvey (1887-1940) had sought to unify and join individuals of African descent worldwide.
In the USA, he was a famous civil rights activist, who based the Negro World newspaper, a transport firm known as Black Star Line, and the Common Negro Enchancment Affiliation (UNIA).
In 1922, Garvey and three different UNIA officers had been charged with mail fraud involving the Black Star Line.
On Jun. 23, 1923, Garvey was convicted and sentenced to jail for 5 years.
He appealed his conviction, claiming to be a sufferer of a politically-motivated miscarriage of justice, but it surely was denied.
In 1927, Garvey was launched from jail and deported again to Jamaica, the place he continued his political activism.
Eight years later, he moved to London, the place he died, in 1940, after a number of strokes.
Garvey’s physique was interred in London in view of journey restrictions imposed throughout World Battle II.
Nonetheless, in 1964, his stays had been exhumed and brought again to Jamaica, the place the federal government proclaimed him Jamaica’s first nationwide hero and re-interred him at a shrine within the Nationwide Heroes Park.
In pardoning Garvey on Sunday, Biden famous that Garvey had “created the Black Star Line, the primary Black-owned transport line and methodology of worldwide journey, and based the Common Negro Enchancment Affiliation, which celebrated African historical past and tradition.
“Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. described Mr. Garvey as ‘the primary man of shade within the historical past of the USA to guide and develop a mass motion,’” he mentioned.
“Advocates and lawmakers reward his international advocacy and affect, and spotlight the injustice underlying his prison conviction,” Biden added.