Carlyle Leslie Owen Dale, a 61-year-old lawful permanent resident who has been detained for more than five years in U.S. immigration detention, was reunited last night with family in Orlando, Florida, following his release from custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
ICE agreed to release Mr. Dale as part of a settlement agreement dismissing a writ of habeas corpus, which Heartland Alliance’s National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC) filed on his behalf in September 2009. Mr. Dale left detention in Oakdale, Louisiana, on Wednesday evening, took a cab 100 miles to the nearest Greyhound Bus station, and then traveled by bus to Orlando, where he was greeted by his daughter.
"When I look at my family, at my children and grandchildren, I see the America that I love and it's good to be back with the America I love,” Mr. Dale said upon his arrival. “As far as the other America that I experienced during my detention, I don't want to go back to it."
Mr. Dale, a native of Jamaica, has been a permanent resident of the United States for more than 30 years. He was detained by ICE in April 2005 and charged with being removable from the United States. During his detention, Mr. Dale suffered several serious health problems including chronic asthma and diabetes, which were exacerbated by ICE's failure to provide regular access to prescription medications and medical care. On June 27, 2010, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled that Mr. Dale was not deportable. The next day, NIJC filed a petition to the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention on his behalf calling for his release. That same day, Mr. Dale’s story was the subject of a New York Times article which shone a spotlight on the lack of medical treatment he had received in detention.
"I think it's fitting that Mr. Dale's release coincides with the upcoming celebration of America’s independence,” said Claudia Valenzuela, NIJC’s associate director of litigation, who represented Mr. Dale in his detention case. “His five-year detention without meaningful review is the type of arbitrariness and abuse that spurred the fight for independence in this country and established some of its most cherished principles of justice."
As a result of the Fifth Circuit decision, Mr. Dale’s case will now return to the Board of Immigration Appeals for further consideration. Attorneys Wendy Netter Epstein and Jeffrey Freeman of Kirkland & Ellis LLP argued the case pro bono before the Fifth Circuit.
Links:
New York Times coverage of Mr. Dale’s detention and release
Mr. Dale’s petition to the U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention
Fifth Circuit ruling in Dale v. Holder
Audio recording of Fifth Circuit argument
Heartland Alliance’s National Immigrant Justice Center provides direct legal services to and advocates for immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers through policy reform, impact litigation, and public education. For more information visit www.immigrantjustice.org.