Court Case Looks at Detention of Immigrants Who Served Time for Crimes

This week, the U.S. Supreme Court heard the Trump administration argue for extensive government authority to detain certain immigrants who served sentences for committing crimes, even years after leaving prison.

Khalil Cumberbatch is the associate vice president at the Fortune Society in New York City and a legal permanent resident from Guyana. His family moved to the United States when he was 4 years old. At 20, he was convicted of robbery.

While in prison, Cumberbatch decided to finish college. After his release in 2010, he got married, had two daughters, completed parole and received a bachelor’s degree.

Four years later, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers under the Obama administration showed up at his doorstep. He was one week from getting a master’s degree in social work.

ICE reminded him of his old conviction, for which he had served his sentence, and detained him for five months in New Jersey.

“In this country, there is a strong idea and a strong embracing of the idea of perpetual punishment,” Cumberbatch told VOA. “That someone can forever, always, be held accountable for something that they did.”