Government

Protest in Plymouth for Cuthbert Bonnie, father taken by ICE

A protest was held Monday evening, as close to the Plymouth County Correctional Facility as police would allow, to demand the release of New Bedford resident Cuthbert Bonnie. Bonnie, who is undocumented, is the father of two teenage boys, both citizens of the United States. Bonnie was detained by United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on April 17 and

Rhode Island News: Protest in Plymouth for Cuthbert Bonnie, father taken by ICE

May 1, 2018, 5:47 am

By Steve Ahlquist

A protest was held Monday evening, as close to the Plymouth County Correctional Facility as police would allow, to demand the release of New Bedford resident Cuthbert Bonnie. Bonnie, who is undocumented, is the father of two teenage boys, both citizens of the United States. Bonnie was detained by United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on April 17 and is currently being held, with countless others in similar circumstances, at the Plymouth County Correctional Facility. Bonnie was detained despite having an upcoming immigration check-in scheduled for May.

A march from Route 3 and up Long Pond Road to the Correctional Facility was cut short by the arrival of law enforcement representing both the Plymouth Police and the Plymouth County Sheriff’s Office. Officers told the crowd that they were not allowed to proceed along a public street, arbitrarily drawing a line in the sand, past which no one should walk. A K-9 unit was barking threateningly from inside the County Sheriff’s vehicle.

“Cuthbert Bonnie is a 46 year old man from the Island of Dominica,” said Jacqueline Grajales, Cuthbert’s partner. “He’s married to an American citizen and has two citizen children. He’s been here for 22 years. He’s a commercial fisherman who works very hard for his money, who asks for no handouts from this country whatsoever. He pays his own health insurance. He pays for his children’s health insurance. He’s raising two beautiful twin children. This is unfair. It’s a matter of time for his paperwork to be cleared, and they fooled him and held him in here for no reason at all.

“He’s a good man,” continued Grajales. “He has no police record. He’s never, ever been in trouble in this country. He’s a law-abiding person.”

The protest was organized by AMOR RI (Alianza para Movilizar Nuestra Resistencia) and the FANG Collective. They urge people to call and email the Boston Field Office for ICE and demand that they release Cuthbert:

(781) 359-7500
[email protected]

On Twitter, the groups are using the hashtags #KeepFamiliesTogether and #ReleaseCuthbert

AMOR RI is a coalition of directly affected and people of color led organizations, building a Rapid Response Network in Rhode Island.

The FANG Collective is about “building, supporting and escalating nonviolent resistance to the natural gas industry while supporting other movements for justice.”

Jacqueline Grajales

Arely Díaz and Catarina Lorenzo


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