Where is Mory Keita?
Hamilton, OH and Alexandria, LA – Late last night, attorneys filed an emergency action in the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of Ohio to block the deportation of Mory Keita, a key witness in a civil rights lawsuit pending in this court.
Attorneys C.K. Wang and Nazly Mamedova filed the Writ of Habeas Corpus ad testificandum (case no. 1:20-cv-01005-MRB). Mr. Keita’s deportation is slated for today, leaving from the Alexandria, Louisiana staging facility of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). We believe the plane has left Alexandria. We do not know if Mory is on it or not.
Mr. Keita’s immigration lawyer, Ericka Curran, filed numerous stays, as well as a complaint with the Office of Inspector General at the Department of Homeland Security, to prevent the deportation of her client, a material witness in the police brutality case brought by Bayong Brown Bayong and Ahmed Adem against the Butler County Jail. Like Mr. Keita, Bayong and Adem are Columbus, Ohio residents detained by ICE.
The U.S. government moved to deport Mr. Keita after he began speaking out against physical beatings, racial slurs, and other brutalities committed against men detained by ICE, at the hands of Butler County Corrections Officers. The Writ of Habeas Corpus ad testificandum seeks to ensure Mr. Keita is not conveniently “disappeared” by the U.S. government, so that his knowledge and information can be utilized in the civil rights case.
Also yesterday, CAIR-Ohio, LULAC-Ohio, Ohio Immigrant Alliance, Heartfelt Tidbits, LULAC-Cincinnati, and lawyers Zachary Sanders and Catholic Charities Southwestern Ohio, Nazly Mamedova, and Ericka Curran filed a complaint with the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties regarding the brutality at Butler Jail against people detained there by ICE, and the abrupt potential deportation of Mr. Keita.
The CRCL complaint outlines how “ICE and its contractor, Butler County Jail, [used] unlawful force, improperly interfered with protected speech, and continue to do so in the face of multiple concerns voiced by detained individuals.” The authors write: “Particularly concerning, we want to highlight the violence against Cameroonian, Somali, and other Black and Muslim detainees, as they face severe retaliation and physical abuse.”
On December 10, Intercommunity Justice and Peace Center, IJPC YES – Youth Educating Society, and people from across Ohio gathered outside the jail to show solidarity with Keita, Bayong, Adem, and other immigrants harmed there. The event featured moving testimony from Ohioans with first-hand experience of how immigration detention and Islamophobia are used to dehumanize people, and the strong opposition from Ohioans of conscience to these “divide and conquer” tactics.
The following day, however, men inside the Butler Jail were punished as retaliation for the public display of support. They were denied a regular break outside of their cells, in which they remain for up to 23 hours every day.
“This is exactly the type of inhumane, degrading, and unconstitutional treatment that the detained men and advocates have brought to light in multiple complaints and legal actions,” said Lynn Tramonte, Director of Ohio Immigrant Alliance. “Mory, Ahmed, and Bayong are so strong to be speaking up about these abuses while confined inside a jail, facing banishment from their homes, families, and lives in Ohio. They and their attorneys are pushing all of us to live up our country’s stated values of equality and religious liberty. Later today, we will know Mory’s fate. This is a chaotic, devastating, and inhumane to operate a government, and things must change.”
Mory Keita has lived in the United States since he was three. He came to the U.S. with his mother after his father was killed, and knows no one in Guinea. In the United States, he has a young daughter who is a U.S. citizen.
Read more about the underlying lawsuit here. If you or someone you know was assaulted or abused at the Butler County Jail, email admin@ohioimmigrant.org.
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