Ravidath “Ravi” Ragbir, a Trinidadian-American immigrant rights activist, fought against deportation for almost 20 years. On January 19, however, the threat of deportation lifted after the Immigrant Rights Clinic at NYU Law helped secure a pardon for Ragbir from then-President Joseph Biden, clearing Ragbir’s record of a 2001 conviction for a nonviolent offense that had been the basis for repeated deportation attempts. The clinic has represented Ragbir since 2008, with some 33 NYU Law students working on his case over the years.
“It's really been a privilege to watch the students pour their heart and soul into this work over many years [and] to have taken the lessons from those experiences into their careers,” says James Weldon Johnson Professor Alina Das ’05, who is co-leader of the clinic alongside Professor Nancy Morawetz ’81. “Many of them are now movement lawyers doing similar work across the country and it's a really important community that I have found a great deal of inspiration from.” This includes Jessica Rofé ’14, who later served as deputy director of the clinic and whom Das credits with invaluable leadership as co-supervisor of Ragbir’s case since 2017.
Ragbir immigrated to the United States in 1991 on a visitor’s visa and became a permanent resident in 1994. In 2006, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained him because of his 2001 criminal conviction for mortgage fraud, and an immigration judge ordered his deportation. After being detained for nearly two years, he was released on an order of supervision in 2008 and became an activist for immigrant rights, volunteering with Families for Freedom. That led him to the Immigrant Rights Clinic.
“He was always approaching [organizations in the immigrant protections movement] us about other people’s cases, looking for help and guidance,” says Das, who became a teaching fellow at the clinic in 2008. “When I found out he had a case of his own, I brought his case to the clinic, and we've been representing him ever since,” she says.
With the clinic’s help, Ragbir was repeatedly granted permission to stay in the country as he pursued his legal remedies. Joining the New Sanctuary Coalition of New York City in 2010, Ragbir has served as a full-time community organizer, and eventually its Executive Director. Ragbir also serves as the Ecumenical Canon for Immigration Justice in the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island. However, his prominent voice as an immigrant activist caused him to be targeted by ICE, Das says. In 2018, he was again detained.
The clinic obtained an order for his release from then-Judge Katherine Forrest ’90 of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, but ICE issued a new order requiring Ragbir to report to ICE for deportation. The clinic partnered with law firm Arnold and Porter to win a 2019 United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit decision that Ragbir had a First Amendment right to be free from retaliatory deportation for his work as an activist.
Meanwhile, the clinic had also filed a lawsuit to challenge legal errors in his original 2001 conviction. In the process of working with the US Attorney’s office, Das says, the clinic identified an opportunity for Ragbir to seek a presidential pardon for the conviction that underlay the government’s deportation efforts. “Our clinic has a ‘no stone left unturned’ model,” says Das. “So every motion, every lawsuit we filed has been directed to find a legal right for Ravi to be able to remain here.” In a concerted campaign, the clinic’s students worked with Ragbir’s defense committee, a faith working group, and community leaders to send letters to the Office of the Pardon Attorney to express support for Ragbir’s pardon and to reach out to elected officials.
“I think what was particularly unique about this campaign is that the people who really advocated for Ravi all knew him or were touched by his work. He had organized day in and day out for other families, even while the law gave him so few opportunities to resolve his own case,” says Das. “And it was those other families and their community organizations and the elected officials that had Ravi speak to their constituents and faith leaders who had him train their congregations—they now were all overjoyed to have an opportunity to advocate for him.”
Djibril Branche ’26 and Mariel Gonzalez-Medellin ’26 helped secure the presidential pardon. “It was just an incredible, incredible moment,” says Gonzalez-Medellin, “especially just seeing the relief that [Ragbir] can finally breathe.”
Branche says that the experience has helped him to think about his own style of lawyering: “I really was able to crystallize an idea of what type of lawyer I want to be working on this case–the type of advocacy I want to bring and the type of way I want to show up for my clients,” he says.
Posted March 27, 2025