US Citizen Peter Sean Brown Nearly Deported To Jamaica By ICE For Marijuana Probation Violation

Source: ACLU/YouTube

Peter Sean Brown was born in Philadelphia and raised in New Jersey.

A U.S. citizen was nearly deported to Jamaica after turning himself in for a violation probation back in April. Peter Sean Brown, who was born in Philadelphia but currently resides in Key West, Florida, said that he was locked up for weeks while law enforcement tried to send him to Jamaica.

Brown had violated his probation after testing positive for marijuana and was incarcerated on request by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to the Miami Herald.

In the report, Brown said that he told every jail employee that he was a U.S. citizen but none of them believed him, with one guard talking to him in a Jamaican accent while another sung The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air theme song to him. He was finally released three weeks later after a friend sent ICE a copy of Brown's birth certificate.

Since the incident, Brown has filed a lawsuit against Richard Ramsey, Monroe County's sheriff, through the American Civil Liberties Union. The lawsuit accuses Ramsey of "unlawfully arresting and detaining a U.S. citizen, in violation of the Fourth Amendment and the right to be free from false imprisonment, as Florida law guarantees."

"Nobody should have to endure what he endured," the complaint reads. "He was kept in jail - away from his family, friends, and work - solely to facilitate his illegal deportation from the United States. The Sheriff's Office ignored his pleas for weeks, mocked him, and led him to believe that he would soon find himself in a Jamaican prison. He suffered severe anxiety, fear, and trauma in the process."

The complaint also states that Brown "has never lived and knows no one" in Jamaica.

Source: Miami Herald