Last Saturday, May 10, 2025, the defense committee that fought against Ravi Ragbir’s deportation for 17 years gathered along with allies, friends, and family to commemorate the presidential pardon that the team secured in January. The festivities were held at Park Avenue Christian Church, where Pastor Kaji Dousa, a longtime ally of Ragbir and activist for immigrant sanctuary, presided over remarks and prayers.

Ragbir and his spouse, Amy Gottlieb of the American Friends Service Committee, thanked the community for their stalwart support. They also unveiled an exciting update: that as of two weeks prior, the Board of Immigration Appeals had fully dropped deportation proceedings against Ragbir. Remarks were then delivered by attorneys Alina Das and Jessica Rofé, who helmed the defense committee as part of their roles leading the NYU School of Law Immigrant Rights Clinic. Many of the current and former law students that had contributed to the effort were in attendance.

Speakers included longtime allies of the effort: Representative Yvette Clarke, State Assemblymember Jo Ann Simon, Representative Jerry Nadler, Mizue Aizeki and Marie Mark of the Surveillance Resistance Project, the Rev. Dr. Chloe Breyer of the Interfaith Center of New York, and The Rev. Canon Marie Tatro of the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island, who delivered a prayer.

At the end of the program, New York City Public Advocate Juumane Williams, who had been arrested protesting ICE’s attempted deportation of Ragbir in 2018, presented certificates on behalf of his office to Das, Pastor Dousa, and law students and Ravi Defense Committee members Djibril Branche and Mariel Gonzalez-Medellin. He then issued a Proclamation, commemorated by a framed print, to Rofé.

The event ended with a dance party marshalled by DJ Vincent Southerland, a joyous end to a heartfelt ceremony and a moment of rejuvenation for the continuing struggle against deportation.