A Connecticut man who has spent the majority of the last seven years in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention has been freed.
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Richard Marvin Thompson, 37, faced deportation to Jamaica for a crime he’d committed as a teenager, and for which he had received a full and unconditional pardon from the state of Connecticut.
The pardon should have meant he was not eligible for deportation, but the Board of Immigration Appeals found that Connecticut’s pardon process was invalid.
In a ruling Friday, a federal appeals court struck down that decision.
Thompson’s attorney, Gregory Romanovsky, told Connecticut Public Radio that the Board has been inconsistent on the issue.
“They tried to describe Connecticut’s pardons as something that they’re not, and interestingly enough just recently in another case they ruled that Connecticut’s pardons are good enough,” he said.
On Tuesday, Thompson was released from the Etowah County Detention Center in Alabama.
His family lives in Bridgeport.
