Six Famous Black Caribbean Immigrants Who Were Deported By U.S. Authorities

Marcus Mosiah Garvey, Jr., National Hero of Jamaica and leader of the Back to Africa movement sits in the back of a car in a parade through Harlem circa 1920 in New York City, New York. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)

Compiled By NAN Staff Writer

News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Fri. Feb. 24, 2017: With all the talk of ramped up deportations and military action against immigrants, it’s easy to forget that deportations are not a recent phenomenon and have been taking place for many decades in the United States. Here are six famous black Caribbean immigrants who were deported by U.S. authorities.

1: Marcus Garvey

The Right Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey, founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, was convicted of fraud related to sale of stock in one of his businesses. He was sentenced to five years in prison and began serving his sentence at the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary on 8 February 1925. Garvey’s sentence was eventually commuted by President Calvin Coolidge in November 1927 he was released and deported back to his homeland of Jamaica.

2: C. L. R. James

Popular Trinidadian journalist, socialist theorist was deported from the United States in 1953 for having overstayed his visa. In his attempt to remain in America, James wrote a study of Herman Melville, Mariners, Renegades and Castaways: The Story of Herman Melville and the World We Live In, and had copies of the privately published work sent to every member of the Senate. He wrote the book while being detained on Ellis Island.

3: Claudia Jones

Trinidad-born journalist and Black Nationalist and political activist Claudia Jones was deported from the United States in 1955 under the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 for being a Communist. An elected member of the National Committee of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA), Jones also organized and spoke at various events. As a result of her membership of CPUSA and various associated activities, in 1948 she was arrested and was threatened with deportation to Trinidad. In 1955, Jones began her sentence of a year and a day at the Federal Reformatory for Women at Alderson, West Virginia. She was released on 23 October 1955 and deported but was refused entry to Trinidad and Tobago, in part because the British colonial governor Major General Sir Hubert Elvin Rance considered that “she may prove troublesome.” She was eventually offered residency in the United Kingdom on humanitarian grounds and went on to found Britain’s first major black newspaper, The West Indian Gazette (WIG), in 1958.

4: Trevor Berbick

Jamaican heavyweight boxer, Trevor Berbick, who fought as a professional from 1976 until 2000, was deported from the United States in 1997 to Jamaica after serving jail time for sexually assaulting the family baby sitter in 1992.

5: Charles Hopel Brown

Charles Hopel Brown, a Jamaican author, computer engineer, and U.S. Army veteran, was deported to Jamaica in January 2004 after he was convicted in Florida in January 2001, for resisting arrest, which violated his probation. Despite his military service he never applied for naturalization. He was sentenced to a term of imprisonment exceeding one year, making him eligible for deportation as a non US-citizen. He went on to author: The Jamaican Deportees … we are displaced, desperate, damaged, rich, resourceful, or dangerous…. Who am I?

6: Moses Michael Levi

Belizean-born rapper Moses Michael Levi, aka Shyne, son of current Belize Prime Minister Dean Barrow, was deported back to his native land in 2009 after serving more than 9 years of a 10-year sentence for attempted murder, assault, and reckless endangerment. On October 6, 2009, Shyne was released from New York State custody and was immediately taken into Federal custody. He was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement at a “detention facility in Western New York State” and deported to Belize on October 28, 2009.