Rally to be held for Columbia man detained by ICE
Jazsmin Halliburton
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
Local Columbia musicians will be holding a rally in support of a Columbia man who was detained by ICE agents after coming back to the U.S. from a trip to Europe.
Blue Note and Rose Music Hall’s head of security, Owen Ramsingh, was detained at O’Hare Airport in Chicago in September, after he returned from visiting family in the Netherlands.
“The CoMo Music Scene was rattled when Owen Ramsingh was unlawfully taken into custody by ICE when attempting to re-enter the country,” according to a flyer for the rally. “It is time that we show up for Owen in the same way that he has showed up for us all of these years.”
The rally will be at Columbia City Hall at 5 p.m. and is an invitation to all musicians, welcoming all instrumentation. Rally goers will be playing “Rockin’ in the Free World” by Neil Young on repeat for one hour.
Organizers ask rally goers not to use antagonistic messaging toward ICE, due to it possibly hurting Ramsingh’s case.
Ramsingh’s family was able to speak with him on the phone throughout the day as he was being detained, until ICE took away his phone. His wife was also able to call him for ten minutes on back-to-back days, during which he described the conditions in the Broadview, IL, detention facility as a “30-by 30 foot room packed with 75 other people, with only 20 chairs and no beds.”
Ramsingh has lived in the U.S. since moving here as a child in 1998 and was issued a green card as a child of a U.S. Citizen. According to a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson, he was detained because of convictions for possession of marijuana and cocaine.
“September 27, CBP arrested Owen Romann Ramsingh, a criminal alien from the Netherlands,” Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin wrote in a statement. “His criminal history includes convictions for cocaine possession and marijuana possession. This criminal alien is in ICE custody pending removal proceedings.
“A green card is a privilege, not a right, and under our nation’s laws, our government has the authority to revoke a green card if our laws are broken and abused.”
Court records obtained by ABC 17 show Ramingh was charged with drug possession in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1998 when he was 17. He pleaded guilty the next year to attempting to commit a felony.
The following year, records show he was cited for having less than an ounce of marijuana in Nebraska and fined $100.
He also has an expunged 2011 conviction in Boone County for marijuana possession. He has had a green card since 1986, Ramsingh’s wife, Diana, told ABC 17 News.
The last information Diana has is that Owen was being transferred to a detention center in El Paso, Texas. He has a court date in Illinois scheduled for Oct. 15.