Matthew Sanders
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
A Columbia green card holder who has been ordered to be deported from the United States, with a lifetime ban to keep him from reentering the country, says the outcome of his immigration case was predetermined.
“I just want to thank everyone for all the love and support my family and I have gotten these last few months,” a social post attributed to Owen Ramsingh states. “This has been one of the hardest moments of my life as I sit here in this prison waiting on a flight back to the Netherlands.”
Ramsingh’s friend, Robert Olson, posted the message Wednesday on the “Bring Owen Home” Facebook page, where Ramsingh’s friends and family post updates about his case.
Ramsingh’s family wrote in a social media update earlier this week that Ramsingh went in front of an immigration judge in New Mexico on Monday. The judge ordered Ramsingh deported with a lifetime ban from the United States, the post states.
Ramsingh could try for a waiver to lift the ban in eight to 10 years, the post states.
Immigration lawyer German Gonzalez Herrera said, typically lifetime bans last about 20 years, but there’s an opportunity for deported people to file a waiver after 10 years of being outside of the United States.
Gonzalez Herrera said a judge will have to decide how serious Ramsingh’s drug charges are before lifting his ban.
In Olson’s post, Ramsingh said he believes the judge already decided his fate.
“There was nothing me or my attorney could have done to change the verdict that was already decided before I even stepped inside,” Ramsingh said. “Judge Brock Taylor decided I do not belong in this country anymore and ordered that I be deported in the next couple of weeks for a mistake I made back in 1996 when I was just a kid.”
Ramsingh has lived in the U.S. since moving here as a child from the Netherlands and was initially issued a green card as a child of a U.S. citizen in 1986, which has since been renewed. According to a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson, he was detained because of past convictions for possession of marijuana and cocaine.
Court records obtained by ABC 17 News show Ramsingh 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.
Ramsingh’s family wrote that they expect him to be back in the Netherlands.
“I do have my father in the Netherlands and I am thankful for him, but it is almost impossible to imagine not having my Columbia family by my side for the rest of my life. That hurts more than anything,” Ramsingh wrote.
In Diana Ramsignh’s post, she said she and her daughter plan to move to the Netherlands to be with him.
State Rep. David Tyson Smith (D-Columbia) told ABC 17 News that he feels for the Ramsingh family.
“President Trump’s reckless deportation policies have not only destabilized a local family but our community as well,” Tyson Smith wrote in a statement. “My heart goes out to Owen’s family and friends. The citizens need to hold our federal elected officials accountable for this travesty,”
Colin LaVaute organized a music protest in October, and ABC 17 News followed up with him after Ramsingh’s notice of deportation.
“The crime does not fit the punishment in regards to not only what Owen is going through, but what his family is going through,” he said. “His daughter, that was born here in the United States, is going to have to leave her home country to be with her father.”
Diana Ramsingh said in her post that she and her daughter will be moving to the Netherlands next year.
Friends, coworkers say deportation is a loss for the community
Those who worked alongside Ramsingh in Columbia’s downtown music scene describe him as a loyal friend, a problem-solver and someone who made others feel safe.
Luna Hawk, a sound and lighting technician who worked with Ramsingh at The Blue Note for five years, said their friendship formed naturally because “he just took care of everyone around him.”
“When you think about someone who’s so genuine and so hopeful and so full of heart being treated this badly, and obviously he’s going to be emotionally scarred,” Hawk said. “It’s abusive what this government is doing to people.”
Hawk added that as a property manager, Ramsingh’s ties to Columbia run deep.
“I just always heard stories about him being there to fix things right away, even on holidays or in the middle of the night,” Hawl said. “Just always going out of his way to do things for the community because he is a part of this community. This is his home.”
Hawk also echoed Ramsingh’s comments about the hearing being unfair.
“His oldest daughter is buried here, and if that doesn’t make it finally click in people’s minds why this is all so wrong and heartbreaking, then honestly, I have to feel sorry for them and just think they have no soul,” Hawk said.
John Buchholz, who met Ramsingh in 2015 and worked with him both as security and later as a bartender, said it was immediately clear who Owen Ramsingh was. He described Ramsingh as someone who never shied away from hard work.
“You realize he’s one of the most loyal, caring people you interact with. You tend to gravitate towards those people,” Buchholz told ABC 17 News. “If somebody says dig a hole, Owen would be the first person go, ‘Well, we’re going to have fun doing it.’ And he would never ask you to do something he wouldn’t do.”
Buchholz recalled the last time he was able to speak with Ramsingh, saying that Ramsingh was excited about his then-upcoming trip to the Netherlands.
“He was excited to go see his family, especially because with his story of having to reconnect with them later in life. He was excited to go and to take his brother Robert [Olson] with him to meet his family where they live,” Buchholz said “The kind of scary part is that we just went from having, really, everybody was happy he got to go home; with that has turned into such a sour, a sweet but very bittersweet, almost sour memory now, given everything that’s happened since”
When Buchholz learned of Ramsingh’s deportation, he described it as a “gut punch”.
”When a pillar in a structure that’s helped hold you up so many times is in a position where you don’t even know how to support it, it’s difficult to feel like you are doing enough,” Buchholz said. “Whether it’s holding a sign in front of the keyhole, whether it was the events that we did, the events that the family and others were able to put on for his benefit. There’s still not enough support that I felt I could give.”
Buchholz and Hawk both said Ramsingh played a vital role in connecting people in Columbia’s entertainment scene.
“Owen was someone who was able to connect so well with so many people,” Buchholz said. “Losing someone who was so good at understanding others and helping others grow or change to be better is such a loss for everybody.”
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