Bond Approved For Army Vet Facing Deportation

A federal judge ruled earlier this month that Mark Reid, a New Haven Army Reserve veteran held in an immigration jail for more than a year, be freed on bond while he fights deportation to his native Jamaica. Reid will be released from a Massachusetts jail if he raises the $25,000 bond and meets certain conditions, according to the ruling by Judge Philip Verrillo of the U.S. Immigration Court in Hartford. Reid, who served in the Reserve for six years, faces deportation based on four drug convictions for which he has served prison terms.   Reid is among a growing number of noncitizen veterans who are being deported for crimes for which they served time years earlier, according to veterans’ advocates.  Legal noncitizens have served in the U.S. military throughout history. “I’m so glad to have gotten a bond hearing,” said Reid, in a statement released by the Yale Law School clinic, which is representing him.  “But,” he added,” it’s wrong that ICE continues to deny this opportunity to others who can’t afford a good lawyer.”

His lawyers from the Yale Law School Worker and Immigration Rights Advocacy Clinic contend that Reid, 49, has already been punished for his crimes, and should not be deported.