Join the Campaign to #FreeKarim

Join a coalition of organizations from across the country to call for the release of Karim Golding, a Muslim Jamaican immigrant who has been detained by ICE for over 4 years. He is detained in Etowah County Detention Center in Gadsden, Alabama. While in detention he has contracted COVID-19 and due to not receiving proper medical care, Karim continues to face long-hauler symptoms.

Despite being granted a stay of removal, ICE refuses to release Karim because they deem him a “threat to public safety.” Karim is ANYTHING BUT and that has long been proven by his community relationships & work in the community, and by the courts! It’s time for ICE to #FreeKarim NOW!

Join us by making a call to New Orleans Field ICE Field Director Diane Witte, and demand that ICE Free Karim NOW!

When you click the MAKE THE CALL button, the system will call your phone and patch you through.  PLEASE HAVE YOUR PHONE READY.

If you get a message that Diane Witte's mailbox is full--> Press 2, then 1, then type in-->WITTE (94883) and you'll be able to leave your message. 

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Read Karim's Full Story Below:

A Queens, New York native, Karim Golding is a 36-year old Muslim Jamaican immigrant who came to the United States when he was 9 years old. As a youth, Karim worked many jobs to support his family, ranging from carpentry to painting including later as a teenager when he got the opportunity to work with a local hip hop group to grow their business. As a 21 year-old, Karim was targeted and arrested in 2006 by a federal task force created to investigate hip-hop acts as part of the "War on Drugs." Following a mistrial, Karim was retried seven days after. Losing the second trial, Karim was sentenced to prison for charges related to possession of a gun and drug trafficking. Karim appealed his sentence and after the judicial system found a lack of evidence to support his conviction he was re-sentenced to time served. After completing his prison sentence of which he served 10 years, instead of being able to come home to his family, Karim was transferred from federal prison to ICE detention. Karim has now been in ICE custody for over 4 years and faces deportation to Jamaica, a country he has not known or seen since he was 9 years old.

Karim is an uncle to five nieces and nephews, a brother to four siblings, and family member of 21 people who love and care for him deeply, and have been fighting for him to come home for over 14 years. Prior to and throughout his incarceration and detainment, Karim has always been a youth advocate and has helped young people in his community, including volunteering with Erica Ford’s Life Camp, an organization dedicated to stopping violence in the community. Karim's good character has long been recognized by the Courts as well, which led to him receiving time-served. However, instead of being able to come home to his family and community, Karim was transferred to ICE detention where has been for over 4 years.

Karim is now detained in the Etowah County Detention center in Gadsden, Alabama. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, Karim has been a whistleblower and advocate for better conditions for his fellow detainees who were unjustly exposed to COVID-19 by detention staff. Being at high-risk for serious illness or death if he contracted COVID-19 himself, Karim advocated for more testing, proper health protocols, and medical care for detainees who contracted or were exposed to the virus. In order to raise awareness of the conditions that detainees were facing, Karim spoke with news agency The Intercept and helped break news on the lack of proper medical care and treatment that detainees had in the detention center. However, Karim as well as other detainees were threatened with solitary confinement for requesting to be tested for COVID-19. Karim was put in solitary confinement for almost 2 months and on some days he was not allowed to leave his cell.

Since then, Karim contracted and continues to suffer from COVID. He has gone from extremely healthy to suffering from liver disease, depression, anxiety, high blood pressure. He has been tested for cancer due to high liver enzymes. Despite his rehabilitation and court orders to release detainees at high risk, ICE refuses to release Karim. Karim is a member of a large immigrant family and community who loves and cares for him and who want him to come home. We urge you to help us in our fight to return Karim to his loved ones and his community and free him from ICE detention.

Graphic Design @tommyevich