COLD, DARK CUSTODY

The conditions inside the Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facilities in the United States will bring even a seasoned military veteran to tears, and for 65-year-old Godfrey Wade, the decorated US ex-soldier deported to Jamaica a week ago, for almost six months tears came nightly.

But it wasn't the inhumane and unsanitary conditions on the inside or the 'specialised security' he received as his story grew widespread on social media that jerked him. Neither was it the bloodletting between factions, nor the numbing solitude of confinement after his Bible was confiscated as 'contraband'.

What hurt the most, he explained, was the severance of routine interactions with his relatives, a thought that once again brought the elder to tears as he spoke with The Sunday Gleaner. It was one of two times he cried during the interview — the other came as he reflected on his military past, some too dark to speak of publicly, he noted.

"People think ICE is just detention; it's not. There are a lot of things you have to pay attention to in order to survive... . Now, in Jamaica, I get to wake up on my own," he said, contrasting St Mary's lush hillsides and the fury he endured for six months in the US.

"You don't wake up on your own in detention. You don't get to eat or go to sleep on your own in detention. The small things that we take for granted are taken away from us. It could be just the choice of what to wear," he said matter-of-factly, explaining that during his stay at two institutions, the detainees' clothing were replaced with uniforms and footwear.

"If you get punished and you are in segregation, you are in a dark cell by yourself. That can be mentally taxing," he continued, thankful he was never subjected to that during his stay.

"I got six months. It's better than the guy who is doing nine months, but I got friends in there who are doing three years." he noted with concern.

"ICE is really pushing the envelope of what's constitutional, and people are so rattled that by the time they get free of ICE they don't even want to talk about it."

According to a CBS news report earlier this month, Wade's life changed after he was pulled over for failing to use a turn signal in Conyers, Georgia, and subsequently arrested for driving without a licence. After the arrest, "ICE detained him due to a removal order stemming from a 2007 bounced cheque and a 2006 simple assault charge".

His legal team has argued that there was no physical violence associated with the assault charge, and that he has since paid the bounced cheque and related fines, the report stated.

"ICE cited a removal order from over a decade ago after officials said Wade did not show up for a hearing in 2014. Court records show hearing notices sent to an address used by ICE were returned as undeliverable. Wade's attorney says the Covington man was unaware of the removal order until his arrest," the report read.

Last week, Wade classified himself as a 'super soldier', nicknamed 'Sergeant Rock' by his peers in the Army because of how he carried himself and related professionally to peers, he explained with pride. He shared evidence of his military awards, noting his work in the sniper brigade and other outfits.

Last week, he accepted his misdoings and, with remorse, said he only wants a day in court to explain his situation. At the same time, he argued that neither he nor anyone else is deserving of the treatment meted out at the detention facilities. He said detention became more stringent as his story spread online through his daughters, who set up a GoFundMe account while he was detained.

Wade recalled a harrowing trip from the Stewart Detention Center in Georgia, where he was held for five months, to the Richmond Correctional Facility in Munroe, Louisiana, where he spent two weeks before being deported. That relocation started at 10 p.m. the night before with 'outprocessing', where inmates turned in their allotted gear and cleared any monies from their books, he said.

There were 43 men and 15 women on that trip, which got under way at 2 a.m., he said, noting that "before you can get on the bus, they put the ankle chains on you, and a belly chain; and that is attached to your wrist handcuffs. That is how you are transported for the next 15 hours," he said, wincing as he recalled the discomfort of the apparatuses and the biting cold, wearing shorts and a light top on the journey.

Three hours to the airport in Georgia, and then a plane to the holding facility in Louisiana. From there, for the next 14 days, he awaited his flight, which stopped in Miami and picked up more deportees before heading to Jamaica.

"There were two sets of people on that flight; there were 80 Jamaicans in the back, and 60 Bahamians in the front. There were also at least 15 ICE officers and security hostesses," he explained, adding that he was filled with anxiety during the trip, but overjoyed upon landing in Jamaica.

Many times in custody he felt like giving up, he offered.

"There was a lot of days I felt that way, and my family had to talk me down. I had days I had to fight for my life, my head on a swivel because people were stealing from me, people on drugs, people whose way of life is different. You are in close proximity to these individuals," he said, noting that there was no appeasement for people who stayed to themselves. They were targets.

"These things are happening, but they are not telling the public. But they need to know, because I got brothers who are still back there with no idea when they are going to get out, and don't have the opportunity to articulate it like I do."

Years wasted

Wade migrated to the US at age 15, arriving with his mother on a green card in 1975.

He entered the Army because he was into fashion and fitness and liked the uniform, and the physical endurance that came with it.

Over his eight-year career — the majority of which he was stationed in Germany, he worked as a logistic specialist in the sniper/sharpshooter brigade, which earned him a wartime veteran medal, an overseas service medal, and a US Army commendation medal, among others.

After being honourably discharged in 1992, he pursued several careers, and is also well known in the Georgia and Florida tennis communities where, in former years, he was ranked among the top 10 players in the states, winning several awards. He loved his time in the military, and loves the US, where he has raised his daughters and grandchildren. However some things about the country's policies do not sit well with him.

"A lot of people are tearing me up online saying, 'Well, he had 52 years in the country, it's a given, they are giving you citizenship, why didn't you take it?' Well, watch this, it is not that easy. When you think about the things that we are involved with on a day-to-day [basis], my conscience couldn't answer those questions," he sought to explain.

"I did a lot of things in the military that I cannot really say...," said a distraught Wade, wiping tears from his eyes, before continuing. "I did a lot of things; four different continents, a lot of deployments, and while, in my time, there wasn't a full-blown war, America was in a lot of conflicts."

He cited the deadly 'Operation Urgent Fury' in Grenada and several secret operations in Eastern Europe as deployments in which he was involved. The experiences have left some of his colleagues with mental and physical illnesses. Having travelled all over the world with his military ID, Wade said he thought he could have kept his "dual citizenship".

"The necessity of being a citizen, I welcome it, but I am really just put in a position where I don't have a choice. That's the best way I can answer. My children and my family mean everything to me, and I left [behind] a lot of good people in the US," he said, noting that, ultimately, he would like to be able to visit the US to stay close to his family, and having been deported prevents that.

Already, Wade said he has spent more than US$15,000 in legal fees, and his attorneys are fighting hard to have him back in the US, organising petitions and securing support from political representatives in that country.

A week back in Jamaica, and Wade said he has not yet started to miss life in the US. He had not been back to his "mother country" in 30 years, and during the first couple of days home he binged on patties, one of his local loves.

He now lives at his uncle's property in Port Maria, St Mary, and has spent several days rekindling connections with relatives and long-time friends, as well as putting the foundation of his 10-year plan into play. Coaching tennis in Jamaica may be part of that plan, he said, though he believes his health has taken a nosedive since incarceration.

corey.robinson@gleanerjm.com