Tanzania

The family of Innocent Rutahagara Batamula, 59, a longtime Richmond, Texas resident, is calling for his release from an ICE detention facility in Mississippi, where he has been held for nearly three months. Batamula, a Tanzanian citizen who entered the U.S. in 2001 on an F-1 student visa, was taken into ICE custody in July after a Harris County arrest for false emissions inspections that was later dismissed. Rather than being released, he was transferred to ICE custody and eventually moved to a facility hundreds of miles from home.

His family says Batamula had complied with routine ICE check-ins for roughly 14 years, most recently about six weeks before his arrest. They note he was previously granted an Order of Supervision in 2013 and ask why similar terms, such as an ankle monitor, can't be arranged now while his reopened immigration case proceeds. Batamula has a lengthy immigration history, including a 2011 federal conviction for false statements on a passport application and a pending relative petition. Family members say his detention has cut off his income and strained his household, including his wife's health.