FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

January 19, 2025

MEDIA CONTACT: 

e: jessica.myers@mail.house.gov

c: 202.913.0126

Washington, D.C. — Today, Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke (NY-09) issued the following statement on President Biden’s pardon of immigrant rights advocate Ravi Ragbir, who was convicted of a nonviolent offense in 2001 and has faced the threat of deportation since:

“Thank you to President Biden for his moral and just decision to issue Ravi Ragbir his long-deserved, long-awaited pardon. At a time when immigrants across America are fearing for their futures in this country, it brings me great relief to know one of their most devoted champions will be permitted to continue his critical work that has, for years, bettered their lives and furthered their equitable treatment under the law. 

“Despite suffering more than two decades of inhumane instability and uncertainty at the hands of our nation’s broken immigration system, Ravi never wavered in his fight to ensure every immigrant in America is treated with the fairness, dignity, and respect they deserve. Truly, his career has been defined in his unyielding advocacy and efforts on behalf of the rights of all immigrants across America. I was proud to serve as a longtime leader in the national movement to secure his pardon, just as I am proud today to say we have succeeded in that essential mission.

“As Mr. Ragbir begins his next chapter, free from persecution and free to continue the critical work that has improved the lives of countless individuals and families in this country, I look forward to witnessing the new heights he can achieve unburdened by this hardship that has too long loomed above his head. I thank him for his service to our nation’s most vulnerable communities, and I pledge to always stand at his side and the side of our immigrant neighbors when injustice threatens their American Dream.”

###