Join Bnai Keshet and Faith in Essex for a peaceful, multi-faith action in front of the Newark Hall of Records, 465 MLK Blvd, on Thursday, August 29 at 10am, to demand a meaningful response from the county following Faruk Karimu’s alleged abuse at the Essex County Correctional Facility and subsequent deportation.
Karimu, a Bronx taxi driver, was deported to Ghana last week without prior warning and despite an ongoing criminal investigation into allegations he was beaten and raped by corrections officers at Newark’s Essex County Correctional Facility. Deporting him violated federal law forbidding “any alien needed in the United States in connection with any investigation” from leaving the country, his lawyers argue.
Karimu, 40, who had been in the United States for 13 years, was arrested and taken to Essex after a regularly scheduled check-in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement in May. Ten days later, he had a dispute with Essex corrections officers over not getting enough time to call family, he said. He was handcuffed and taken to solitary confinement, where two officers allegedly assaulted and raped him, and also, he claims, penetrated him with an unknown object, possibly a pen. Click for more details of Karimu’s story.
If you’re unable to attend Thursday’s action, or even if you can, organizers ask the community to call or email Joe DiVincenzo’s office (Joseph DiVincenzo 973-621-4400 / joedi@admin.essexcountynj.org) to condemn Essex County Correctional Facility’s poor treatment of ICE detainees.