DETROIT, MI — Davona Williams, a Manchester resident who was taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in August, has been granted bond by Detroit Immigration Court Judge Mark J. Jebson in a hearing held on Wednesday morning.
Bond was set at $7,500 according to attorney Christopher Worth, a visiting assistant professor with the Center for Justice Reform at Vermont Law and Graduate School, which is representing Williams.
According to a press release distributed by Vermont Law and Graduate School (VLGS) on Wednesday afternoon, Judge Jebson found that Williams is neither a danger to the community nor a flight risk after hearing arguments from her counsel and a trial attorney with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). After Jebson granted the motion for release, the DHS waived appeal of the decision.
Once Williams is released from custody, the Center for Justice Reform will be filing a motion for change of venue to the Chelmsford Immigration Court in Massachusetts, which is expected to be granted according to the VLGS release. Before the Chelmsford Court, attorneys will be assisting Williams in pursuing a number of applications for relief from removal.
Williams will be released in Detroit, but efforts to transport her back to Vermont are currently being coordinated by the Rutland Area National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), according to president Mia Schultz.
“This is just one step of many more,” Schultz said. “I'm just so glad and grateful she's going to be reunited with her children. It's really been a hard situation for her and the children. Obviously, anytime the kids are separated from the mother, it's gonna be hard, and we've all been feeling it.”
To date, a GoFundMe campaign coordinated by the Rutland Area NAACP in support of Williams and her family has raised $25,265, which will support the bond cost, transportation costs associated with bringing Williams back to Vermont, and continued support for the family members initially left behind – including three school-age children.
Williams, originally from the island nation of Jamaica, had been employed locally as a home health aide prior to her detainment.
“This family is going to continue to need support,” Schultz explained. “That money has been used to care for the kids, to transport them all over, to make sure that their medical needs are still being met, and to continue paying the bills in her house. She's not been able to work. And so we've been using that money to maintain her life so that she can have the smoothest transition back when she comes.”
Williams was transferred to North Lake Processing Center in Baldwin, Michigan following her removal from the Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility in Vermont on Sept. 2. Williams was first arrested by ICE on Aug. 25 when returning home to Manchester’s Torrey Knoll neighborhood.
Though Williams was in the process of obtaining legal status, according to Worth, she was taken into custody under a prior removal order issued in 2013. Soon after, a stay for deportation was approved by Judge Mark Donovan with the Boston Immigration Court, which is an official order that temporarily stops the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from removing an individual from the United States. A motion to reopen the prior removal order was also filed with the court, which facilitated Wednesday’s bond hearing.
Prior to the bond hearing, the Rutland Area NAACP contacted community members asking them to join the proceedings online in support of Williams. According to Schultz, so many supporters joined the hearing that the video call crashed. Williams’ attorney, Worth, estimated the number of supporters to be approximately 69 people.
“While we weren't able to witness it together, the profound effect that it had on this case actually helped so that she could get this determination from the court,” Schultz said. “Our community really, really showed up. I think everybody is grateful for that, and we're going to continue to need support from the community when she returns.”
In the press release distributed by VLGS, Worth said he “is thankful to Davona’s neighbors and family for their overwhelming support for Davaona, proud of the excellent work done on the case by the CJRC student-clinician, Beatrice Hamel-Davis, and overjoyed that Davona will soon be returning home to Vermont to be reunited with her family and the Manchester community who have missed her dearly.”