He will now be able to go through the asylum process while living with his sponsors and with support from a local community that has come to his defense.

Imprisoned for Seeking Safety

Ansly had been an ethics and math teacher in Haiti. His troubles began when he spoke out against corruption in Haitian politics. While he was leading a youth seminar, he referred to a local government official as someone who works with gangs to terrorize the people. Later that day, he was attacked by members of “La Meezorequin,” a well-armed gang that supported the official. Threatened with death, he fled Haiti and sought asylum at the U.S. border in California in October 2016.

During his imprisonment, Ansly became a plaintiff in two lawsuits brought by the American Civil Liberties Union.

The first was a class-action lawsuit filed in March 2018 challenging the Trump administration’s arbitrary detention of asylum seekers fleeing persecution, torture, or death in their countries of origin. The Department of Homeland Security’s policy states that asylum seekers should be released from detention while their cases are processed, provided they do not pose a flight risk or danger. The lawsuit identified five ICE field offices that have almost entirely stopped granting parole to asylum seekers since Donald Trump took office. On July 2, a federal judge in Washington, D.C. ordered ICE to re-review each denial and provide individualized parole reviews going forward. Since then, 460 asylum seekers have been released on parole as a result.

Ansly, however, remained behind bars. When ICE denied Ansly’s application for parole on Aug. 8, the only explanation given was three checked boxes on a form letter, saying “You have not established to ICE’s satisfaction that you are not a flight risk”; “You did not establish, to ICE’s satisfaction, substantial ties to the community”; and “Imposition of bond or other conditions of parole would not ensure, to ICE’s satisfaction, your appearance at required immigration hearings pending the outcome of your case.”

“A Radical Welcome”

The box about lack of community ties struck Melody Hart and Gary Benjamin, a married couple from Cleveland Heights, as completely wrong. They met Ansly in January 2018, when they agreed to sponsor him during his asylum process. As part of Ansly’s parole application, they had written a letter explaining how they had come to know Ansly through weekly visits at the Geauga County jail where they talked to him on closed circuit TV and the letters they exchanged up to three times a week. They described him as “a kind and gentle man who has done no wrong” and assured ICE that they have “sufficient resources and income to provide for his housing, food, utilities, clothing, and care while he awaits being granted asylum.”

They also explained that they were not alone. In fact, they had formed a support group of about “a dozen people who have been working diligently on providing support to Ansly, funding his jail account, donating books to the jail library, etc.” They called themselves “Ansly’s Army.”