US citizen sues Florida sheriff after he wrongfully detained and nearly deported to Jamaica

A Florida man is suing the top cop in the Florida Keys, claiming the sheriff wrongly arrested him on a federal immigration hold.

Peter Sean Brown said he was three days away from being deported to Jamaica, even though he was born in Philadelphia.

He blames Monroe County Sheriff Rick Ramsay.

“It was a very powerless situation,” Brown said outside the federal courthouse in downtown Miami. “As a citizen, you don’t think it is really possible, because that’s everything against what we are raised to believe that our country stands for."

The saga dates back to 2018 when Brown, who was on probation from a previous arrest, failed a drug test and reported to the Monroe County Jail on a probation violation. Brown assumed he would be quickly release, but was told by the Monroe County Sheriff's Office that he was going remain jailed after the office received an immigration detainer for him from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Brown learned he would be deported to Jamaica, a country he visited once on a cruise. Brown repeatedly asserted he was a U.S. citizen, born in Philadelphia and raised in New Jersey, and claimed they had the "wrong guy" — claims that were ignored by jail officers.

A 19-page complaint against Monroe County jailers accuse staffers of mocking him, telling him in a Jamaican accent that "everything was gonna be alright." It also claims officer sang him the theme song to the TV show "The Fresh Prince of Belair" — which includes the lyrics "West Philadelphia born and raised." The complaint alleges officers told Brown that they didn't care about what evidence he had to prove his citizenship because if ICE wanted to deport him, "they would oblige."

After spending weeks in lock up, and with several appeals ignored, Brown was transferred to an ICE facility in Miami. It was there an immigration officer agreed to look at his birth certificate and realized he was a U.S. citizen.

“Clearly, the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office is responsible,” said AJ Hernandez Anderson with the Southern Poverty Law Center.

She’s representing Brown along with lawyers from the ACLU.

“They didn't do anything based on Mr. Brown’s statements and explanations that he was a U.S. citizen,” Hernandez Anderson said.

Ramsay’s attorney explained that local law enforcement agencies only need three immigration documents, including a warrant and a removal order, to hold an inmate on an ICE detainer.

“When you have those three things present….there is no law that requires you to investigate further,” attorney Andrew Jolly told the judge.  

Jolly, who is representing Sheriff Ramsay, told the judge ICE had bad information and the sheriff had nothing to do with it.

Brown’s lawyer argued the sheriff didn’t take even one step to look into the misidentification, and holding him for ICE was a violation of the U.S. Constitution’s Fourth Amendment, protecting against unreasonable searches and seizures.

Brown said the third ICE agent he came in contact with listened to his story and started the ball rolling on clearing up the misidentification. 

The matter came to a speedy end when a picture of Brown’s birth certificate was sent to ICE officials.

“I would never have thought that I was going to be three days from deportation to an area that I went to on a cruise once,” Brown said.