HIP-HOP music and federal immigration policy don't often appear in the same sentence or even on the same page of many newspapers. Under the absurdities of government bureaucracy, however, one never knows what miracles may materialize.
For the past 17 months, the Immigration and Naturalization Service has incarcerated the platinum rap star Ricky "Slick Rick" Walters in a federal detention center without any apparent good reason and without trial by a jury of his peers. Walters technically is not a U.S. citizen, even though he has lived in the Bronx, New York, for the past 27 years. For shame, the U.S. government has exploited this technicality to deprive Walters of his liberty without due process of law for a year and a half. In a country that prides itself on individual freedom and basic human rights, this is not only unacceptable but also hypocritical. The circumstances of Walters' case are deeply troubling, especially insofar as they illustrate the inhumanity of our nation's larger immigration policy in the still-powerful wake of September 11.
Walters' troubles began when he served five years for attempted murder in the early 1990s. He shot a man, who he claimed had extorted money from him and threatened his family's life. Excuses aside, this was an egregious act on Walters' part, but he has since done his time in prison and thereby repaid his debt to society. Under federal law, non-citizens may be deported if they are convicted of a crime. In 1996, however, government officials decided not to deport Walters. They cited his long residency in the Bronx, his children's well-being, his successful recording career, his charity work and a number of other factors.
In the early summer of 2002, Walters left the country to go on a Caribbean cruise, during which he performed for his fellow passengers. Upon his return to the United States, in the midst of a post-Sept. 11 "crackdown," INS agents seized him and threw him in prison on charges of illegally re-entering the country. At the time, his wife and children thought there had been a mistake, and that "he'd be home within days" ("Slick Rick may slide from feds' grip soon," New York Post, Nov. 4). No such luck. Walters sat in jail until a few months later, in December of 2002, when a federal judge temporarily blocked his deportation and agreed to review his case. Since then, the judge has been slowly considering the case while Walters has remained in jail
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