After 50 years in the United States and 30 years living in Georgia, a U.S. veteran has been sent back to Jamaica after missing an immigration hearing.
Godfrey Wade, an honorably discharged veteran of the 7th Infantry of the U.S. Army, has been deported following his almost six-month detention at the Richmond Correctional Center in Louisiana.
The father of six children, fiancé, tailor, chef, tennis coach and permanent resident had been detained following a traffic stop due to a removal order in place from 2014, when Wade failed to appear at an immigration hearing. However, Wade has affirmed that he never received notice of this hearing due to an address change.
Wade was living in Covington, Georgia, at the time and said he was not aware of the hearing issue until he was detained. While in detention, Wade’s legal team focused on appealing his hearing, but following his recent deportation, this may become even more challenging.
“I’m a true-blue American, a large American guy, and I love this country very much,” Wade said in a phone interview earlier this spring.
Closer Look: ICE Deportations
Under the previous administration, President Joseph Biden had issued an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) directive that protected noncitizen veterans and returned them to their families. The Trump administration has since rescinded this directive following his inauguration in January of 2025, even though over 40,000 foreign nationals serve in the Armed Forces, and over 115,000 veterans are foreign nationals.
As ICE raids become more frequent, Wade’s case may not be an anomaly. A letter to Congress estimated that more than 10,000 veterans have faced deportation. Non-citizen veterans throughout the country may be facing detention and deportation.
“And when you are a veteran, you’re an immigrant veteran, which means that you went the extra mile to serve in a country that was not your native country,” April Watkins, Wade’s fiancée, said in an interview.
That’s a big deal, you know, that is definitely a big deal.”
Wade’s Family Experience
Wade has struggled with being away from his family. Watkins and Wade met in 2019 at the Braves stadium, where Wade worked as a chef while Watkins was volunteering with her sorority. Watkins said he got her attention during the 10 days they had together and that they bonded over Scrabble, a word-based board game.
“It’s been about 143 days since we last touched each other,” said Watkins.
Alongside the emotional strain of being separated, the financial strain is also causing stress for this family and many others like them. Watkins and Wade spoke at least once a day, using the pay-per-minute phone service offered at the detention center. At the Richmond Correctional Center in Richwood, Louisiana, Watkins paid $3.15 for each 15-minute phone call.
Additionally, with efforts focused on getting Wade out of detention, managing a household alongside regular expenses is difficult. But to Watkins, the worst part is the anxiety. Not knowing what comes next, where he may be when she wakes up in the morning.
Time in Detention Centers
The year Godfrey spent six months in detention, 2025, was the deadliest year in over 20 years, with 32 people dying in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody.
According to the American Immigration Council, a nonpartisan organization dedicated to bringing about change for immigrants in the U.S., as immigration operations become more fervent, centers become more crowded, leading to horrific conditions due to capacity concerns.
“He went 48 hours with no water during the ice storm in Louisiana. So they had no drinking water, no bathing water, no toilet water,” said Watkins.
Can you imagine that for two days, and you have over 1,000 people in this facility?”
In a FOIA request by TRAC (Transaction Records Access Clearinghouse), an organization that provides citizens with pertinent government information, it was shown that the Richwood Correctional Center, where Wade had been, has a capacity of 1,000 occupants and is currently over that limit.
Now that Wade is in Jamaica, Watkins plans to continue her efforts to raise awareness and bring him back home to his family, but the process has become even more prolonged.
Yet, they have not lost hope.
“One day at a time,” Wade said.
Katherine Fivgas is a journalism major in the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication.
