Georgia grandfather and US military veteran languishing in ICE custody after routine traffic stop, fiancée says: ‘It’s a travesty’
A Jamaica-born U.S. military veteran has spent the last three months at a Georgia detention center in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody, a move that his fiancée described as the U.S. “turning its back” on him.
Godfrey Wade is a father of six children, a grandfather to three grandchildren, and a loving partner to his fiancée April Watkins. What Wade is not, Watkins told The Independent, is an “illegal alien” who “terrorizes Americans,” as the Department of Homeland Security has claimed.
The 65-year-old came to the United States when he was 15 years old. After 50 years in the country he loves, his future in the U.S. is now uncertain after police pulled him over in September for failing to use a turn signal while driving in Conyers, Georgia. Police arrested him after realizing he was driving without a license and ICE took him into custody shortly thereafter. KENS5 first reported his detainment.
He’s being held at Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia, ICE records show.
“I’m very upset. I feel that he came to this country as a teenager, chose to sign up for the army and serve,” Watkins, 49, told The Independent. “At this point, under this administration, it’s like that doesn’t matter.”
“I think it’s a travesty. I think the country is turning its back on people that served,” Watkins said.
At 15, Wade moved to New York with his mother on a green card as a permanent resident. Not long after arriving in the U.S., Wade enlisted in the United States Army and earned commendations for good conduct and wartime service, KENS5 reported.
After his honorable discharge, he earned numerous college degrees and has worked in many roles, including as a master tailor, fashion designer, tennis coach, and chef, Watkins said. The pair got engaged in 2022 and haven’t set a wedding date yet, instead bogged down in paperwork to obtain Wade’s citizenship.
He was in the process of obtaining U.S. citizenship when he was put in ICE custody.
But DHS has painted Wade as a “repeat offender” who should be removed from the U.S.
“His criminal history includes domestic assault, criminal trespass, reckless conduct, deposit account fraud, violation of probation, multiple arrests for driving on a suspended license. In 2014, an immigration judge ordered him removed after he failed to show up for his immigration hearing,” DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told The Independent in a statement. “This repeat offender is now off our streets and no longer able to terrorize Americans.”
DHS has vowed to remove the “worst of the worst” from the U.S. But a review of Wade’s history by The Independent suggests he is a far cry from that description.
From 1993 through 2022, he’s been charged numerous times with driving with a suspended or revoked license.
In 1994, he was charged with deposit account fraud, accused of writing a “worthless check” in the amount of $66.99 to Walmart. In January 2008, he was charged with deposit account fraud for delivering a bad check worth $500 to the Douglas County Tag Office. He was ordered to serve 12 months of probation.
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