“Let Him Go Home: Enforce the Humanitarian Deportation of Juan Rivas (DIN #11A3744)”

Introduction
For more than a decade, Juan Alberto Rivas has lived in limbo between two governments — confined in a New York State prison despite having a final deportation order since July 5, 2012.
He has voluntarily waived all appeals and repeatedly asked to be returned to his homeland, the Dominican Republic, where he has a residence and family support waiting.
Yet instead of being allowed to go home, he has endured brutal mistreatment, deliberate obstruction, and state-sponsored retaliation that cost him his conditional release and his health.

What has happened to Juan is not just a bureaucratic failure — it is a human rights violation that continues to cost both lives and taxpayer dollars.

 
Juan’s Story
Juan Rivas entered the custody of the New York State Department of Corrections years ago. In 2012, he was issued a final order of deportation by an immigration judge.
Since then, Juan has been eligible for deportation and later for conditional release, with his official CR date set for May 21, 2025.

But his path to freedom was violently interrupted.

On October 9, 2024, while housed at Marcy Correctional Facility, Juan was brutally assaulted by multiple correctional officers — Farina, Kessler, Gentile, Anzalone, and Kingsley.
This was not a spontaneous act of misconduct — it was orchestrated retaliation, designed to injure, discredit, and extend his imprisonment.

Juan suffered six fractured ribs with metal plates, a punctured lung, and ligature marks on his neck consistent with strangulation.
Officers later falsified reports to claim he had attempted suicide — a narrative created to justify their violence and prevent his release.

Despite formal grievances and letters to DOCCS, the Inspector General, the Commissioner, and Governor Hochul herself, no corrective action was taken.
Months later, Robert Brooks, another man confined at the same prison, was killed by the same officers named in Juan’s assault — proving what Juan had already exposed:

Marcy Correctional Facility is unsafe, unaccountable, and operating outside the rule of law.
Instead of closure, Marcy remains open. The same system that silenced Juan is now costing lives.

 
The Cost of State Negligence
Juan is not a danger to the community. He is a husband, a brother, and a son — a man who wants to return home and rebuild.
But instead of deporting him under the existing final order (2012), the State has chosen to keep him confined until his maximum expiration date, turning his deportation case into a life sentence without cause.

This decision has not only destroyed his health but also created immense financial and emotional hardship for his wife, Marie Rivas, who is forced to maintain two separate households at a cost of over $6,000 per month.
At the same time, New York taxpayers are funding tens of thousands more to imprison a man who has no active case, no appeal, and no reason to remain in U.S. custody.

 
Legal and Humanitarian Obligations
The law is clear. The Eighth Amendment prohibits “deliberate indifference to serious harm” (Farmer v. Brennan, 511 U.S. 825 (1994)).
Correctional staff who knowingly place a person at risk — or fabricate events to justify that harm — are in direct violation of the Constitution.

Under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, individuals like Juan have the right to be free from assault and to seek remedy for injuries caused by state actors.
Courts have reaffirmed that abuse under color of law and falsified disciplinary action violate both federal and state civil rights statutes.

Additionally, the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA) requires prisoners to exhaust available remedies — but only those that are “available” (Ross v. Blake, 578 U.S. 632 (2016)).
When the grievance process itself is obstructed or retaliatory, as in Juan’s case, the courts have found the exhaustion requirement satisfied.

Internationally, the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (the Mandela Rules) and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 5, forbid torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment.
The continued confinement of a deportable, injured man who has waived all rights to remain in the United States violates both U.S. and international standards of humane treatment.

Fiscal and Moral Responsibility
New York spends over $60,000 per year per incarcerated individual.
The United States is spending millions of dollars confining immigrants with final deportation orders instead of transferring them to ICE for lawful removal.

Juan’s continued detention serves no public safety goal — only the illusion of control over a man the system has already failed.
Allowing him to go home would save taxpayer money, protect his health, and restore integrity to a process that has been broken for too long.

 
Our Demands
We call on ICE, DHS, and DOCCS to take immediate action by:

Enforcing the existing final deportation order (July 5, 2012) without further delay.
Coordinating the immediate transfer of custody from DOCCS to ICE for removal.
Classifying the removal as a humanitarian enforcement, ensuring safe and dignified return to the Dominican Republic.

Investigating the misconduct by officers Farina, Kessler, Gentile, Anzalone, and Kingsley, and others named who were not charged or sentenced whose actions resulted in Juan’s injuries and the later death of Robert Brooks including the nurses.

Closing or federalizing Marcy Correctional Facility to prevent further abuse and loss of life.
 
A Humanitarian Act, Not a Favor
Juan Alberto Rivas has been through more than any man should endure.
He is not asking for clemency — he is asking for what is already his right: to go home.
Every day he remains imprisoned is another day of injustice, another taxpayer dollar wasted, and another failure of conscience.

It is time for the United States to act not as a jailer but as a nation of law, compassion, and accountability.

Let Juan go home.!!!
Sign, share, and demand justice — now.