Dutch-born U.S. green card holder to be deported over teen cocaine and marijuana charges

A Dutch-born U.S. permanent resident who has held a green card for nearly four decades is facing deportation after being detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) over drug charges from his teenage years, according to Newsweek.

Owen Romann Ramsingh, 48, immigrated to Missouri from the Netherlands in 1986 and has reportedly been a lawful permanent resident since. He was brought to the U.S. at age 5 by his mother, who later married an American serviceman, cutting off all contact between Ramsingh and his father in the Netherlands. Following a teenage arrest in Nebraska, Ramsingh later reconnected with his father, and the two have remained close ever since.

Ramsingh was taken into ICE custody on September 27 at O’Hare Airport in Chicago, after traveling with his friend Robert Olson starting September 2. The trip included visits to Amsterdam, Limburg, and Antwerp in Belgium, with Olson returning a week earlier.

The detention followed previous convictions for cocaine and marijuana possession, dating back to when Ramsingh was 16. His only conviction on record is for a 1998 charge related to cocaine possession in Nebraska, when he was 17, for which he pleaded guilty as a teen and was tried as an adult. He was also ticketed for possession of less than an ounce of marijuana in Nebraska in 2000 and paid a 100-dollar fine.

That charge was considered a minor civil infraction at the time and was not commonly prosecuted as a misdemeanor for first-time offenders. Another marijuana conviction in Boone County, Missouri, in 2011 was later expunged, according to his family.

A federal judge ruled that Ramsingh’s 1999 felony conviction could be classified as an aggravated felony, which allows for a lifetime ban from the United States. ICE officials said the convictions made him eligible for deportation.

“This criminal alien is in ICE custody pending removal proceedings,” Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security, told Newsweek. “A green card is a privilege, not a right, and under our nation’s laws, our government has the authority to revoke a green card if our laws are broken and abused.”

Ramsingh was initially held in a temporary facility in Broadview, Illinois, a western suburb of Chicago, for 80 hours before being transferred to a detention center in El Paso, Texas. The ICE website cautioned that some information may be outdated due to a political stalemate in Washington, D.C., which led to a federal government shutdown affecting funding for many services.

Attorneys consulted by the family said stepchildren of U.S. citizens may have the same rights as biological children under immigration law, which could provide Ramsingh a claim to citizenship.

Ramsingh’s family maintains the charges are decades old and that he has “never broken any immigration laws.” “From the moment Owen was taken into custody, we fought with everything we had because we needed to know we did absolutely everything possible to bring him home,” his wife, Diana Ramsingh, told Newsweek. “The truth is that Immigration and Customs Enforcement had already made up their minds. If people could truly look at life through someone else’s eyes, really look, we might have a kinder world. Instead, the systems in place refuse to see our humanity. Anyone who knows Owen knows he is one of the best human beings to walk this earth.”

Family members reported crowded conditions, limited access to his CPAP machine and daily medication, as well as high costs for brief phone calls. According to his wife, calls cost 50 dollars for 15 minutes.

A GoFundMe page supporting his family states there are “no real beds” in the detention facility and that phone calls are limited to 15 minutes at a cost exceeding 50 dollars. At the time of writing, the page is 91 percent funded, raising 27,249 dollars of a 30,000 dollar goal from 458 donations.

Documents reviewed by KBIA confirm Ramsingh had timely filed his green card renewal application before it expired in March, which automatically extended his status for 36 months and allowed continued work and travel while processing.

Ramsingh works as head of security at two Columbia music venues and as a property manager. Samantha Gage, who organized the GoFundMe campaign, said the conviction occurred when Ramsingh was 16 and tried as an adult without legal representation or guidance. “One choice made 30 years ago does not justify the inhumane treatment Owen is enduring now,” she said. She clarified that the family did not know he had been tried as an adult or that it would resurface, emphasizing Ramsingh’s role as a husband, father, and community member.

Referring to Ramsingh as “a stand-up guy that does not deserve to be where he’s at right now,” Olson highlighted Ramsingh’s character and contributions to the community.

While his deportation case is pending, Ramsingh’s family must manage without his income. The family plans to relocate to the Netherlands if deportation proceeds, citing his decades-long ties to Missouri and his contributions to the local community. Supporters are calling for letters to courts and elected officials, urging his release and reconsideration of the decades-old conviction.