After seventeen months of incarceration, Slick Rick is expected to be released from the INS detention center in Bradenton, Florida. On Friday, Judge Kimba Wood reversed the decision the Bureau of Immigration Affairs made in which deporting Slick Rick also known as Ricky Waters back to the U.K was made.
Having never converted to a United States Citizen, after serving two and a half years and five months for attempted murder, Rick violated the law requiring foreign citizens who commit a crime to be deported. Despite the outpouring of support when he was incarcerated after his performance on a cruise ship from Will Smith, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Chris Rock and Rep. John Conyers (D- Mich.), Slick Rick was still considered a flight risk so they kept him in jail. “We always knew our arguments had merit and we’re pleased that Judge Wood agrees with us,” Slick Rick’s lawyer Alex Solomiany said in a statement. “The government was determined to deport Rick, but we were just as determined to keep him here because of a 1991 conviction for attempted murder”.
