Protests as ICE detains disabled Atlanta barber despite state pardon

Barber remains in ICE detention

Family members and advocates for a longtime resident and metro Atlanta barber demanded his release from ICE Detention. Forty-six-year-old Rodney Taylor has lived in this country since his mother brought him here from Liberia at the age of two.

LOGANVILLE, Ga. - Rodney Taylor thought he was living out the American dream. He had his own business and had just proposed to his fiancée when it all came crashing down.

What they're saying:

"There’s a truck that blocked me from the back, two cars come in the front, guns drawn, 'Get out the car, get out the car.' My kids were in the back crying. We didn't know what was going on. It was like a scene from a movie," Mildred Pierre recalled.

Pierre says she will never forget the day ICE agents swooped in front of her Loganville home with guns drawn and arrested her fiancé, Rodney Taylor, back on Jan. 15. His mother brought him from Liberia to America for medical treatment when he was just 2 years old. "Rodney is permanently disabled; he is a double amputee. He needs to come home."

Taylor, who is 46, is a father of seven with his blended family, a successful barber in Gwinnett County, and has lived the American Dream on a work permit. The problem seems to be from a burglary arrest when he was 16. I talked to Taylor from his Stewart Detention Center cell on Wednesday. He said since the Georgia Board of Pardons and Parole pardoned him for the burglary in 2010, he thought the matter was taken care of.

"I thought I had a pardon from the state. It was all behind me in the past. They brought it up, and it was shocking to me," Taylor said.

His family says he has suffered at Stewart Detention Center for 160 days because his prosthetics were too small. "It's like skin rubbing—skin rubbing on skin on plastic. It's a constant rub. It's chafing, and every step hurts."

Wednesday's protest rallied for his release. His attorney says all three of his residency requests have been denied, and his deportation hearing is scheduled for next week. "Mr. Taylor has a conviction, that's true, but it was pardoned. It was pardoned, and moreover, he was only sentenced to probation and time served. He should not be subject to this type of detention. ICE has the ability to release all of them at their discretion," Taylor's attorney, Sarah Owings, explained.

What's next:

Taylor's fiancé says he will die if deported, because Liberia does not have the medical resources to take care of him. ICE tells FOX 5 News that Taylor's pardon was not a full pardon, so he does not qualify to get residency status.