Federal officials plan to deport a 78-year-old priest who has lived in Colorado for more than two decades, despite humanitarian concerns regarding his health and fear of persecution in Uganda.

Edward Nalwamba, a citizen of Uganda, has lived in the U.S. for more than 25 years. He retired two years ago after working as a priest at the Resurrection Anglican Fellowship in Greenwood Village for about 15 years, according to Philip Eberhart, the founding pastor at the church.

Before U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested Nalwamba in September, he worked full-time caring for a person with developmental disabilities. He lived in the family’s home and took the person he cared for to church with him regularly, Eberhart said.

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Eberhart said Nalwamba is “an incredible individual” who is “much loved by our community.” Dozens of members of the church and neighboring churches Nalwamba worked with have sent letters to ICE urging the agency to release him. He was on his way to help with in-home care for another person with developmental disabilities when ICE arrested him, Eberhart said.

Nalwamba first came to the U.S. for a religious conference in January 2002, but stayed after his visa authorization expired because colleagues in Uganda expressed fear that his life would be in danger, since government agents were looking for him, Joy Athanasiou, one of his immigration attorneys, said. Nalwamba had previously testified in immigration hearings that he publicly condemned human rights abuses by the Ugandan government.

The U.S. Department of State has a “do not travel” advisory for Uganda due to crime, health, terrorism and unrest.

A federal judge on Tuesday denied his habeas corpus petition — a legal mechanism that challenges wrongful detention — because ICE scheduled his deportation for as early as June 30, according to the judge’s ruling. Habeas corpus petitions are often granted when someone’s deportation is not likely to occur in the reasonably foreseeable future.

He had been under supervised release since 2011, which “proceeded without incident,” according to the judge’s ruling. Athanasiou said he complied with all requirements of his supervised release. But ICE arrested him in September and determined he was subject to “a final order of removal.”

ICE’s Denver Field Office did not respond to questions from Newsline about Nalwamba’s case prior to publication.

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President Donald Trump dramatically broadened the scope of ICE operations since he returned to office last year, seeking to carry out the “largest domestic deportation operation in American history.” ICE officers have arrested immigrants without permanent legal status across the U.S., regardless of how long they have been in the country, the legal status of their family members or whether they have criminal records.

Last month, a federal judge ruled that ICE officers in Colorado have continued to make warrantless arrests in violation of federal law and a November injunction ordering the agency to stop.

Since he has been in custody at the ICE detention center in Aurora, Nalwamba has become extremely malnourished, contracted pneumonia and other respiratory illnesses, and is now wheelchair-bound, according to Athanasiou. He collapsed in January because of ongoing health issues and was treated in the detention center’s infirmary for about 10 days. He was never able to go to a hospital or receive rehabilitation to build back his strength, she said.

Nalwamba went into ICE custody “a strong 77-year-old,” Eberhart said. He has visited Nalwamba while in custody as recently as last week.

Even since Nalwamba first left Uganda, active threats to his life continue, according to Eberhart and Athanasiou. Eberhart has spoken with Nalwamba’s daughter, who, about a decade ago, had men come to her dorm room in Uganda asking about her father’s whereabouts.

‘Truly in fear’

The judge’s ruling on Nalwamba’s habeas corpus petition outlined details about Nalwamba’s extensive immigration proceedings in the U.S. Athanasiou learned about much of Nalwamba’s history through his own written summaries, conversations with him, court rulings, and his original asylum application, which his legal team only received about a week ago. His attorneys have not been able to review the majority of his file despite requesting it in full through the Freedom of Information Act, Athanasiou said.

Nalwamba wanted to file for political asylum after learning about threats to his life, but the attorney he hired at the time did not submit his application before the one-year deadline required by U.S. immigration law, according to Athanasiou. He didn’t learn that his attorney did not submit the application until it was too late, and Athanasiou said “a long and arduous” case has continued for Nalwamba since.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security first initiated removal proceedings for Nalwamba in 2004, according to the judge’s order. He missed an immigration court hearing in October 2005, which resulted in an order for his deportation. He appealed and was able to apply for asylum again, and his application was denied.

The immigration judge who denied his asylum claim found that Nalwamba’s interactions with the Ugandan government — which Athanasiou said included “him being abducted and interrogated, and threatened” — were not serious enough to constitute persecution.

His case ended up before the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, based in Denver, and was again denied in April 2010, making his order for removal final. Nalwamba still did not leave the U.S., and ICE officers arrested him in November 2010. He was in custody for about eight months before ICE released him in 2011.

Asylum laws in the U.S. are “extraordinarily complex,” Athanasiou said.

“So even people like Pastor Nalwamba, who are very deserving and are truly in fear of their lives, they lose their case at immigration court,” she said.

His legal team is urging ICE to stop Nalwamba’s deportation, which Athanasiou said the agency has the authority to do. The agency should consider his health, the danger returning to Uganda presents, and his time as “an exemplary resident” in the U.S. for 25 years.

“They exercised this discretion for decades, actually, throughout the history of our immigration laws,” Athanasiou said. “They would routinely exercise discretion in meritorious cases, and it’s just been in the last year, or a little over a year now, where they’ve just completely stopped, almost universally.”

Nalwamba’s current circumstance is something Eberhart said he’s been trying to avoid for the last decade.

“I’m pretty fed up with the immigration system in general,” Eberhart said. “We deal a lot with our Ugandan friends, especially because of Edward, and because we’ve had other Ugandan priests that have been on staff with me. I’ve been to Uganda five times myself. There’s a relationship in that community with us, and he’s a core part of that.”

Community and church members plan to hold a vigil for Nalwamba at 4 p.m. Saturday, outside of the ICE detention center in Aurora.