First hurdle cleared

NEW YORK, USA — The Georgia-based attorney who says he was inspired to run for a seat in the United States Congress to help deportees like Jamaican Godfrey Wade has cleared the first hurdle, winning the Democratic Party’s primary in the state’s 7th Congressional District. Tony Kozycki, an immigration lawyer, said he was disgusted by the system when he represented Jamaican-born US veteran Godfrey Wade and discovered how difficult it was to get him his day in court for a repaid bounced cheque and an unproven assault charge 12 years ago. Wade, who lived legally in the US for 50 years, served overseas in the military and was honourably discharged.

After being flagged for the offences he was deported to Jamaica earlier this year. Kozycki has since been fighting the case, with little success. Asked for an update on the case, the attorney told the Jamaica Observer, which carried the deportation story, that there had not been any major new legal developments or petitions filed on Wade’s behalf.

“However, we have not given up, as I still believe Godfrey deserves the opportunity to return to the United States and have his case heard fairly. We continue to advocate for him and remain committed to seeing him receive the process he deserves,” said Kozycki. Jamaican-born US military veteran who lived in America legally for 50 years before being deported “Wade’s case did more than expose a broken immigration system, it exposed a failure of representation by Rich McCormick,” Kozycki added.

McCormick is the Republican attorney, an incumbent whom Kozycki will face in the midterm elections for the Georgia 7th Congressional District, after snagging the Democratic Party nomination by polling 19,742 or 40 per cent of the votes against nearest rival Case Norton’s 11,036 or 22.3 per cent. The other two contestants polled a combined 36,000 votes in the May 2026 primary. Kozycki returned to defeat filmmaker Norton in the run-off, after garnering 11,667 to Norton’s 5,561 votes.

Kozycki accused McCormick of failing to provide adequate representation for Wade. Both he and Wade have consistently maintained that notices for the Jamaican to attend a hearing were never received, due to problems with an address used by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE), which they say courts records show. Moreover, restitution of the bounced cheque and…