The story of Godfrey Wade, the US Army veteran who has been deported after 50 years in the country: “It’s hear

The story of Godfrey Wade captures, almost perfectly, the complicated reality the United States is facing around immigration and deportations.
Born and raised in Jamaica, Wade moved legally to the U.S. as a teenager and built an entirely new life. More than 50 years later — after serving honorably in the U.S. Army — he was deported without ever getting the chance to reopen his case or defend himself before a judge.
Wade had been living in Covington, Georgia, working for decades in a wide range of jobs, from chef to tennis coach to fashion designer. He built a large family of six children, later welcomed three grandchildren, and shared his life with his fiancée, April Watkins. He was fully integrated into American society and, by all accounts, deeply happy.
Everything changed in September 2025, when he was stopped for a minor traffic violation. That encounter triggered an old deportation order issued in 2014 — tied to a bounced check from 2007 and a domestic dispute charge from 2006 that, according to Wade, never involved physical violence.