Amnesty: Prisoner moved in retaliation

PORT ISABEL, Texas, June 9 (UPI) -- A U.S. prisoner was transferred from a Texas facility to one in Louisiana in retaliation for being outspoken about alleged abuses of immigrants, advocates say.

Rama Carty, 39, a legal permanent U.S. resident jailed at the Port Isabel Detention Center for a drug conviction, was suddenly transferred to another jail as investigators from Amnesty International arrived to look into his claims of human rights violations, Amnesty and the Southwest Workers Union told Tuesday's San Antonio Express-News.

The groups said Carty's case causes concerns because he is being readied for deportation to Haiti, a country he has never known -- he was reportedly raised in the Republic of Congo by Haitian parents, after which he gained legal residency in the United States.

Carty "has been very outspoken about the lack of due process as well as the physical and verbal abuse," Anayanse Garza, an organizer for the Southwest Workers Union, asserting the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is "making an example of him."

"Mr. Carty's transfer to Louisiana had nothing to do with the group's visit," Nina Pruneda of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement told the Express-News. "Mr. Carty has a final order of removal."