On the plane ride home to a place where he had never lived, Akeem Creese felt like an outcast. His thoughts came fast and furious.

“I thought about my first taste of freedom in six years and wondered how my daughter would visit me. I had US$120, and I didn’t know the exchange rate, Creese said.

He arrived in Piarco airport at 9 pm on February 28 with his belongings in a net bag, resembling a laundry bag, given to him by US immigration officers when they deported him to Trinidad.