In December 2025, social media posts claimed (archived here, here and here) that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained Godfrey Wade, a 65-year-old U.S. Army veteran originally from Jamaica, following a traffic stop.
The posts further claimed that Wade had already spent several months in a detention facility and was forced to sleep on the floor next to sewage water.
Multiple Snopes readers searched our website to verify the claims about Wade's detention.
The Conyers Police Department in Georgia initiated a traffic stop on Sept. 13 after Wade failed to signal while changing lanes on a highway, according to records obtained by Snopes. During that traffic stop, he was arrested on a charge of driving without a license.
In a Dec. 9 statement emailed to Snopes, Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin confirmed that ICE arrested Wade on Sept. 18 and said he has a "criminal history" consisting of multiple past charges. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the cabinet agency over ICE.
McLaughlin added that an immigration judge ordered Wade's removal in 2014 after he failed to appear for a hearing. Her full statement was as follows (emphasis hers):
On September 18, ICE arrested Godfrey Oliver Wade, a criminal illegal alien from Jamaica. His criminal history includes domestic assault, criminal trespass, reckless conduct, deposit account fraud, violation of probation, multiple arrests for driving on a suspended license. In 2014, an immigration judge ordered him removed after he failed to show up for his immigration hearing. This repeat offender is now off our streets and no longer able to terrorize Americans.
Snopes contacted a woman named Christian, who identified herself on social media as Wade's daughter, for comment on McLaughlin's statement and await a response.
McLaughlin did not answer additional questions about Wade's case, including whether ICE considered his military service when detaining him and if he was denied a bed at a detention center — a detail that people identifying themselves as his daughters shared in social media posts (archived here and here).
Wade's reported military service and background
According to a GoFundMe campaign created by Wade's family (archived), he was born in Jamaica and moved to New York with his mother as a teenager. At that time, he was a permanent resident, or green card holder, the fundraising campaign stated.
Wade reportedly enlisted in the U.S. Army as a young man, first serving in Aschaffenburg, Germany, in the 1980s. Noncitizens can join the Army if they have a green card, and can speak, read and write English fluently. Military service does not automatically grant a person U.S. citizenship, but it can expedite the naturalization process.
According to the GoFundMe campaign, Wade left the service with many recognitions and later pursued a career in hospitality, working as a chef at Braves Stadium and the Georgia State Capitol.
The campaign included a photograph appearing to show Wade in an Army uniform. However, Snopes was unable to independently confirm his military service. We asked Christian for any records that could verify his service, but had not received a response at the time of publication.
The Army was unable to locate a service record for Wade. However, that absence does not mean he didn't serve. If a soldier left the Army more than 15 years ago, their records are transferred to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) Military Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, Missouri, an Army spokesperson said. We plan to file a records request with the center and will update this story if we receive a response.
Wade, family describe detention conditions
Wade and his fiancée, April Watkins, told local news outlet WXIA they were in the process of securing Wade's citizenship. Watkins said they had an attorney but the cost was "astronomical."
According to the GoFundMe campaign, Wade experienced "days of inhuman conditions" at the Atlanta ICE detention facility before he was transferred on Sept. 21 to Georgia's Stewart Detention Center, one of the largest ICE detention facilities in the country. He was allegedly "denied a bed for weeks" due to what his family described as overcrowding. Wade told WXIA there were only two working urinals for his entire pod of 80 people and that "sewage water" was on the ground.
A spokesperson for CoreCivic, a private prison company that runs Stewart Detention Center, denied claims by Wade and his family about conditions there. In a statement emailed to Snopes, Brian Todd, public affairs manager for CoreCivic, wrote, in part:
Everyone at our Stewart Detention Center (SDC) is offered a bed. Any claim that individuals don't have beds is false.
Any allegation of sewage issues or limited access to bathroom facilities is false. There have been no reports of current plumbing issues at the facility. Toilets are maintained in proper working condition. In the rare event of a plumbing issue, a work order is submitted, and maintenance personnel promptly resolve the matter. If the issue cannot be addressed immediately, detainees are relocated to another cell.
The safety, health and well-being of the individuals entrusted to our care is our top priority. We take seriously our responsibility to adhere to all applicable federal detention standards in our ICE-contracted facilities, including SDC. Our immigration facilities are monitored very closely by our government partners at ICE, and they are required to undergo regular review and audit processes to ensure an appropriate standard of living and care for all detainees.