Overview:
Edward Nalwamba, 78, says his health deteriorated during 13 months in immigration detention before a federal judge ordered his release.
Rev. Edward Nalwamba walked into immigration detention in September 2025. Thirteen months later, two fellow detainees had to carry him out.
The 78-year-old Ugandan immigrant and retired priest was released from an Aurora detention center on Oct. 20 after a federal judge ruled that immigration officials could no longer justify holding him while his removal remained uncertain. By then, Nalwamba said, his health had deteriorated dramatically.
“I got sick and got unconscious on January 3rd,” Nalwamba said. “They took me in the medical wing, and I don’t know what happened. I woke up when I was in a bed. I don’t know after how many hours that was. But then when I tried to use the bathroom, I couldn’t walk. And from then till today.”
Nalwamba now relies on a scooter and struggles to stand for extended periods. His attorney, Joy Athanasiou, said he developed pneumonia, lost more than 30 pounds and experienced persistent respiratory problems while detained.
“One appointment every three weeks, approximately,” Athanasiou said. “And just having a nurse see him for five minutes and give him more cold medicine but not doing the kind of testing that they needed to do.”
The Department of Homeland Security has defended the medical care available in ICE custody, saying detainees have access to medical appointments and 24-hour emergency care. The agency has disputed allegations that Nalwamba was denied treatment.
Nalwamba said conditions during this detention were considerably worse than during an earlier period in immigration custody in Colorado Springs from 2010 to 2011.
“They forget they’re dealing with human beings,” he said. “It is as if they are dealing with animals.”
Home, but not back to normal
Nalwamba returned to the home of Karen Rider and her family in Denver, Colo., after his release, but he could no longer step back into the role he had before detention.
He had lived with the Riders for about four years and helped care for their son Gordon, who has severe cerebral palsy. Rider said she and her husband were in Boston when they learned Nalwamba had been detained and rushed home because Gordon depended on them for medication and care.
“I never had anxiety before,” Rider said. “I was anxious for a year worrying about him because if he were deported, he will be killed. They would put him in prison, torture him, he’d probably disappear.”
Now Rider is caring for Gordon while also helping Nalwamba as he recovers.
Nalwamba’s release came after his attorney, Joy Athanasiou, challenged his continued detention in federal court. ICE arrested him Sept. 18, 2025, while he was living under an order of supervision stemming from a long-running immigration case.
Federal law allows immigration authorities to detain people while pursuing removal, but prolonged detention can face constitutional limits when deportation is not reasonably foreseeable. After 13 months, U.S. Magistrate Judge Cyrus Y. Chung ruled that officials still had no concrete plan to remove Nalwamba to Uganda and ordered him released.
The prospect of returning to Uganda has frightened Nalwamba for more than two decades.
“The government threatened him. They intimidated him,” Athanasiou said. “Eventually, they essentially kidnapped him, put a hood over his head, and took him to one of those, quote, safe houses or unmarked detention centers to interrogate him and threaten him. One of the very specific threats is that they knew that he had planned to come to a religious conference in the United States.”
Nalwamba says he left the country in 2002 after speaking publicly in support of democracy and against the government of President Yoweri Museveni. Athanasiou said Ugandan authorities knew Nalwamba planned to travel to the United States for a religious conference and had threatened to arrest him if he entered Entebbe International Airport.
Rather than leave through the airport, Nalwamba said he took an indirect route out of Uganda and eventually flew to the United States from a neighboring country. He has feared returning ever since.
“We’re asking the court to reopen his asylum case because the political conditions in Uganda have worsened considerably,” Athanasiou said. “The people should have a fair hearing, but unfortunately that’s just not happening right now, and it’s also a gargantuan waste of our taxpayer dollars.”
A fight stretching back decades
Nalwamba’s immigration case has dragged on for more than two decades. He and his supporters say an attorney handling his original asylum case missed a filing deadline, complicating his effort to obtain legal protection in the United States.
The Rev. Phil Eberhart, who worked with Nalwamba at Resurrection Anglican Fellowship in Greenwood Village, has known him for more than 20 years. Eberhart visited him during detention and helped manage his finances while he was away.
“We pray for his recovery of strength and stamina primarily,” Eberhart said. “We also pray for a final solution to his immigration and asylum journey.”
Nalwamba also expressed his gratitude for some of his fellow detainees who helped him out to his ride when he was first released since he could not have access to his wheelchair past one of the gates.”
“They put their arms under my thighs and another arm behind my back, and they carried me,” Nalwamba said. “I would have shaken their hands. I had no words with which to thank them.”
His release ended the detention, but not the uncertainty surrounding his future. Athanasiou is still seeking to reopen his asylum case, and the possibility of removal remains. Nalwamba is now focused on recovering his strength while waiting to learn what comes next.
“I cannot tell you that I know what the future holds,” Nalwamba said. “But I know the one who holds the future. So, my hope is in Him. But whatever it is, he calls me to be His man. And that is what I’m planning on.”
