London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Monday, Jul 21, 2025

US woman who has lived in UK for 53 years wins deportation appeal

US woman who has lived in UK for 53 years wins deportation appeal

Senior judges said deporting Polly Gordon, 75, would disproportionately interfere with her human rights
A 75-year-old American woman who uses a Zimmer frame and is unable to digest solid food, has won her appeal to remain in the UK after living here for 53 years.

The Home Office attempted to deport Polly Gordon after she served a 12-month sentence for supply of a controlled drug. She was convicted of the offence in July 2019 at Edinburgh sheriff’s court. According to a judgment in the immigration tribunal she has a past history of substance abuse and addiction to alcohol.

Gordon first appealed against the Home Office’s plans to deport her to America, a country she has not lived in since her early 20s, to the first tier tribunal of the immigration court.

The judge there accepted that Gordon was frail with limited mobility and has a range of health problems including atrial fibrillation, colitis, difficulty consuming solid food and had recently suffered from shingles.

He said: “I presume that given her age and infirmity she will feel the impact of leaving her home country of that last five decades more than most.”

He also accepted that she would not be able to access US government healthcare programmes as she had lived outside of the country of her birth for more than five decades. He added that her risk of reoffending was “relatively low (but not trivial)”.

However, in his judgment he agreed with the Home Office that she should be deported.

Gordon appealed further to the upper tribunal in the immigration court and three senior judges there have found in her favour, allowing her to remain in the UK after finding that the first judge made an error in law in the way he calculated her prison sentence.

The upper tribunal judges found that Gordon, who was granted indefinite leave to remain in the UK in 1977, had been lawfully resident in the UK for most of her life and is socially and culturally integrated into life here in the UK.

They accepted her offence was at the lower end of the scale of offending.

Since her first appeal Gordon’s health has deteriorated further after she fractured her knee following a fall and spent six weeks in hospital in March and April. Since then she has needed to use a Zimmer frame and has to rely on friends to help her with her shopping.

The judges found that to deport Gordon would disproportionately interfere with her human rights and ruled that she should be allowed to remain in the UK.

Karen Doyle, of the organisation Movement For Justice, condemned the Home Office plans to deport Gordon.

“There’s nothing that illustrates more starkly the inhumanity of the Home Office than their plans to put an elderly and infirm woman on a plane to a country she hasn’t lived in since the 1960s. People like her are viewed as low-hanging fruit by the Home Office. This is exactly how the Windrush generation were viewed.”

The Home Office has been approached for comment.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Man Dies After Being Pulled Into MRI Machine Due to Metal Chain in New York Clinic
NVIDIA Achieves $4 Trillion Valuation Amid AI Demand
US Revokes Visas of Brazilian Corrupted Judges Amid Fake Bolsonaro Investigation
U.S. Congress Approves Rescissions Act Cutting Federal Funding for NPR and PBS
North Korea Restricts Foreign Tourist Access to New Seaside Resort
Brazil's Supreme Court Imposes Radical Restrictions on Former President Bolsonaro
Centrist Criticism of von der Leyen Resurfaces as she Survives EU Confidence Vote
Judge Criticizes DOJ Over Secrecy in Dropping Charges Against Gang Leader
Apple Closes $16.5 Billion Tax Dispute With Ireland
Von der Leyen Faces Setback Over €2 Trillion EU Budget Proposal
UK and Germany Collaborate on Global Military Equipment Sales
Trump Plans Over 10% Tariffs on African and Caribbean Nations
Flying Taxi CEO Reclaims Billionaire Status After Stock Surge
Epstein Files Deepen Republican Party Divide
Zuckerberg Faces $8 Billion Privacy Lawsuit From Meta Shareholders
FIFA Pressured to Rethink World Cup Calendar Due to Climate Change
SpaceX Nears $400 Billion Valuation With New Share Sale
Microsoft, US Lab to Use AI for Faster Nuclear Plant Licensing
Trump Walks Back Talk of Firing Fed Chair Jerome Powell
Zelensky Reshuffles Cabinet to Win Support at Home and in Washington
"Can You Hit Moscow?" Trump Asked Zelensky To Make Putin "Feel The Pain"
Irish Tech Worker Detained 100 days by US Authorities for Overstaying Visa
Dimon Warns on Fed Independence as Trump Administration Eyes Powell’s Succession
Church of England Removes 1991 Sexuality Guidelines from Clergy Selection
Superman Franchise Achieves Success with Latest Release
Hungary's Viktor Orban Rejects Agreements on Illegal Migration
Jeff Bezos Considers Purchasing Condé Nast as a Wedding Gift
Ghislaine Maxwell Says She’s Ready to Testify Before Congress on Epstein’s Criminal Empire
Bal des Pompiers: A Celebration of Community and Firefighter Culture in France
FBI Chief Kash Patel Denies Resignation Speculations Amid Epstein List Controversy
Air India Pilot’s Mental Health Records Under Scrutiny
Google Secures Windsurf AI Coding Team in $2.4 Billion Licence Deal
Jamie Dimon Warns Europe Is Losing Global Competitiveness and Flags Market Complacency
South African Police Minister Suspended Amid Organised Crime Allegations
Nvidia CEO Claims Chinese Military Reluctance to Use US AI Technology
Hong Kong Advances Digital Asset Strategy to Address Economic Challenges
Australia Rules Out Pre‑commitment of Troops, Reinforces Defence Posture Amid US‑China Tensions
Martha Wells Says Humanity Still Far from True Artificial Intelligence
Nvidia Becomes World’s First Four‑Trillion‑Dollar Company Amid AI Boom
U.S. Resumes Deportations to Third Countries After Supreme Court Ruling
Excavation Begins at Site of Mass Grave for Children at Former Irish Institution
Iranian President Reportedly Injured During Israeli Strike on Secret Facility
EU Delays Retaliatory Tariffs Amid New U.S. Threats on Imports
Trump Defends Attorney General Pam Bondi Amid Epstein Memo Backlash
Renault Shares Drop as CEO Luca de Meo Announces Departure Amid Reports of Move to Kering
Senior Aides for King Charles and Prince Harry Hold Secret Peace Summit
Anti‑Semitism ‘Normalised’ in Middle‑Class Britain, Says Commission Co‑Chair
King Charles Meets David Beckham at Chelsea Flower Show
If the Department is Really About Justice: Ghislaine Maxwell Should Be Freed Now
NYC Candidate Zohran Mamdani’s ‘Antifada’ Remarks Spark National Debate on Political Language and Economic Policy
×