Issue 15: "...why am I in shackles?"
Welcome to this week’s edition of IMM Print Weekly, a newsletter that showcases the stories of detained immigrants and their allies.
We seek to shine a light on how immigrant prisons and jails impact human beings and communities, celebrate the work of those advocating for detention abolition, and provide resources on how to get involved.
In this week’s edition: a Nicaraguan asylum seeker describes the trauma he endured in detention at CBP and ICE prisons, and a former immigration reporter comes to the realization that she can no longer remain neutral.
Freedom for Immigrants is continuing to raise money for our National Bond Fund. Since we launched our bond fund, we have bonded out over 260 people, paying over $1.6 million. If any of the stories we’ve published in IMM Print have moved you, please consider donating here.
"During the two weeks that I was in the icebox, I cried and cried."
Javier was forced to leave his home country of Nicaragua after being targeted by the government for protesting the deforestation of a nature reserve. He arrived in Tijuana on January 29th of last year and shortly thereafter, was robbed of his documentation and Mexican visa. When he presented himself to border patrol to claim asylum, he was given a number and forced to wait 3 months for his number to be called. While CBP facilities are designed for stays of up to 3 days, Javier was there for two weeks. Afterwards he was transferred to an ICE prison in Arizona. This is how he describes the experience
“The conditions [at the Arizona detention center] were completely horrible. The treatment from racist officials, the completely horrible food, they discriminated against you, the work that you have to do—like cleaning—they want to pay people $1/day and people are cleaning the detention center all day long, doing work for people who want to cheat them: “Okay, we’ll give you one dollar and you will work all day.” How are they going to maintain that? Because the truth is that I’ve noticed that it’s all a business. What is happening to people, this is just a business, a market. The commissary is completely expensive--a chocolate bar costs three dollars! There were people that didn’t have that and the food was completely bad. It was bad food.”
Javier’s asylum was ultimately granted and he now lives in Vermont with a sponsor.
Read his story in English and in Spanish.
This Immigration Reporter Decided Being a Neutral Observer Wasn't Enough
Despite controversies over border walls, separated families and the Muslim travel ban, immigrants are still striving for American citizenship. We Are Witnesses: Becoming an American is a series from The Marshall Project that tells their stories and the stories of those trying to help and hinder them.
Lee Wang sat in an immigration courtroom while reporting on immigration detention facilities in Louisiana and had an epiphany. The impartiality of her chosen career in journalism wasn’t allowing her to directly tackle the humanitarian issue unfolding before her, and she decided to shift gears and become an immigration lawyer instead.
Now working for the Immigrant Defense Project in New York City, Lee wants people to realize that the targeting of immigrants in the United States extends far beyond the confines of the border.
“What is this era going to mean for future generations? The human consequences are so immense; I don’t even think that we have kind of begun to fathom what it all really means,” Wang concludes.
Read the interview with Lee Wang here.
Get involved:
For an update on the South Asian men on hunger strike, read the latest coverage in The Nation here. Please continue to keep up the pressure and call the NOLA ICE Field Office to demand their release: John.hartnett@dhs.ice.gov, 318-992-1594.