Issue 18: "I don’t have words to explain all the suffering and pain"
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 wife pleads for her husband’s release and one immigrant family’s journey through Matamoros.
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.
Detained for More than a Year, Natalia's Husband Faces Medical Issues While ICE Stalls
Natalia, her two sons, and her husband Alexander fled Russia after being falsely accused by the government of tax fraud— all too common in Russia. He was sent to a Russian prison for two years while the government seized his business. After his release, Alexander arrived at the US-Mexico border in January 2019 and was immediately incarcerated, first in Arizona, San Luis Regional Detention and Support Center.
A couple weeks later, he was transferred to the Tallahatchie Correctional Facility in Mississippi, then to Louisiana, where he was transferred twice. He is currently detained at LaSalle ICE Processing Center and has routinely received poor medical attention for his hypertension. He has been denied parole twice.
“Where is humanity? Where can my family find peace and hope for the future? We have no home in Russia. Everything is destroyed there. All [that’s] left is fear of death if we come back. All we ask is a fair review of our case. Why can’t he be here with us through all the legal battles we have to go through to prove that we deserve a chance to live a normal life, a chance to live and not to be tortured and killed?”
Read Natalia’s letter here.
An Encounter on the Levee at Matamoros
Border witness Josh Rubin describes a grandmother and her granddaughter crossing the river for a new life.
“She had mortgaged her house in Honduras to pay the coyote the many thousands of dollars it cost to bring them to the banks of the river. They came to meet friends in Dallas, not family, a distinction that may prove fateful for the girl, preventing sponsorship.
As for the woman before us, her first court date is over a month away. She will not find justice there.”
Read the rest of Josh’s recounting here.
Get Involved:
Maryland is getting closer banning private immigration detention via the #DignityNotDetention Act! If you're resident of Maryland, please email & urge state senators to chose #CommunitiesNotCages and vote YES on the bill. Here is a call script and contact info.
This family of asylum seekers is struggling to make ends meet after the father was detained at a routine check-in. The family's current source of income is collecting recyclables, which the mother does while her daughter is in school. Donate if you can here.
We are so honored artist Jen Bloomer has created a "Migration is an Act of Courage" shirt on behalf of Freedom for Immigrants. All proceeds will benefit our fight to abolish the U.S. immigration detention system. You can order through March 7 here.