Freedom for Immigrants

"My name is Susan Lange. I am the coordinator for the visitation program for people in ICE detention at Rio Cosumnes Correctional Center in Elk Grove, CA. I met Maria, the wife of a man inside named Cristian, when we were both waiting in line to visit. She is deeply concerned about her husband and is struggling to keep her son and herself from being homeless. She is an inspiration to me with how she manages to keep her positive attitude and be a support for her husband and their 12-year-old son, Anthony. They are Sacramento residents.

In December 2017, without any warning, ICE picked up Cristian in front of the trailer where they were living. Cristian has been in ICE detention ever since.

Maria has a full-time job and has been able to keep the trailer where they live so far. However, it is difficult. Anthony’s school has helped with clothes and even new shoes, as Maria couldn’t afford shoes as Anthony’s feet grew. Anthony was even given the chance to talk about his family and what happened to his father at an assembly at his school, because he had a story to tell. He is a quiet person who loves his father and is very supportive of his father.

Cristian was recently transferred to West County Detention Center in Richmond, CA when the Sacramento County contract with ICE regarding the Rio Cosumnes Correctional Center was not renewed. It is difficult for his wife and son to travel there to see him because their car is old and needs a new transmission. She is able to drive to work and back, but never leaves Sacramento because the car is not reliable and she doesn't feel safe. Thankfully, the community has been helping with rides to Richmond.

The family has managed to find Cristian an attorney, but the attorney is now charging another $1,000 to continue representing him. This family is humbly requesting assistance to help pay for the legal fees for Cristian’s immigration attorney, living costs, and hopefully an immigration bond (with a minimum of $1,500) that may materialize in the next month if the immigration judge grants Cristian a bond hearing – we will keep you updated!

Please help with any donation to help this family reunite!"

- Susan Lange, Amigos Fieles

Spending Christmas together with our extended families has made us feel both immense gratitude for our own good fortune and deep sadness about what immigrant families are facing at our southern border.  Thinking about the kids, parents, brothers, sisters, cousins, etc. that are separated from one another has cut especially deeply over the last few days, as the time our families have had together has felt so special.

With those feelings in mind, we are writing today to ask you to join us in donating to the Freedom for Immigrants National Bond Fund. As you may already know, many of the men, women, and children being detained by ICE have been granted a bond by ICE or an immigration judge. This means that they can leave custody, be reunited with their families, and fight their cases from outside a detention facility... provided they post a bond, which few can afford.

That's where community bond funds (like the Freedom for Immigrants fund) come into play. These entities front money for bonds, support immigrants throughout the duration of their cases, and then ultimately recover the money when a case closes, so that it can be used again to post bond for other individuals.  The median immigration bond is currently $4,250, and we have set a goal of raising that much money to help detained individuals leave custody and, where relevant, be reunited with their families.  Please join us by donating.

I am a volunteer with Freedom for Immigrants, a national nonprofit that visits and monitors immigration detention facilities. I have been visiting Jose for the last 9 months while he has been locked up and working toward his freedom. In fact, Freedom for Immigrants has been working for years to secure the release of asylum seekers (essentially refugees), victims of human trafficking, mothers, fathers, and children from immigration detention through immigration bonds and other forms of release.

Yesterday about 6:30 pm, Jose walked out that infamous door in the reception area of the West County Detention Facility, an immigrant jail for parents and other adult immigrants. I was waiting with open arms and still wondering myself if this was all really happening. I think Jose still thought he was dreaming. I told him it was true and I was there to take him home. I tried explaining that although we had raised about $5,000, an organization stepped up to pay the balance of $15,000 on his immigration bond, setting him free.

What an experience for me to have Jose riding along next to me in my car instead of a glass plate window between us in the visitation room of the jail. As we drove out of the parking lot and drove down the street, he looked out the car window at the hills and the sky and said that the world now looked so beautiful to him and how much he had missed it.

Jose's reunion with his daughter was an unbelievable moment. She did not know that he had been released and did not know he was coming to visit her. She was outside playing and she spotted him the minute he got out of the car and came running to him calling "papa, papa!" It is hard for me to even write about this. I was beside myself and will never forget it as long as I live.

All of a sudden, everything that I had been hearing on the media these past few days, about all the horrific stories of the separated families, hit me like a brick wall. I suddenly realized that Jose had been one of these parents all along who had been taken from his daughter who he loved so very much and it dawned on me how much she loved and missed him.

The Trump administration’s new executive order to lock up parents with their children in immigrant prisons and jails is not a solution. We must free these families.

I know Americans want an immediate solution to this current brutality of ripping families apart, but the Trump administration’s executive order to detain families together indefinitely is unacceptable. But you can help #FreeTheFamilies right now with a donation. 100% of your donation will go to free people like Jose through Freedom for Immigrants. Please donate now.

Linda Olvera

Freedom for Immigrants is formerly known as Community Initiatives for Visiting Immigrants in Confinement. It is a 501(c)(3) non-profit California corporation that is recognized by the IRS as tax-exempt. You can learn more at www.freedomforimmigrants.org.

Marco Rios Ochoa is a 43-year old man who was born in Mexico and has been in the U.S. for almost 20 years, living in Contra Costa county. He has a mental health disability and as a result has been appointed a free attorney by the Immigration Court. However, over the past nearly 12 months he has been in ICE detention, ICE has inexplicably transferred him from West County Jail in Richmond to Rio Cosumnes Jail in Elk Grove to now Mesa Verde Jail in Bakersfield, each time farther away from his family, community support and free attorney in the Bay Area.

In March, Marco finally received a $7500 bond. Of that, we have raised nearly half through the community but we are still $4000 short. If Marco remains detained until his next court hearing with Immigration Judge Park, we are very concerned that his case will be denied and he will be deported to Mexico where he has no one and will be vulnerable to abuse.

Upon release he will enter a treatment program, where he will receive individual and group counseling, psychosocial support, and work training. His free attorney will continue to represent him throughout his case and provide support and assistance. Let's come together as a community to free Marco from the bonds of ICE imprisonment!

Artwork by Robert Liu-Trujillo
http://work.robdontstop.com