The photo of this little girl was taken shortly after the New Bedford, MA immigration raid, three years ago this weekend.
Father Marc Fallon witnessed the effects of the raid in his community. He is a Community Advocate at Catholic Social Services in New Bedford. He also works with Maya K’iche’ Organization and is a parish priest in the neighboring town.
In the interview below, Father Marc talks about the impact of the infamous March 6, 2007 immigration raid at the Bianco factory. This is the raid that prompted Boston financier Robert Hildreth to step forward and offer bond loan assistance to immigrants who could not afford to pay their bond. It is the raid that started the Bond Fund.
Click here to donate
What was it like for the local community when 300 immigration agents arrested 361 factory workers, and transferred many of them overnight toimmigration detention centers in Texas? How have the people of New Bedford fared in the three years since the raid?
Once the audio file completely loads below, click on the orange arrow to listen to the interview (under 4 minutes long):
The Bond Fund recently started working with the Southern Coalition for Social Justice in Durham, North Carolina on a joint project. Together we help immigrants who are arrested by local police on minor charges and referred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement for detention.
Arnulfo was sixteen years old when he was taken from his home and inducted into the Salvadoran Civil War, a conflict which lasted 12 years and left 75,000 dead. Unable to find work in war torn El Salvador and eager to escape the growing gang violence there, Arnulfo came to the U.S. with temporary protected immigration status.
But he has never been the same since the war, said his sister Aida: he struggles with scizophrenia, thoughts of suicide, alcohol dependence, and he has been admitted to mental health facilities multiple times.
Arnulfo was living and working in Maryland when he was robbed and lost his legal papers, which he was then unable to renew. He came to North Carolina and was living with his sister when the police came to the house because of a noise complaint.
Click here to donate
Aida was beside herself when her brother was detained. “As his older sister, I always feel a responsibility to take care of him,” she said. She knew she couldn’t afford bond on her own — $5000 — and thanks God that she found the Bond Fund. “I’m so happy being able to spend time with my brother and knowing that he’s alright,” she said, “I know being in jail was not good for his already fragile mental health.” [Reposted from Southern Coalition for Social Justice]
Shannah Kurland, of the Olneyville Neighborhood Association, speaking outside the Wyatt Detention Facility. Photo: The Providence Journal / Andrew Dickerman
The Bond Fund has worked with Shannah Kurland of Olneyville Neighborhood Association in Rhode Island since July 2008. Initially started in response to a workplace raid, our partnership continues as bond fund recipients go through the immigration process, and have their fair day in court.
The Bond Fund wanted to find out why Shannah Kurland cares about justice for immigrants. Her own family has been in the US for more than a hundred years: Pennsylvania Dutch on her mother’s side, and German-Jewish on her father’s. This is our recent conversation with Shannah.
NIBF: What do you do at the ONA?
Shannah: We try to bring people into the neighborhood association, and build an infrastructure for the community. People are not really clients. They are members of the ONA. If someone is detained by immigration (ICE) we call around and try to figure out where they are. We try to find people to go with someone to an ICE interview, or find a lawyer to help.
Click here to donate
NIBF: Tell us a highlight of your community organizing work.
Shannah: So many people came out so fast to support the cleaning people arrested in the raid that night at the courthouse, in July 2008. Within two hours there were about 200 people gathered, blocking the vans to transport people to ICE detention. Out of the 31 arrested, 20 were released the same evening, or by morning. I don’t know if the crowd made the difference, but you have to wonder.
NIBF: Why do you care about immigrants?
Shannah: How can I feel good living in a world that’s messed up? The big question is why do people have to migrate in the first place? What is lacking for them, food? education? I wouldn’t last a minute if I had to make that trip. All the discussion is around “please don’t beat people up in detention,” when I really question the rules around the borders and who gets to make them. I try to keep that perspective in my community work. Its not like someone is “being nice” by “allowing” you to have a driver’s license. People have a right!
Last week Romy Lerner won a hard-fought victory on behalf of her client, a Bond Fund recipient. Ms. Lerner is an attorney at FIAC, the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center; and her client is now a Lawful Permanent Resident.
“This is an unusual case for us,” says Bond Fund Chairman Bob Hildreth, “We generally focus on community-wide response to immigration enforcement tactics such as raids, or cooperative agreements with local police. But sometimes an individual’s circumstances are so horrendous that we must step forward.”
Ms. Lerner’s client “Marie” came to the United States from Haiti as a very young child. She was physically and verbally abused by her mother, and pushed out of the house when she was only 14. Before long, Marie was a teenage mother with an abusive partner. She had no legal status in the US, even though her mother, or the father of her children, could have applied on her behalf.
Photo by Rennett Stowe
The father was violent toward Marie, and created an unsafe environment for their children. The Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) took the children from their home. The situation grew more desperate when, in a separate matter, Marie was picked up by local police and referred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). ICE detained her and set a bond she could not pay.
“It was a catch-22 situation,” said her attorney Ms. Lerner, “she could not appear in family court to get custody of her children while she was in ICE detention, and it would be hard to prove her immigration case without custody of the children. She needed to get out of detention to protect her parental rights and apply for cancellation.”
Ms. Lerner believed her client had a strong case for VAWA (Violence Against Women Act) cancellation of removal, based on the abuse she had suffered as a child and with her partner. DCF had records documenting Marie’s violent childhood.
Click here to donate
The Bond Fund loaned the money for Marie to get out of ICE detention. With Ms. Lerner’s assistance, she now has lawful status, and permission to work in the United States. Ms. Lerner says, “She is getting her life back together, looking for work, and endeavoring to take care of her young children, now ten, nine, and seven years old. Its been a tremendous struggle, but the help of the Bond Fund made everything a little easier.”
“We could not have done it without the people who support the Bond Fund,” said Mr. Hildreth. Now that Marie’s immigration case is closed, the bond money will be returned to the Fund, and available to help the next person.
“When an immigration raid happens, even where there is an outpouring of support in the community for the arrested immigrants, there is only so much a community can do to help. The Bond Fund makes the community national. It aggregates donations from people who want to help no matter where they live.”
His Story. Mr. Jose Prieto first came to the United States in 1976 on a visa to study at the Southern Oregon University. In 1981 he became a legal permanent resident. Twenty five years later, in February of 2005, he was arrested at his home by immigration authorities, based on his only offense, a misdemeanor conviction from 1989. It was a complete shock to be arrested and placed in immigration custody sixteen years later. In 1989, his conviction was not considered a deportable offense. The Northwest Immigrant Rights Project (NWIRP) helped him argue that the old misdemeanor conviction should not make him deportable now. It was unfair to go back in time and apply new changes in the law.
Jose Prieto
Detention. Mr. Prieto was stuck in the immigration prison in Tacoma while he fought his case. Prior to his detention he had worked for 14 years as a social worker for the State of Oregon. For the last ten years he had a second weekend job as an outreach worker to the homeless.Still, the government refused to release him or give him a bond hearing. As a result, he lost his home, lost his job, and worse yet, was separated from his eight year old daughter and eleven year old son.
Silvia Rivera of NWIRP
Freedom. With the help of his lawyer at NWIRP, Mr. Prieto went to federal district court to get an order for a bond hearing. A bond was initially set at $15,000 and later reduced to $10,000. He had already been locked up by immigration for so long that he had no resources left to pay the bond. His friends in the community raised $5,000 and the National Immigrant Bond Fund agreed to pay the other $5,000. Mr. Prieto was finally released on bond, after three and a half years of separation from his family.
Matt Adams
Victory. On January 19, 2010, almost five years after he was first arrested, the Board of Immigration Appeals ruled that his misdemeanor conviction did not qualify as a deportable offense. His attorney, Matt Adams stated, “it is a big relief that he is finally able to move on and try to rebuild his life. Many people can not bear to last three or six months locked up, let alone three and a half years. Even Mr. Prieto at that point was getting ready to give up on his case. Many people who have strong cases give up because they can’t bear the suffering of being locked up for prolonged periods.”
Click here to donate
Dignity and Due Process. Mr. Prieto is grateful to the NWIRP, the National Immigrant Bond Fund, and his friends who paid the bond for his release. Still he notes, “If ICE wants to deport me, that’s fine if they can show they have a real basis, but they shouldn’t keep me locked up during that long process. In my case, even though I won in the end, I still lost so much of my life, and my children’s lives. Is that just?”
More than a hundred immigration reform supporters, including families, students, workers , clergy and community organizers, gathered on the steps of San Bernardino City Hall for a rally and press conference urging the passage of comprehensive immigration reform this
Click here to donate
year. Speakers, mostly from the Justice for Immigrants Coalition of Inland Southern California, recognized and applauded CongressmanJoe Baca’s strong support of immigration reform, while urging continued action and mobilization in the Inland Empire to ensure that justice is finally brought for suffering immigrant communities.
The Justice for Immigrants Coalition of Inland Southern California consists of around twenty groups from all sectors of the community, dedicated to providing direct service to the local immigrant community while working toward a just solution to the broken immigration system that is separating families punishing workers.
Last night NPR reported that two-thirds of the nation’s jails are filled with non-violent offenders who cannot afford to pay their bail, costing American taxpayers $9 billion in 2009. Jails hold people who have been accused, but not convicted, of a crime. In addition to being incredibly expensive, NPR reports, the system is unfair to the poor people who can’t make bail: there are less consequences for crimes if a person can bail out.
When it comes to immigration, the practice is even worse. Hardworking immigrants whom Immigration Judges have found not to be a flight risk or a danger to the community nevertheless end up with bonds too high to pay. The national average exceeds $5,000 each. Yet
Support the Bond Fund
these people are not charged with a crime, often are sole wage earners in families with US citizen children and if released from immigration detention would do no more than return to their families and communities. Locking them up under high bonds does little more than break
up families, cost taxpayers huge sums for needless detention and prevent immigrants from having a fair day in court. It is difficult to obtain an attorney, hard to gather evidence or put together a case, and there is always the risk of transfer to a far-away detention center. Unlike criminal court, immigration court does not appoint an attorney to a person who can not afford one.
Thank you NPR for raising these important issues about detention, fairness, and the costs to the American taxpayer! We hope your series
will further explore the special interests that keep people in detention, and the success of alternatives to detention. At the National Immigrant Bond Fund, we help people post bond, to give them the chance to have a fair hearing. Fairness is an important value in our country that we must all fight to uphold!
