Do you have a story to share about you or someone you know who faced civil liberties or human rights violations at the hands of DHS? Share your story here.
I was taken into DHS custody for a traffic violation. I was sent to the California San Pedro processing facility. My wife and 6 children who are US citizens desperately paid thousands of dollars into my immigration documents so that I may reunite with my family. I informed the court that my two sons are disabled and provided documentation at the judges request. Then denied after the fact. I was informed that DHS does not rule based on humanity purposes for families or disabilities. I lived in the facility for 6 months and fell ill due to unsanitary conditions and my needs were not accommodated while in custody. I suffered and witnessed abuse in many ways by discrimination. -Jose Medina
Jaoudat Abouazza was detained in Cambridge, Massachusetts, held for a month in solitary confinement, and subject to frequent beatings. All for a traffic violation.
"At 6:00 am on September 27, 2007, a dozen Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) agents arrived at the home of Peggy Delarosa-Delgado, a United States citizen, Long Island homeowner and mother of three. After her son opened the door, the agents pushed past her son and entered her home without a warrant. The agents proceeded to herd everyone into the living room, search the house, and even pointed a gun on a family friend staying in the basement. "My kids were scared. They had to sit in the living room like little criminals." The agents were looking for a deportable immigrant who never lived in her home." ["Citizens Caught Up in Immigration Raid", New York Times, October 4, 2007.]
"Yousuf emigrated from Pakistan 17 years ago and passed the citizenship exam in 2002 — yet he is still waiting to have his naturalization application approved. Federal law requires that the government make a decision on the application within 120 days of passing the exam. However, since 9/11, Muslim and Middle Eastern immigrants have experienced unexplained and lengthy delays in the processing of their immigration applications. [South Asian American Leaders of Tomorrow, Immigration Reform and the South Asian Community: Myths and Realities, Sept. 2007.]"
Francisco Castaneda, an undocumented immigrant from El Salvador, was placed in immigration custody after serving an eight-month state prison sentence on a 2005 drug conviction. While at the San Diego Correctional Facility, he notified immigration officials that he had a large, painful, growing lesion on his penis. Despite recommendations from several doctors, immigration officials refused to test him for cancer, and he received no treatment except for pain pills during his 11 months in detention. Castaneda was released in 2007, went to a hospital and was diagnosed with advanced cancer. He died in February 2008. A federal judge in March ruled that the alleged denial of medical treatment was "beyond cruel and unusual punishment," and the federal government has since acknowledged that detention officials and doctors were negligent in causing Castaneda’s death. [U.S. Admits Negligence in Detainee’s Death, San Francisco Chronicle, Apr. 29, 2008.]