KPFA has been covering the COVID-19 outbreaks inside ICE detention centers throughout the pandemic. In this story, we take a look at what’s happening inside Yuba County Jail (YCJ), where only 15 people remain in ICE custody. Javier, who is only using his first name, has been detained at YCJ for the past 13 months.
While Javier described filthy conditions that we’ve covered before – including sewage flooding into the unit – and continuing transfers within the believed to spread COVID-19, he also wanted to discuss the impact of the decision by ICE to keep the remaining people in custody. The following is from an edited and excerpted interview of Javier.
Note: There were 17 people in ICE detention at the time that this interview was recorded.
I lived my whole life in California. Studied in California. Worked in California. I’m asking for asylum under the Convention Against Torture for being targeted by the people, the authorities and the cartels in Mexico for being an outsider. And I was stabbed in the throat in August 2017 by the cartels, besides other things. And I’m very fortunate to be alive.
I have a lot more to look forward to being here in this country than if I went back to Mexico.
The bottom line is we shouldn’t be locked up like this in general, but especially during this pandemic.
We feel despair. We feel anxiety. We feel depressed. It’s depressing in here. We feel like we are prisoners of war. That’s how we feel. That’s how we see this whole thing. Because it’s just outright wrong.
“We feel like we are prisoners of war.”
It also affects home. God help my mother. She has a stomach ulcer. And her fear of me getting sick with COVID in here is making her even sicker. She can’t sleep. She can’t visit. She actually has to get counseling for her high level of stress and anxiety attacks. And I know that it’s not just my mom. It’s all my family that feels that way. And it’s not just my family – all the families of the people that are in here.
There are only 17 people in ICE custody. That’s 17 A numbers, 17 alien registration numbers, 17 bodies, 17 lives, 17 humans, 17 human beings. And mind you, that’s also 17 families, 17 homes, 17 communities throughout Northern California that are being unlawfully made to wait in limbo while the government, DHS, ICE, immigration judges decide our cases. One of the things that we are asking for or that we ask ourselves is, why no
t just give us ankle monitors? Like that, they can still track our every move at our families’ expense, instead of charging taxpayers.
Yuba is trying to justify the contract with ICE. And in doing that, both Yuba and ICE are refusing to release 17 remaining immigrants in custody. That number is symbolic. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it, but 17 is a mere one-third of the housing unit capacity where we are being held. That is how petty, how pathetic the justification by Yuba for trying to hold ICE to their contract is here at Yuba.
They have the power to release us at any time.
“They have the power to release us at any time.”
It all comes down to this thought, and we are in here to get sick. And who will make it out alive is a gamble – only God… So if you can, if you can capture that emotion, if you can capture that fear, if you can understand what these people, what I myself and these people are thinking every day, every day, as soon as we wake up, even at night, when we go to sleep, we wear a mask because we don’t know who is in here with COVID or if they’re going to bring someone in with COVID. It’s not healthy. You cannot be healthy. It’s not healthy.
Adding to the anxiety that one already has in here due to the COVID, these ICE officers come in here and they try to persuade to have us sign and just be deported. They’re pressuring you. They’re intimidating, they’re convincing, they’re trying to manipulate you.
And people have said to me here, I might as well just sign and deport. It’s not looking good. I don’t want to die of COVID. And you know, I’m just going to sign because my ICE officer told me that I didn’t have a chance. They’re not supposed to give you false hopes. They’re not supposed to tell you yes, you’re going to win. And then they’re not supposed to tell you, no. They’re just supposed to do their jobs and inform you about your pending status and your case. Not try to get you to sign. I want that to be made known because it’s not fair.
We are asking to be released from ICE because it is inhumane. It is unfair.
The primary and most urgent demand is that all immigrants detained in ICE be released.
Javier and the other people in ICE custody, referred to by advocates as the Yuba 15, are calling for the release of all people held in ICE detention and the termination of the contract between ICE and Yuba County Jail. For more information on the campaign and advocacy around detainees at Yuba County jail, check out this video and this video, and follow the California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice.
Reported and produced by Lucy Kang