It is frightening enough when it’s learned that a loved one has been apprehended by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), but the fear for their safety increases when they can’t be located. With delays and neglect in updating the system, there are cases of people apprehended who have “disappeared” from the agency’s online tracking system, especially if they’ve been transferred between several detention centers.
This week, Congresswoman Luz Rivas introduced the Immigration Notification for Facility Oversight and Relocation Management (INFORM) Act to require ICE to notify detainees’ immediate family when a transfer occurs between detention facilities.
Rivas was motivated to introduce the immigration bill after Benjamin Guerrero-Cruz, a Reseda High School senior, was detained on Aug. 8 while walking his dog in Van Nuys. He was held at the Los Angeles Detention Center and the Adelanto Detention Center before being transferred to a holding facility across state lines in Arizona on Aug. 26 – without ICE notifying his family.
Rivas said many families in her district, which includes the Northeast San Fernando Valley, don’t know where their family members are after they’ve been picked up by ICE.
The predominantly Latino Northeast Valley has been a target for not only ICE but also unidentified rogue teams who have violently forced people into cars. Residents have been victims of assault by the masked agents who’ve swirled in unmarked cars, causing fear and injuries.
In addition to the apprehension of teenager Guerrero-Cruz, a 15-year-old special needs student was handcuffed and detained outside Arleta High School, an elderly woman selling tamales near the Plaza Pacoima was surrounded by agents and suffered a heart attack and the Home Depot in Van Nuys was repeatedly targeted with arrests of U.S. citizens who worked at the nonprofit day labor center located in the store’s parking lot.
“I have been urging ICE leadership to answer for their chaotic, inconsistent, and cruel decision-making processes that have torn apart families across the country,” said Rivas who dropped everything and rushed to the Adelanto Detention Center to demand answers from ICE after her office received word that Guerrero-Cruz was moved from Adelanto to a holding facility in Arizona without notifying his family.
“Benjamin’s family deserves to know when he is transferred and why ICE would move a high school student to the middle of a desert in Arizona.”
The federal agency has been accused of deliberately moving detainees to remote areas, far away from the reach of their families, to make it more difficult to help them access legal help and make it easier to deport them.
Remote areas have fewer legal resources that can be accessed by detainees, and immigrant families don’t have the financial means to travel or relocate closer to them.
Without the emotional and legal support of friends, family or their attorney – despair and psychological harm to the detainee and to their children sets in.
Rivas said her bill fights for the rights and dignity of detainees.
“It does not matter if ICE is transferring individuals across the city or across the country; their families deserve to know and should be immediately notified by ICE of any transfer. My bill respects the dignity of immigrant families and promotes government transparency,” said Rivas.
The INFORM Act will require that, within 24 hours, ICE must notify the immediate family member of a detainee if the detainee is transferred to another detention center. Current law, rules and regulations do not require ICE to notify family members when a detainee is transferred. The only instance ICE notifies the family is in the case of death.
Navigating the immigration system is challenging under the best of circumstances, but once apprehended by ICE, the right to due process decreases significantly.
Rivas, even with the strength of her position, has found it difficult. When she showed up at the Adelanto Detention Center attempting to conduct a wellness check and receive information about her constituents, she was met with resistance.
ICE officials at the Adelanto Detention Facility refused entry to Rivas, which is against the law that allows her as a member of Congress to conduct oversight duties.
She and her office sent multiple letters to ICE demanding transparency and an explanation of the decision-making process and criteria related to transferring detainees. ICE has ignored her inquiry.
“I will keep showing up to detention facilities to continue demanding answers from ICE that my constituents deserve,” said Rivas.
“Benjamin’s story of being detained and sent across state lines without warning or notification is like many other detainees in Los Angeles and across the country,” said Rivas. “No family should have to experience the nightmare the Trump Administration is subjecting Benjamin and his family to – but that is a reality that too many families are living through each day.”
Too bad she supports genocide and was bought by AIPAC