The three children with another family member, before the disappointment
All Jozelyn Zhinin and Bryan and Jefferson Arpi wanted for Christmas was a chance to hug their respective fathers.
Jozelyn is a seven-year-old girl – an American citizen – whose father, Manuel Zhinin, an immigrant from Ecuador, has been detained by ICE for more than a year. He was picked up outside of his home in Peekskill, a city located in Westchester County about 50 miles north of New York City.
He is currently being housed more than a thousand miles from his family in a detention center in Alabama known as one of the worst facilities that ICE uses as a detention center in the country.
She has far too much in common with Bryan, 17, and Jefferson, 15 – also American citizens. Their father, Manuel Armando Arpi, also from Ecuador, was transferred to that same faraway prison, the Etowah County Detention Center, after being detained by ICE outside his Peekskill home in October 2017.
This is not a diary about children who die at the border in the custody of ICE. But it is a story about what ICE does to families who long ago established lives, become productive residents and sunk roots into countless American communities. It shows again the heartless, cruel, cynical, sadistic system at work.
I hope you will pass this story on, as it needs to get attention.
The children have not seen their fathers for about nine months, since the transfer to Alabama’s jail.
All that was about to change – or so they hoped.
Under the leadership of the Hudson Valley Community Coalition, a local non-profit that works tirelessly these days to promote social justice, particularly for immigrants, a fundraising campaign was launched to raise the $10,000 needed to take the three children to Alabama to visit their fathers. HVCC also reached out to local Alabama organizations and the jail itself to make sure that the visit would happen.
They were assured by officials at the jail that it would happen December 23. They were advised to arrive early. The excited children attended the fundraisers, posed for photos at the airport and the hotel. It was a time of joy, despite the sorrow of the lockups, a time of hope.
But instead, here is what happened, as detailed by Luis Yumbla, head of HVCC
The children (and the adults who accompanied them) showed up the jail at 8:45 a.m. and were met by an official in charge of reception and visitation who said she knew nothing about the visit and it was her first time in the office. “This turned into a very confusing situation. We had previously provided the County with the list of people registered for the visit plus the names and numbers of the people we were visiting. We also showed the e-mail with the communication and information provided by Captain O'Bryant. We strongly asked for assistance in this matter since we had made a long trip and it was unfair that the prison would not accommodate us. “
Eventually several calls later they were told that people in charge of accompanying the detainees for visits were not available that day. All they would authorize was a “visit” via video in a calling room separated from the detainees.
So there would be no hugs, no tears of joy. Not even a face-to-face encounter separated by a glass wall, as we so often see in movies. Just a screen, like having a Skype chat.
Adding insult to injury, one woman, another visitor, yelled “Build the wall” to the children.
Luis Yumbla of HVCC estimates there are at least 100 ICE detainees being held at this jail, including about 25 from my Westchester area. Apparently it is a big money maker for that county, but costs ICE far less than housing the detainees in the New York area.
In case you want to know more about this jail, here are some links:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/dec/02/etowah-the-ice-detention-center-with-the-goal-to-make-your-life-miserable
https://www.al.com/news/birmingham/index.ssf/2018/03/inside_etowah_county_jail_nigh.html
https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-worst-place-ever-is-ices-etowah-county-detention-center-in-alabama
