Francisco Erwin Galicia, the 18-year-old U.S.-born citizen who was wrongfully detained by federal immigration officials for nearly a month until his release on Tuesday following public outrage, said conditions in the Customs and Border Protection facility where he was jailed were so terrible that he lost more than 25 pounds from lack of food, and even considered agreeing to self-deport just to get out of his misery, Dallas News reports.
Galicia said he was locked up with 60 other men, unable to shower and in a holding cell so crowded that some men had to sleep where the toilet was. “Ticks bit some of the men and some were very sick, Galicia said. But many were afraid to ask to go to the doctor because CBP officers told them their stay would start over if they did, he said.”
Then there was the hunger. Galicia said he was never given enough to eat, eventually losing 26 pounds. “It was inhumane how they treated us,” he told Dallas News. “It got to the point where I was ready to sign a deportation paper just to not be suffering there anymore. I just needed to get out of there.” He was born in Texas, but officials presumably wanted to send him to Mexico, where they had already deported his brother Marlon.
The two were initially detained at a Border Patrol checkpoint in Falfurrias, Texas, late last month. Marlon lacked legal status and Francisco did not, yet they still detained him and for weeks refused to release him, even after his mom Sanjuana showed officials his birth certificate and other documents. Now that he is free, and here where he belongs, his family’s attorney plans to sue both CBP and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which had also jailed Francisco.
This entire episode of cruelty was intentional, because ICE released him only after Dallas News’ reporting sparked outrage. In a joint statement, the two agencies claimed, "Generally, situations including conflicting reports from the individual and multiple birth certificates can, and should, take more time to verify.” It took nearly a month to verify a birth certificate? Bullshit, and good luck defending that in court.
Francisco also said that he was denied a chance to call his mom for help while in Border Patrol custody, saying that when he “asked to make a phone call,” officers told him, “You don’t have rights to anything.” This has become more and more common from unshackled immigration agents in the Trump era, with an asylum-seeker separated from his children for 184 days saying that officials also told him, “You don’t have any rights here” as they stole his kids.
Francisco was able to go home on Tuesday but said he still can’t comprehend what happened. “Powerless. That’s how I felt,” he said. “How with all this proof that I was giving them could they hold me?” The family, of course, is also worried for Marlon. “I’m just so thankful to God and to everyone who spoke up about my son’s situation,” Sanjuana said. “I’m glad to have him back home, but I need my other son back.”