I am hoping that I can get some help in the “Comments” for a problem some of my Mexican friends are having with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). I figure this is a big enough community there ought to be someone who has dealt with something of this nature, and who might be able to clue me in.
The problem is a missing brother of a good friend here. I won’t use any names here, of course, but my friend has lost his brother in the ICE for-profit incarceration system and nor he nor I can come up with ANY trace of the fellow.
The local immigrant community is totally freaked, and a lot of them have left the area. (The agricultural community is in a bit of a dither, there is a LOT of work to be done which the migrants and immigrant local community won’t be doing this year.) They’re really worried about losing touch of this young man.
We had him tracked down to an ICE temporary holding facility in Kankakee, Illinois, but he has since been moved and nobody will tell us to where, what charges have been filed, what his hearing status is, or anything else. Not even if he has seen a judge. Nothing. Bupkis. Echoing silence.
I have of course tried using the ICE detainee tracking web site, using every permutation of his name and every way I can imagine it being mis-spelled, but the database search comes up completely BLANK.
Using the phone has been even more frustrating. Thus far, I have gotten, “Call the U.S. Marshall’s Office (USM), and “NO, I WON’T GIVE YOU A PHONE NUMBER FOR THEM, STOP ASKING!!” <CLICK!!> when I was speaking with the deputy at the jail in Kankakee. He finally DID say that the inmate was “no longer there,” but that’s the extent of it. (And before anyone says I should have been nice to him on the phone, that WAS after being nice to him, but not allowing him to dodge much. I knew he had information, and just kept politely asking for the current location of the kid, then ONCE for a number to call the Marshalls, and nothing more. Not so much as a raised voice out of me. It was hard to do, too. I wanted to reach through that phone and slap some civility into that UN-civil servant.)
Well, the USM, once I tracked down a number for them at the Chicago office, had absolutely NOTHING to say. I was on hold with their automated system for almost 40 minutes, and when someone finally answered and admitted that it was the USM Chicago field office, I asked for how to get information about where an ICE prisoner had been transported from Jerome Combs Detention facility in Kankakee. About the time I got to the word “transported,” the line went dead and they never again would answer it when I called from my phone. I went straight to permanent hold. So, I used a different phone, got put on hold (only 25 minutes this time), and got even less out before they hung up.
I then tried the ICE automated line for detainee information, and after a rather annoying time dealing with not knowing the “A-Number” of the detainee (All we have is the inmate number that the Kankakee prison assigned him.) I was presented with a voice mail, leave information (name, phone number, detainee name, facility, etc.) and I would receive a call back.
That was last Friday. Of course there has been NO call returned.
What can we do to find this kid? Yes, he was probably here without documentation, or over his visa period. But he shouldn’t just disappear like this, incommunicado. And SOMEONE should be able to provide at least a location for him. While at Kankakee, we had sent him some money for his ‘commissary’ account, so he could at least get some comfort items. Last I heard, the balance there was $200 or so, the amount his brother had me send to him using the (rip-off, for profit, somebody’s making a KILLING) web site linked to the jail information pages. We would at least like to get that forwarded to him so he can use it, or refunded to us at the very least.
I’ve about decided to report him as a missing person to the local Sheriff’s office, and see if THEY can find where he is. I don’t know what else to do, and I don’t have any access to legal assistance for this sort of thing. (Couldn’t likely afford it if I -DID- have access, truth be told. We’re retired and on small pensions, and legal aid is a luxury we can’t really afford….)
Does ANYONE have ANY idea who to call or what to try next?? I’m up a stump and don’t know were to turn. Leave me a comment here, I’ll be checking back a few times a day to see if anything comes to anyone’s mind.
Thanks.