Randy goes to an ICE detention center
I learned through my work at Public Health that there were organizations that had members visiting inmates at the regional ICE detention center in Tacoma, Washington. This intrigued me for a number of reasons:
I speak Spanish and a number of the visitors did not.
I have a temperamental interest, at the root of my medical identity of wanting to provide solace and advice to people who are in a bad way.
I read news with scary and at times outrageous reports of how people are treated in ICE facilities. The latest? At the Florida Alcatraz facility, I read that a form of discipline was to take a detainee and place them prone in an outdoor cage too small to stand within and suffer from sun and mosquito exposure.
I don’t believe everything I read so I thought, “here is an opportunity to really find out what is the state of a deportee in Tacoma?”
Homework: the ICE facility is pictured in this narrative—it is sited on a plain in the port area of Tacoma and carries a legacy: industrial contamination, a federal superfund area containing coal tar and petroleum related contamination from previous gas manufacturing and other industrial contamination as well proximity to the former Occidental Chemical plant where chlorinated (BAD!) solvents continue to contaminate local ground water. So the legacy of this site is sketchy but poses little threat to workers and detainees locked into a concrete box of a building.
There is more! The state of Washington is in conflict with the Feds regarding complaints regarding access to clean air, water quality, sanitation, food quality, and medical care. The facility is managed by a private company which has not allowed State Health Inspectors access to the facility stating it owes compliance to the law to a higher authority, the Federal Government which does not allow inspections, from what I can see, on ANY basis of complaint or concern. What can go wrong? Lawsuits, an inevitable part of the American experience and especially during this administration will endlessly go on to sort that out. It seems to me the credibility of ICE suffers when a public health official cannot inspect for health problems which are done everyday in most walks of life when complaints are made.
I have gone to the facility four times. I don’t always see detainees as hoped because visiting hours and levels of security complicate a timely visit.
I have traveled with a retired nurse who has been doing visits for some time. She set the stage for my first visit. This is a lovely aging woman who is passionate about causes and has walked the talk. We hold different views on many things. Her history: when I was at Santa Cruz, she was a lay midwife in the same area. We have that in common as well as Salinas work as a midwife when I was delivering babies at the country hospital. When she thought about going to college, her father told her, “I am not paying for college just so you can find a husband.” She exacted revenge: she went with a future husband into southern Mexico and lived as indigenous people with indigenous people. She had a hut-birth and was delivered by a blind indigenous midwife. This set her on her path towards guiding births, first as a lay midwife and later as a midwife. While traveling on this road, she managed to demonstrate her antiwar views. With her husband, they stood in front of a train (in the US) bringing military equipment from point A to point B. Her husband lost his legs in that effort and to this day, lives in Nicaragua and is said to be a friend of Daniel Ortega. They were tourists in North Korea…….I expressed some unhappy amazement when she divulged this. I laughed nervously and she explained: “We marched for peace from a mountain in N. Korea and ended at Panmunjom where we met Kim Il Sun.” She told me they broke protocol when when asked by the Great Leader, “How is the Communist Party doing in your country?”
They laughed. He was made uncomfortable. I did not hear the end of the story.
This reflection of a passionate anti-war champion and her unwavering support of the beaten down found me thinking: what exactly is my motivation coming here? While advertising my MD credentials, it was going to be a challenge to use them talking on a phone and through a plexiglass barrier. I settled on information gathering and offering support and advice. As of this writing, I remain engaged, though not passionately—this remains an exercise of interest. The motivation, at its root is a positive one, lending an ear and providing emotional support to people who simply need it.
So, Randy, who did you see? I have been introduced to a few people, one regularly. The first is a 72 year old who has lived in the USA for fifty years. He is without papers. He was convicted of a felony in California years ago—a travesty of justice he says, and the details are sketchy. He has children in LA, citizens, all with blue collar jobs. The site that gives detainee legal status shows the judicial order is for deportation. This is under appeal. The timeline for the appeal is without any structure/dates that I can find. I need to check by phone before I go because he can be deported quickly and without notice. As I have chatted him up, he is amiable, and on close questioning has no specific concerns other than he has lived in this facility for years—two and a half years—which means he was detained during the Biden administration. He has medical problems and for this, I have diagnosed a probable back disc or arthritic condition. He ambulates with a walker. While seeing him over a couple of months, he notes several visits to a local hospital, testing, and a likely disk surgery in the works. He has no confidence in his doctors but no specific complaints: he says the food is ok, he does not feel threatened, and has access to over the counter pain medications. When I asked what would happen to him if he was released here in the US, he states he would live with a daughter in LA. If sent to Mexico? He has no family or connections after 50 years. I asked my Spanish teacher who lives in Merida, and she notes there is no realistic social net for such people in Mexico. He would live on the street.
I met an evangelical woman of 30 odd years. She is the sort of Christian who gazes upward, hands upraised. She prays for people a lot. She is the object of much sexual abuse and violence in her past. Her body has scars from knives and other objects of torture. She is originally from El Salvador - she claims she fled gang violence. I am unclear how long she has been in the USA; she has been in ICE custody for months. She has also been deported, ruling pending an appeal. She asked my friend to write an appeal in English citing her need for Asylum as she is unclear who her lawyer is or will be.
I met a 40 year old woman who was picked up as she left her in-patient alcohol rehab residence. She has had multiple DUI’s. She has lived in the US for 20 years. She has no spouse, no family, few friends, and her traditional workplace is in Oregon. I asked why she would not prefer to go home to Mexico given her lack of any personal connections. She is ambivalent. Sometimes you have to hit a brick wall to change course? She has a deportation notice on file.
Most recently, I meet a woman who, by my way of thinking, should not be in ICE custody and who, but for the President’s intervention before the 2024 election could well have been on her way to citizenship. She has been detained for 5 months. She is from Florida. She is not a citizen of the US though has lived here for twenty years—working, paying taxes, raising a family. Her two boys, in their late teens are US citizens. She has been employed and is without a criminal record though—-this is sketchy—there was an investigation into “fraud” when she applied for food stamps when she and her husband became estranged. He currently provides a roof for the boys while he is recovering from a work related injury that led to toe amputations. The younger boy has a year of High school to complete and the older will likely be looking for work, if he has not found it already. She was uncomplaining and without major complaints when asked: the water coming out of the tap was darkly pigmented, the air movement in her cubicle not good. The food is basic (do you get protein? Turkey. Vegetables? Carrots). People are stressed in confinement and fights occasionally break out. She has not suffered from physical violence. She sleeps poorly and seeks a Habeas hearing with no date set so far. She has a lovely peaceful quality to her speech and facial expressions. She started, as we talked, expressing concern for another woman who is having medical problems. Her’s is the example that my experience working with field workers in Salinas served to have me observe that many immigrants bring net-positive qualities to our country.
I have yet to see an ICE agent. The officials who monitor security for those coming in and leaving are pleasant working men and women. I have witness no attitude, either from that staff or those waiting.
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