A small protest was held outside of the El Paso Immigration Detention Center. It was organized by friends of a detainee.
A friend of Las Cruces resident, Iñigo Garcia-Bryce, is being held at the El Paso Service Processing Center. We agreed not to release the friend’s name for privacy reasons, but we can call him, “John.”
John arrived to the U.S. in December 2022 and has been at the detention center since early October of this year. He was in the process of getting political asylum. John is from Venezuela, and according to Garcia-Bryce he had no criminal history, he just came here seeking a better life and to provide for his family back home. Garcia-Bryce and a group of friends stood outside of the detention center holding signs to protest their friend’s detention.
“This is where I come to visit him on Sundays, and I just wanted to call attention to the fact that the’s being held here,” said Garcia-Bryce.
He held up a sign that read, “The world is watching,” in neon orange letters.
“The world is watching the way we are treating people. I mean we’re supposedly an advanced country that should be treating people well,” said Garcia-Bryce. "Should be giving opportunities to people who are being persecuted in other parts of the world. They targeted him they came to my house and they arrested him.”
John was arrested, according to Iñigo, while collecting his mail. His friend told me he had been living in his car.
Garcia-Bryce was not home when John got detained. I spoke to one of John’s friends who saw him get detained, and she showed me photos of him on the ground while border patrol officers tried to detain him. She also shared a photo of him being held against the wall outside of her house. She said the officers claimed to have a warrant, but they failed to show it to her.
Sharon Trujillo-Kolosseus joined Garcia-Bryce to protest at the detention center. When I spoke to her, she was holding back tears as she explained why she feels it’s an important cause.
“People need to be treated with respect and dignity and kindness,” said Trujillo-Kolosseus.
John had a court hearing scheduled a couple of days after the protest, which I attended.
No phones or cameras were allowed. As we entered the lobby, we had to give our IDs in exchange for a visitor's pass. There were about 20-30 people waiting. Some were there for check-ins, to pay parole and, like us, waiting for court. Next to me, a lady was calling family members and telling them to get up and start praying. After she did that, she went on YouTube and played prayer videos. The lobby was white and dim. It almost looked yellow because of the lights, and the energy was tense. There were about 3 officers. We waited in the lobby for about 2 hours for his case to be heard. He has a Pro bono attorney that just got his case. So, to provide them with time to get things together, the judge rescheduled his court date to February.
“I just want people to be aware of what's going on. Sometimes it's easy to not be aware of the things that we’re doing,” said Garcia-Bryce.
Because we agreed not to identify John due to fear of retribution, we weren’t able to contact ICE about his individual case, but we did ask what would happen to a detainee in similar circumstances. Would he be detained or released?
In a statement, ICE said, "To accommodate various operational demands, ICE routinely transfers detainees within its detention network based on available resources and the needs of the agency. Routine transfers between facilities can occur forvarious reasonssuch as capacity, security, or logistical needs."
