Alex spent 18 months incarcerated in a county jail in Wisconsin as a detainee of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). ICE ambushed Beto after a routine check in and incarcerated him for 9 months before he was deported to Mexico. Both men fought deportation with the help of the Organized Communities Against Deportations (OCAD), a Chicago organization supporting undocumented people. This episode explores the harrowing, often untold conditions of immigration detention and the damage done to detainees psyches.
Alex spent 18 months incarcerated in a county jail in Wisconsin as a detainee of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). ICE ambushed Beto after a routine check in and incarcerated him for 9 months before he was deported to Mexico. Both men fought deportation with the help of the Organized Communities Against Deportations (OCAD), a Chicago organization supporting undocumented people. This episode explores the harrowing, often untold conditions of immigration detention and the damage done to detainees psyches.
Narrator: [00:00:00] Change agents.
Two men reveal the emotional, physical and mental struggles faced while incarcerated at the hands of Immigration and Custom Enforcement, ICE. Here's journalist Jesus Montero and activist Alex Torres with Taken Away.
Jesus Montero: Growing up in the early morning, as the sun was rising, coming home from his overnight shift at the factory he still works at My father would tell me, Mijo, Today, Echele ganas. Translated from Spanish, Echele ganas means to give it your best or to do something with feeling. My father is an immigrant from Mexico who risked his life swimming across the Rio [00:01:00] Grande in search for a better life.
At the young age of 17, my father left the only world he knew to one day provide me the land of freedom and opportunity. I often think about that ultimate sacrifice and how at the young age of 17 years old, my father was more of a man than I am today, risking it all just for a chance at a better life.
Many live in the shadows out of fear that they'll be taken from that chance, taken from the place they call their home, taken from their family. Taken from everything they know and everything they love.
Alex Torres: I know that I just wanted it to end and that included my life. I felt that maybe it would be easier if I just ended my life. Maybe that way my family would have the opportunity to bury me and not die in my country where the rest of my family can't visit and can't bury me or give me a [00:02:00] proper memorial.
I, at some point, I thought, well, if I end it all here, it'll be easier for them. They'll at least be able to have my remains.
Jesus Montero: Francisco Alex Torres describes how he felt during his 18 months of incarceration at an ICE detention center.
Alex Torres: Uh, during detention I reached a level of depression that I had never imagined before.
Not knowing whether going back to a place where I might potentially die would be the right thing just so that I could end everyone's suffering.
Jesus Montero: In fact, he was more concerned about his family's suffering than his own well being. He knew his mother was spending sleepless nights worrying about him. For more UN videos visit www.
un. org
Alex Torres: I felt I failed myself for not being able to do things for my family that I should have been able to otherwise.
Jesus Montero: What if the person you love the most, your parents, your lover, or your closest friend, is one day taken?
In [00:03:00] 2019, the United States government announced that Detained over 500, 000 people and jailed them across the country in over 200 jails run by the Immigration and Custom Enforcement Agency, known simply as ICE. Immigrants in detention centers can be undocumented or documented immigrants, including people whose immigration status is not current.
Alex is not alone. Vast diverse groups in need are jailed in detention centers across the country, from survivors of torture, asylum seekers, visa holders, and even children are jailed, taken from their families and put in these detention centers. Alex is currently living in a church on the south side of Chicago.
Sometimes his days are filled with gentle sounds of classical music from the music lessons held here.
He's staying here because he fears ICE may target his family.
Alex Torres: Even though I had [00:04:00] been an undocumented immigrant for a long time, I never envisioned what the process was like. I never envisioned what people would potentially go through in detention or for how long that would be or how intricate the immigration system is.
Once I went through it, I realized that there is not nearly as much advocacy and there is not nearly as much publicity into what really happens.
Jesus Montero: Alex's case is still open, meaning I can't disclose why Alex was arrested. But while on probation for that arrest, visiting his probation officer for the first time, Alex was arrested by ICE agents.
The agents had a description of what Alex was wearing and the office he was coming from. His probation officer reported him to ICE. Alex was already battling with his mental health before entering jail. Being locked up increases instability. He went from two different kinds of medication to ten. He suffered from horrible insomnia and had night terrors every night.
Alex Torres: It just feels like they're telling you, you [00:05:00] don't have the right to live, you don't have the right to be protected. I remember just how much anguish and how much guilt I felt.
Jesus Montero: Alex spent most of his time reading as a way to cope. He also spent his time helping others in need of guidance.
Alex Torres: Being in a, in a detention center where mainly there were Spanish speaking people, I felt that it was my job to help as many people as I could.
Just writing requests for things that people needed or translating between them and the officers or translating, you know, legal documents. It's a lot of times.
Jesus Montero: Growing up for Alex, he credits his mother as his biggest influence.
Alex Torres: My mom has always been as involved in my life as she can.
Jesus Montero: When Alex was arrested by ICE, Alex's mother didn't waste a single second in trying to get help for her son.
He told me his mother would have called the White House if she had the direct number. His mother connected with a Chicago based group. Organized Communities Against Deportation, or OCAD. They are a group of organizers building a resistant movement [00:06:00] against deportation and the criminalization of immigrants and people of color in Chicago.
They assist deportation cases with tailored goals for each individual case. Antonio Gutierrez is one of the co founders of OCAD. Antonio is also the coordinator for strategies and overseas One
Antonio Gutierrez: of our most important values as OCAD is this aspect of being undocumented led. So we believe that as undocumented people we can fight ICE and that we don't need allies or elected officials to do that for us.
That we can talk to the public about it, create narratives about how we've been criminalized. for so many centuries in this country and that in this country we have an issue with how our immigration system is broken based on the fact that it's based on a system, right, of white supremacy and xenophobia.
And it's really important for us to really make those [00:07:00] connections between criminalization of immigrants happen and how then tools further criminalize, like for example, the gang database, right, the Chicago Police Department has is then used by the police to criminalize immigrants and people of color, but then how that then that tool is shared with other agencies like ICE.
Jesus Montero: OCAD works with individual cases and creates an action plan specific to each case. For Alex, he needed support dealing with the living conditions, something Alex was very vocal about.
Antonio Gutierrez: For Alex's case, OCAD created a public campaign to create a narrative about why he was still being held in detention, even though the judge had already approved an asylum claim, which grant him relief and was able to like get him released.
But regardless of that ICE was still holding him. And so it was more about highlighting Alex's like circumstances and the conditions that he was experiencing inside the detention center to pressure ICE into his release in itself. [00:08:00]
Alex Torres: They were super supportive. They checked in with attorneys. They always made sure that I was okay, that I was at least able to communicate with my mom.
They, uh, went to my court dates. They made flyers. They signed petitions. They called the ICE office every day and they asked for my release.
Jesus Montero: Throughout the entire process, Antonio and OCAD kept the pressure on.
Antonio Gutierrez: The creation of graphics around specifics about Alex, where he was from, or like what kind of like legal relief he had, giving a little bit more information about the ICE.
Like name, uh, or the ICE agent's name, phone number, so that people could call them on the behalf of Alex to try to pressure that individual, right, to release Alex within a specific timeline. Those were ongoing for almost a year.
Alex Torres: Having community support and being able to have empathy from [00:09:00] other people that are not particularly close to me, but that know the pains and that know the process.
And that know, what really happens is incredible.
Antonio Gutierrez: Alex was highlighting the conditions inside the detention center. Then all of a sudden the legal team was announced that Alex was going to get released.
Jesus Montero: Hearing the news of his release, Alex couldn't believe it. Instead of getting his hopes up, he asked the guard at the jail to double check to make sure they got it right.
His release couldn't come at a more perfect time. His mother's birthday and Mother's Day was just a few days away. He decided to surprise his family with an in person visit after his release, spending 18 months in an ICE detention center.
Alex Torres: My mother just right away like threw herself at me and we both just cried and, you know, my father came and my little brother was hugging my leg and, you know, crying and he was holding me and he was holding his ball and he just said, I love you.
I'm so happy you're out. My dad, he's not very expressive, but he gave me a very big hug and a kiss [00:10:00] and then he rustled my hair and say, hi, son. It was great. Um, I felt so loved.
Jesus Montero: Although Alex was experiencing what many can only dream of. It's a part of him he wants to put behind him. Adjusting to the outside world wasn't easy for him.
Normal everyday sounds that we hear made him feel uneasy. Alex was suffering with effects of post traumatic stress disorder.
Alex Torres: Very often I like to think about those hugs, but at the same time, it's also a part of my life that I want to put behind.
Jesus Montero: Why do you want to leave that behind you? What did you experience that you want to put all that behind you?
Alex Torres: It is something that scars me and that scarred me and it's something that I relive many nights during my sleep. And It really shakes me up emotionally every day, even though I'm back home. I know that while my case is still open, I still am not off the hook. I can still go through all of that all over again, and it's not something that I wish anyone to go through.
Jesus Montero: [00:11:00] According to Detention Watch, the average daily population of detained immigrants is well over 50, 000 in 2019. Speaking with Alex, I couldn't help to think about my life and those at risk of deportation. People I care for the most on this planet are constantly living in fear. Fear that a traffic stop or mistakenly filled out paperwork can potentially take you from the only home you know.
I'm afraid of that happening. I'm even more afraid I can't do anything to stop it. And I'm mortified if or when that happens.
News Clips: So called dreamers race to the finish line to renew nearly 180, 000.
Illegal immigrants with criminal
record, leaving her young children running from the tear gas fired by us.
Beto Lopez Gutierrez: I feel like I was an object. I feel like I wasn't even a human while we've been in detention. [00:12:00] We didn't have a voice.
Jesus Montero: That's Jesus Alberto Lopez Gutierrez. He prefers to be called Beto. Beto was jailed for nine months in an ICE detention center where he was transferred four different times and lost over 50 pounds.
To celebrate his birthday, Beto went camping with friends. He's always considered himself an outdoors nature person. His group of friends flew to Colorado and decided to drive back to Chicago. Police pulled their car over in Iowa. Police said they pulled over the vehicle for speeding, going 78 miles an hour when the limit was 70.
Beto believes they were racially profiled. Arrested although he wasn't driving, Beto wasn't nervous. They cited possession of marijuana for his arrest. Beto had been arrested before in Chicago for marijuana, but never convicted. He was immediately taken into ICE custody. They gave Beto two options. The first, see an immigration judge to please case, or sign up for immediate deportation.
Beto called his brother Miguel.
Miguel Gutierrez: And I got this call from this weird number and [00:13:00] I answered and it was my brother, uh, telling me that he had, he was in ICE custody.
Jesus Montero: Miguel Lopez manages OCAD's membership and leadership development. He's also an artist that guides development projects for the organization.
Miguel was also leading his brother's deportation case.
Miguel Gutierrez: At the beginning, like, those conversations, they were hard. He was asking of, like, how long will he have to, like, stay in detention. And that's what was the hardest thing, him being locked up for nine months.
Jesus Montero: Knowing too well from his experience working with OCAD, Miguel knew the long road ahead for his brother.
Miguel worked with his OCAD team to create an action plan for his brother to fight his deportation.
Miguel Gutierrez: As OCAD came up with some proposals and then we brought it up to Beto and see what he thought if he was, if he wanted to fight and struggle and challenge this, uh, deportation. He committed to it, he wanted to fight, he wanted to stay here with his family and so we took that on.
Beto Lopez Gutierrez: I'm so like thankful. Thankful [00:14:00] for my brother because without him, like this would, uh, this fight would never happen to he always be like, I like the backbone of the family. He's always that dude that cheers up the family. Like when there's always like a problem, he's always the one that takes the lead, you know, like try to like help us.
Jesus Montero: The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. Otherwise known as DACA is a federal program that protects undocumented immigrants who arrived to the United States as minors before the year 2012 from being deported. They are often referred to as dreamers. Beto was a recipient, but at the time of his arrest, his DACA had expired.
Antonio Gutierrez: There's two entities as part of immigration. So when we talk about Homeland Security, there's the agents, kind of the very police militarized agency, which is ICE. And then there's the administrative agency, which is USCIS. It's the officers that work with USCIS that determine that. And so Beto was [00:15:00] detained in an ICE detention center, but we were doing the DACA renewal application with USCIS. A miscommunication that happened where USCIS was telling the attorneys that they needed to file the DACA renewal with ICE because ICE was holding Beto currently at a detention center. Well, when the legal team attempted to do that, ICE was saying that no, that they actually needed to go and do that with USCIS.
And at the end of the day, those were months that Beto was still in detention.
Jesus Montero: According to the Freedom of Immigrants, the three most reported types of abuse at an ICE detention center are medical issues, nutrition issues, and prolonged jail sentences.
Beto Lopez Gutierrez: Peers that had like dental problems, you know, like dental pain and uh, they would just give them a Tylenol and that's it.
They either give them a Tylenol or take their tooth, tooth out. So I was like, no, that's not, that's not good options. You know, just you either take out your tooth or take a Tylenol.
Jesus Montero: While incarcerated Beto searched for support from other detainees to come [00:16:00] together. When the community of support was established, Beto shares his friends would often disappear the very next day.
Beto Lopez Gutierrez: Anything you wanted to say or you wanted to do, you couldn't do. You just had to follow orders and that's it. And yeah, it really kind of affected you because getting familiar with someone similar to you. Well, we're all similar, you know, most of us were ICE detainees. We had different, like similar situations.
You're talking to someone, you know, like trying to make a friendship and they're, uh, so you won't be all by yourself. And then out of, out of the blue, they just separate you.
Jesus Montero: He shares with me how he would often spend his time while incarcerated.
Beto Lopez Gutierrez: I wrote a lot in there. Try to write like poems. I wrote like poems for soups.
I wrote, uh, I was writing for soup. I even wrote a poem for one of my friends. In the last jail I was in, he was trying to propose to his wife, but he didn't know how to. So I kind of, I wrote him a poem and they actually, and she said, yeah. So, you know, I would just connect with other [00:17:00] people. Like while we're in there, we're by ourselves in there.
So if we don't help each other, nobody's going to help us out.
Jesus Montero: Despite being incarcerated, Beto was thankful. Being locked up made him realize how lucky he had been in life. It was the support from his family that kept him going.
Beto Lopez Gutierrez: It made me realize how lucky I've been, like, in this life, um, to have my family.
So it really impacted me just leaving my family from one day to another.
Um,
but what really gave me hopes to keep on going in there while I was in there, it was that I was going to come out of there one day. I don't know when, but I knew I was going to get out one day.
Jesus Montero: He understood why others in his situation wouldn't fight and just seek immediate deportation.
They had a family to support, and they couldn't do that from behind bars. To him, risking it all and trying to enter the U. S. again seemed like a better opportunity to provide and be there for their family than fighting the system from within.
Beto Lopez Gutierrez: I
feel like that was one of the main reasons why people choose deportation instead of fighting their kids, because their kids are not going to wait a month or a year.
or a year to, to get their [00:18:00] food, you know, same as the wives. So I feel like that's why a lot of people in detention, they choose deportation because it will be a faster process to get deported and they come back, you know, they try to come back. Like me not having a family of my own really like helped me get through that situation.
Jesus Montero: Beto's brother Miguel describes some of the action behind releasing his brother.
Miguel Gutierrez: But I would say that the most common things that come up in people's cases are having press conferences where we are announcing updates. For Beto, we had a federal lawsuit. Every time there was a court date, we would do court support.
People would show up, either in person at the court, letting the judge know that people were with Beto, having a press conference after, uh, what we call local media, so they can report on this. Eat all that sub. It's about creating that public narrative.
Jesus Montero: Miguel urges these campaigns are important, especially in the public's eye.
Miguel Gutierrez: That's why it's so important having [00:19:00] this public aspect and community support. For Beto, it was a really complex campaign. Like doing phone bankings, that was another thing where I would go different places, like especially school. We connected with local undocumented led student groups in different universities.
We made tons of calls and like all of that pressure that their phone never stops ringing. Demanding that he was, him to be released. That was also really impressive. Writing letters to Beto when we will have a community asambleas and mailing that, those things to him so that he can continue fighting.
Like also being motivated knowing that there's a whole community Um, outside cheering for him, supporting him, waiting for him to be released.
Jesus Montero: Beto was denied his first bond because he admitted to the marijuana convictions. When Beto found out he was being released, he kept the news to himself. He was more concerned about how others would feel knowing that they are still locked up in detention while somebody they knew [00:20:00] was getting out.
Beto Lopez Gutierrez: Like, yeah, at first I was like, you know, happy and I couldn't believe it. But that day I didn't want to tell my friends because like, I don't know. I felt like, Oh. This guy's gonna get to leave, you know, he's leaving us, you know. I was like, so happy inside, but I didn't want to show it to other people, you know, showing that, oh yeah, I'm just gonna get out and forget about everything now, like.
I felt sad leaving, to be honest. I wanted to leave jail, but I felt sad leaving like all those people behind. I feel like some kind of like hatred. I don't know. Seeing all those people in there and I can't really do anything like by myself, you know. My heart stay with like with those people and like that are suffering, you know.
Jesus Montero: I can't imagine the biggest news you've ever had in your life and you feel guilty. Beto turned to those inside with him and created a family. Family is everything. I'll do anything to protect the ones I love. Do everything in my power to shield them from any pain or harm. While Beto was entering back into society, reuniting with Miguel and his family, Beto was leaving [00:21:00] behind another family.
Beto felt guilty because of the support he was receiving while his friends on the inside didn't have that same support. This inspired him to not only continue his fight against ICE, but to also support others facing the same battle. On the outside, because of Miguel's leadership and OCAD's constant public pressure, his brother Beto was being released.
Although it had already taken a huge toll on Miguel.
Miguel Gutierrez: My brother's fight took a lot of effort in my like whole life, because at home it would be sad being with my parents and my family and Beto was taken. Not there. And then I'll go back to my house and work and it'll be about Beto and like the boy, I will do it for him and anybody else.
I love Beto. I love my people and I think this work, it's like we do it because we love communities and because we wanna see them thrive and we know that this are, these things are unjust. It, it is tiring. I, I'm. I'm in it for the long haul like we're gonna keep fighting and stuff. I [00:22:00] also have learned or I needed and I have learned to to know like how to take care of myself how to rest as well and how to like disconnect a little bit when I need to in order to keep fighting and to recharge and keep fighting.
Jesus Montero: When released ICE never gave Beto information on how to follow up after his arrest. He received a letter to report to an ICE office in Iowa or face immediate deportation. Antonio, Miguel, and the rest of OCAD and Beto asked to meet at either a local office or online due to the COVID pandemic. ICE said first meeting needs to be in Iowa, and it needs to be in person. They arrested and deported Beto as soon as he arrived. Beto's currently living in Zapopan, Mexico. He has lived there the past five months since being deported in June.
Beto Lopez Gutierrez: Education and organization, I feel like those are the major Tools that we have as humans and we all get together.
I personally saw [00:23:00] this in my case. I never noticed that having my community together, that really has a big impact. Now that I experienced that it's time to like, kind of like make this bigger, you know, like it's our turn to fight for our rights as an immigrant, it's time for us like Hispanics, you know, to like step up our game, you know, to fight for our rights.
Jesus Montero: OCAD's key role in Beto's case inspired his vision to help others.
Antonio Gutierrez: We believe that ICE is an agency of terror for our undocumented communities, that they should be much more administrative and humane process for how individuals can apply for legal relief, for legal status within this country, that doesn't need to rely on private detention centers that again, as I said, profit out of keeping humans in cages for prolonged periods of time without any causes other than us being undocumented.
And so we need to abolish those detention centers and ICE as an agency in order to really talk about what [00:24:00] reform around immigration is to look like the nation level, but that those conversations need to happen without having our people in detention center for months or sometimes years. That we could have them while those individuals are still with their families in our communities.
Beto Lopez Gutierrez: Seeing like organizations like OCAD that are fighting for people's rights like made me like really open my eyes and see that if we organize we could do so much things to like live a better life.
Jesus Montero: A better life, something we all want for our families. A goal we all collectively have in this country that motivates and encourages us to do better and to be better, just for a chance and an opportunity at a better life. Unfortunately, for the millions of immigrants, those opportunities, forcefully, aren't for them.
Reports of force, sexual abuse, solitary confinement as punishment, and even more recently, widespread [00:25:00] hysterectomies, the human rights violations occurring at ICE detention centers. We'll leave a generational trauma never seen before in this country. Speaking with Alex and Beto was inspiring. The trauma they endured, they use it as fuel for advocating and speaking out against the injustices they witnessed.
Getting to know Alex through our many conversations, he often held back with sharing. It was difficult. He was concerned talking about things would bring back old demons. But throughout our conversations, Alex opened himself up to talking about things that nobody should have witnessed.
Alex Torres: It was very late at night because I was often the one person who translated for other people.
I was called down. This man, he tried to hang himself. He still had the sheet wrapped around his neck and his face was purple. And I could see the markings. And some nights, I dream about it.
Jesus Montero: Alex's bad dreams are of his past. He lives gratefully wanting what's best for [00:26:00] him. The others he could help and his family.
But Alex is also worried. Worried that may happen all over again, worried that he's taken from that chance at a better life. From more information on how to get involved or to make donations, please visit organizedcommunities.org. If you or somebody you know has been detained, please contact the deportation support hotline.
At 855 434 7693. This is Jesus J. Montero with Taken Away.
Narrator: Thank you for joining Change Agent. Produced by Juneteenth. Funding support from the Chicago Community Trust. And by The Field Foundation. [00:27:00] Please subscribe to our series on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, or wherever you find podcasts. Do you have a story to share? Join us in the ongoing conversation on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and our website changeagentsthepodcast.
com.