A man seeking asylum after defecting from the Venezuelan military is still at the Otay Mesa Detention Center, six months after he was one of the very first arrests at San Diego’s immigration court back in May.
The 22-year-old man, whose family asked that he be identified only as José for his safety, was an officer in the Venezuelan army who disagreed with the Maduro regime, so he defected and made the journey to the U.S., arriving in San Diego in January to seek asylum, with hopes of one day working for the U.S. military.
At what he and his attorney Michael Hirman thought would be a routine hearing on May 21, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents took José into custody and placed him into expedited removal, which is essentially a faster way to deport someone without appearing before a judge, requiring only an interview to determine if the person has what’s called a “credible fear” of being deported to their home country. Hirman said José passed that interview in June.
“He will be killed by the Venezuelan army upon reentry,” Hirman said. “From their perspective, he’s a deserter. And they will shoot him.”
ICE did not respond to request for comment on José’s case.
Hirman said last week, he had the first hearing in José’s case since June – but San Diego’s immigration court is so overwhelmed now that the paperwork he filed was somehow not accepted and the court, he said, “wasn’t ready to take on the case.” Included in his filings, he said, was an August order from a federal judge temporarily blocking the use of expedited removal nationwide in the way it was used for José’s arrest.
“Unfortunately, there’s so much pressure being put on these immigration courts from high above that oftentimes they’re really operating at the very edges of their capability,” Hirman said. “The system needs to slow down. It needs to take a breath and make sure it’s doing things properly and correctly.”
José’s uncle said he came to the U.S. because their family and people around the world see it as a safe haven from corruption and instability.
“There are many places in the world where people can migrate,” he said in Spanish. “But when we’re talking about political persecution, when we’re talking about torture, I feel that the United States has always presented itself as a country that protects, a country that provides safety because we believe there is rule of law.”
So he said he doesn’t understand why his nephew was arrested and is still detained, even after he passed his credible fear interview. José’s uncle said agents tried to trick him into signing an agreement for his own deportation.
“We have to be sure no criminals enter our country. We have to protect our citizens. I understand, and I applaud that,” José’s uncle said. “But what I cannot understand is unjustly manipulating information. I cannot understand deceiving people. I cannot understand keeping someone detained when there is no need for it.”
“I can understand that happening in Venezuela — that’s why so many Venezuelans leave, because of the corruption, anarchy, political instability,” he continued, adding, “But not here, in a country that presents itself as stable, where there’s a separation of powers, where the system works, where Americans and everyone here feels secure because they believe in the process.”
José’s uncle said he’s lost weight and has bitten his fingernails down completely since being detained, anxious about what may happen.
“He said, ‘If they deport me, they might as well buy a coffin for when I get there because that’s what will happen. They’re sending me to my death,’” his uncle recounted.
His uncle added that the ordeal has cost them financially – and the taxpayer.
“You and all of your viewers are paying for his upkeep,” Hirman said. “If he was out, under regular circumstances, he probably would have received a temporary work permit to allow him to work and earn money to support himself and, critically, pay taxes. But instead, he’s locked up in a detention facility where he is simply at the will of the U.S. taxpayer.”
ICE estimates that detaining an individual costs about $152 a day, meaning it’s cost more than $27,000 to detain José so far, with no end in sight.
“They’re paying to house him, to clothe him, to feed him, everything else that a person needs, the U.S. taxpayer is paying for,” Hirman continued. “And honestly, people ought to be asking themselves, why? Why are we doing this?”
Hirman said José has specialized training in how to be a prisoner of war, but the vast majority of people in detention do not, so he’s had several clients give up and agree to be deported, adding that this case is sending a message to the world.
“It’s ham handed is what it is,” he said. “It’s just saying to anyone that’s come here, your case has no merit. You don’t deserve to have any sort of due process or review. And we’re just going to send you back to the lions. We don’t care. And that’s not how we do things. That’s not how America was built.”
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