2004-11-23 - 7:33 p.m.
heartbreaking story from another member of the NLG detainees working group- I'm going to try to go to the hearing tomorrow after the master calendar hearings:
I'm writing to share the details of a compelling case from yesterday: (Just turned 18 yr old male from Brazil who has been in US since age 13 and recently lost his only family, his grandmother who passed away last week. No other close family here (his mother has been out of touch for years) and no known family in Brazil. Has grown up in US and considers US home. But no USC or LPR relative. Also "sensitive materials" regarding his case.)
Alex ____)
Alex is a male 18 year old (just turned 18 last Thursday) with Brazilian citizenship. He entered 12/12/99 at age 13 from Brazil on B-2 visitor visa with his mother and grandmother. The mother has long been out of the picture and his grandmother has raised him here. He speaks very good American-accented English (I couldn't tell it was his second language). He had no idea about his immigration issues (his visa overstay) -- as he came in at age 13 and always assumed his grandmother dealt w/ those issues, if there ever were any.
He was detained last week and his grandmother passed away the night of his birthday last Thursday. (I don't know if he was detained before Thursday, on Thursday, or after Thursday.) I also don't know the circumstances of how he was detained and exactly why (i.e. if he was caught doing something wrong).
Judge Klein next specifically advised Alex to speak with an attorney before his individual hearing or try to get counsel to attend it with him. Alex started saying that he already called each and every legal service organization listed on the Free Legal Service Providers handout and got nothing -- partly because he could only make collect calls and very few (if any) would accept collect calls. He also has no money.
Alex then talked to the judge about all he wanted to do was "get out of jail." His grandmother's body is still at a funeral home and he wants to go say good bye to her. He was very frustrated with his situation. At one point he said "just send me to Brazil so I don't have to stay in this jail."
Judge Klein then asked him about his family and reminded him how young he is. He said he just had his now deceased grandmother and his mother, whom he doesn't know how to locate because she hasn't been in the picture in recent years. He also said he knows no one in Brazil and doesn't remember life in Brazil since he was basically raised in the US. Judge Klein said his circumstance definitely warrants some thought as he came here as a kid, now isn't that far from being a kid, and now really has no family here or in Brazil.
Because Alex really didn't want to stay in jail and Judge Klein couldn't discuss the bond issue without touching upon the "sensitive material," she scheduled an individual 30 min hearing for Wednesday, 24 November at 11:30am. She then suggested Alex try the Free Legal Service Providers list again and specifically suggested he contact the Southern New England School of Law's (SNESL) Immigration Clinic because it was close to where he was being held. (I presumed Bristol since SNESL is in Dartmouth.) Alex then mentioned how difficult it is to even be able to use the phone in jail, let alone if the school would accept his collect call.
That was how yesterday's hearing ended. I became worried that Alex wouldn't be able to have access to the phone to call SNESL so I called them this morning. I spoke w/ the director, shared Alex's story, name, and A # and asked if she could look into speaking with him at Bristol. She later called me back to let me know that her contact at Bristol found Alex in the system but said he was no longer there. She also said that law students are normally the ones who represent detainees and tomorrow is a difficult day to get a law student to a hearing as most people have already taken off for Thanksgiving.
I then called the Immigration Court to find out if they knew where Alex was being held. They did and let me know that he is at the Suffolk House of Corrections. I called the Suffolk House of Corrections, tried to speak with Alex and spoke with very nice officers but they said I had to visit in person. (I wanted to try to find out more from him about how and why he was detained and more about his sensitive material, as I thought this information would be helpful to further figure out his issues.)
Relief? I'm not sure what he has. He has no USC or LPR relative. Even for Cancellation of Removal, he needs to have 10 yrs of physical presence (has 5 yrs) and exceptionally and extremely unusual hardship to a USC or LPR spouse, parent, or child (has none). Possibly humanitarian parole?
So this is where the situation stands. I thought I'd write this up to find out people's thoughts and/or if anyone knows an immigration attorney who would be willing to attend Alex's 11:30am hearing tomorrow. All of my contacts at Catholic Charities and the International Institute don't represent detainees. Tomorrow is also difficult because of the holiday week.
