Supporting immigrants, supporting our neighbors
By Barb Schneider and BJ Christensen
Op-ed contributors
We decided to visit a detainee at GEO Group’s North Lake Detention Center (in Baldwin, 80 minutes from Leelanau County) because it was the right thing to do. There are approximately 1,500 detainees housed there. North Lake is ICE’s largest detention center in the Midwest. We learned about 82 percent had committed no crime and have not had visitors for months.
We learned about the need for visitations from a group called Immigrant Action Coalition who matches detainees with visitors.
We were paired with a 26-year old male from Venezuela named Edwin. His reason for coming to the United States is because of severe economic collapse and widespread shortages of food and medicine in Venezuela. Edwin came four years ago and for the last three years he worked making car seats for the auto industry. Four months ago, he was picked up by ICE. He has no criminal record, not even a parking ticket. He is the sole provider for his family: his wife, newborn, and mother are here in the U.S. He sends money for food to Venezuela for his father and grandfather. The only reason we could discern for his detention was the ICE quota of 3,000 daily arrests and the color of his skin.
What could we do to help? We wrote letters to the editors of local newspapers sharing our visitation experience. We spoke to groups and friends. The second time we tried to visit Edwin, he had disappeared and we have no idea what happened to him. Detainees desperately need immigration lawyers to provide a legal habeas corpus petition allowing for due process.
Upon researching we found the Libertarian thinktank Cato Institute, founded by Charles Koch, states that “Immigrants reduced deficits by $14.5 trillion since 1994. Immigrants pay more in taxes and receive fewer benefits barred from applying for Social Security and Medicare.”
Most immigrants come here as adults so immigrants, cost the U.S. education system about half as much as the U.S. born population. According to the Cato report, immigrants are “subsidizing the US government.” These detainees are not criminals they are not the worst of the worst. They are our neighbors just trying to survive like the rest of us. Detaining Edwin does not make me feel safe, it makes me feel ashamed and asking where our humanity is for allowing our grandparents a chance to immigrate and denying the same to others.
If you are interested in visiting, some detainees speak English but predominantly speak Spanish. For more information on how to help, check out the Immigrant Action Coalition on Facebook or e-mail Resist2Assist@gmail.com.
