I haven’t written an update in awhile on this and this.
I learned something new this week, we’re not dealing with the INS, we’re dealing with ICE. ICE stands for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Every time I have to say it to someone it sounds weird coming out of my mouth, so I still call it the INS sometimes.
ICE makes me feel like we’re in Hell, and my husband and I are trapped. In Dante’s Inferno the final circle of Hell is filled with a lake of ice, not fire. In the center of the lake, Satan is trapped up to his waist in ice and he claws and flaps his wings trying to get free, but the beating of his wings only makes the icy winds blow harder, the ice will never melt, thus ensuring he will never escape. You see, in the Inferno Satan is the ultimate prisoner of Hell, not the ruler.
Dante and Virgil escape by climbing down the ragged fur of Lucifer, passing through the center of the earth, emerging in the other hemisphere just before dawn on Easter Sunday, beneath a sky studded with stars.
I’m not a religious person, I label myself as agnostic and don’t necessarily believe there is a heaven or hell, but I always enjoyed the imagery of Dante’s poems.
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So here’s what’s been going on this week, my man is still in county custody. It’s been 11 fucking days! ICE was supposed to pick him up from the county jail within 48 hours of his arrest. I hired a lawyer yesterday who seems to have experience advocating to ICE on behalf of immigrants. It is super dangerous in there as he is being held in the felon ward because he’s there on a federal hold. He has no charges but he’s in a high security ward, does this make sense to anyone else? Because I’m at a loss. Since I have a lawyer on ICE’s ass now I’m hoping that he will be moved within the next 48 hours, but if he’s not our next step is to look into filing a writ of Habeas corpus (if you don’t remember from HS government class, that’s protection from unlawful detention).
Unfortunately I learned that we probably won’t be able to make our own travel arrangements if they choose to keep him in ICE custody through the deportation process. However they have a maximum of three months to deport him otherwise they have to let him go. Also, once they finally have him in ICE custody the lawyer can go to the ICE judge and file a motion to have grant him supervised release (kinda like getting out on probation) where you have to check in daily, and then we could make our own travel arrangements. Everything is a huge maybe right now. I’ve been staying pretty strong so far, but today I was falling apart. Part of my frustration was the general lack of answers, part of it was lack of sleep, and the other part was an asshole creditor that was harassing me by phone today while I was trying to take a nap. He called me back three times yelling at me after I hung up on him. This company trying to collect from me for a few months and is breaking all kinds of laws, but I think that’s a rant I’ll save for another post.
Update du jour…
Okay so ICE admited to our attorney that they fucked up, so they went and picked him up today from the county jail. We lobbied for release but ICE has said no for now and has moved him to a facility half way to Mexico. I’m trying to figure out when I can drive the three hours to go see him, possibly tomorrow, I’m not sure yet. Hoping for more news tomorrow.
Snark Pool 