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Issues Highlighted In Story
ICE incompetence
Family struggles
Long term detention
Introduction
Howard immigrated to the United States in 1991 from Jamaica. Here he met and married his wife, Winnie. This is her account of the ordeal she suffered when her husband was held in ICE detention for 95 days and then ultimately deported after making a claim of citizenship.
Winnie’s Story
My husband got his letter to report for removal when our case was still pending in the 8th Circuit. We had posted $10,000 cash for his bond. We stayed up the entire night before trying to decide whether or not he should report to ICE that morning. If he didn't, we would lose our $10,000 bond and faced them coming to get him anyway (we owned our home, and there was no Sanctuary in Kansas City at the time). He really had no where to hide out. If he did report, we knew we may never see him again. We decided to go ahead and report, and use the $10,000 for him to try to again reenter illegally.
At ICE, we had to wait a good hour before they took him in. I was inconsolable. They finally came to take him back, and we said our good-byes. I vomited in the ICE parking lot. I only made it a few blocks in my car, when I realized I could not drive and had to have my mother come pick me up. We left my car in a restaurant parking lot and came back to get it the next day.
My husband and I were both under the impression that he would leave for Jamaica that day or the next. We then learned that ICE had failed to inform us that he would wait in detention for at least 30 days, awaiting a flight. They sent him to the Morgan County Detention Center in Versailles, MO, located hours from Kansas City. We were able to make it down to visit him only once, as I had to continue working and it was an expensive journey. When we did visit, the rules for visitation were intricate and obscure. For example, an inmate was only allowed a total of 1 hour of visitation within 7 days and could be a maximum visit of thirty minutes each time. This is probably a rule they came up with for criminal inmates, but it's unfair that it should have to apply for civil detainees who have committed no crime.
So, we spent two days down there so we could visit him twice, thirty minutes each time. While we were there we had to go buy him boxer shorts and t-shirts, because at Morgan County, each inmate was only given one pair of shorts and one t-shirt. They were responsible for hand washing them if needed. Life for him there was really rough. Remember, my husband was not deported for committing a crime while in the US, but for making the claim of citizenship.
Sixty days after his arrival, my husband was sent to Miami, Florida for deportation, accompanied by two ICE agents. When they arrived in Florida, they were told they could not fly on to Jamaica because of a hurricane threat to the region. After spending one night in Miami, they were sent back to the ICE office in Kansas City. My husband was then transferred to a facility in Kansas, about an hour drive from Kansas City. He was there for yet another 35 days, because of ICE’s failure to take proper precautions when trying to deport him in the first place, thus wasting their time and taxpayers’ money. We were able to visit him 3 times a week, which was nice, but still difficult because of my work schedule. Visitation was always very noisy. It was also very difficult for the children to visit their Daddy through a glass partition and through a phone. I am a criminal defense investigator. My children know all about crime and why people are in jail. Our two youngest could not reconcile in their minds what their daddy had done to be in jail.
Conclusion
Howard was once again escorted by two ICE agents, back to Miami, and then eventually on to Jamaica, 95 days after initially reporting for deportation. His children have only seen him once in four years. Winnie ultimately lost her home, her car and is in the process of filing bankruptcy. She spent over 30k total to keep her husband from being removed.
