For 4+ months, Ubaldo Ochoa has been held in an ICE detention center in Pearsall, TX while his son awaits his release.
Today, we received a call from him saying it's freezing inside the jail, yet nothing has been done to alleviate the cold 🥶 #FreeUbaldoremezcla.com/culture/young-…
We're unsure if there have been power outages in the detention center but if their heating is working, it's set very low.
Ubaldo told us they were asking the guards (with no luck) to lower the air from the vents bc it was making them colder.
In lieu of heating, his block hasn't received blankets or any type of warm clothes in order to weather the storm.
And to top things off, our status hearing was cancelled today because of court closures in the state.
It's not just Ubaldo either. The situation is dire for incarcerated folks in Texas and many other parts of the country facing record-breaking freezing temperatures.
If you're looking for ways to help, we ask you continue to pressure your Congressional Reps, @POTUS & @AliMayorkas to #FreeThemAll. Send letters. Call. Tweet.
If 2020 & #COVID19 taught us anything, it's that NO ONE should be incarcerated - much less in circumstances like this.
Take action to #FreeUbaldo by contacting ICE Field Office Director, José Correa and urging him to release Ubaldo immediately.
➡️ Call 210-283-4711
➡️ Press2⃣when the machine gives you an option to hangup or call another person
➡️ Spell the name Correa on the key pad (267732)
Here's a calling script you can use:
"Hi, my name is ____ and I am calling to demand the release of Ubaldo Ochoa-Lopez so he can reunite with his 9 year-old son. Ubaldo’s A number is 215-636-496. They both came to the U.S. seeking asylum in 2018 from Guatemala..."
"...and were both separated during the Zero Tolerance period and remained away from each other for two months. Fernando was only 6 years old when this painful and traumatic experience happened. They can’t be separated again. Please release him to his son. Thank you."
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What's happening in Texas is criminal:
Food shortages. Unsafe drinking water. Impassable roads. Flooded homes. A humanitarian crisis like we’ve not seen before.
This is what's going on in immigrant detention centers in the midst of the #TexasFreeze & what you can do to help🧵👇🏾
We have 10 offices across the state and most of our 250+ staff members have been without power for much of the week.
Luckily, we've now been able to communicate with many of our clients & community members both in and out of detention centers.
But things are looking bleak.
Immigrants in detention centers are freezing cold and not able to get the word out about what’s going on inside these prisons.
Ppl w/disabilities are 2-4 times more likely to be injured or killed in a natural disaster, according to @disasterstrat yet they're rarely effectively accommodated in the emergency preparedness plans of gov'ts.
Texas is a blatant example.
Folks with disabilities & chronic illnesses need power for assistive devices and heat to prevent severe impairment.
But how is governor @GregAbbott_TX responding to this & more?
By blaming the Green New Deal...🙄
🚨 BREAKING: Thanks to efforts with @MPower_Change, @SAALTweets, and the 2,600+ of you who took action...
‼️ MR. F IS FREE ‼️
It's been a cruel 243 days of his incarceration.
@ICEgov's actions proved yet again that our immigration system was built on Islamophobia. 🧵👇🏽
Let's clarify that ICE has full discretion to release detained folks at ANY time.
Yet, they keep folks imprisoned under false claims, coding their anti-Blackness & Islamophobia into the language of "danger for community" or "threat to national security" like they did w/ Mr. F.
It's inhumane to have incarcerated Mr. F for 243 days. He missed his child's birth, his dietary needs weren't met, and his health was deteriorating.
Prisons, jails, and detention centers are always a public health crisis, but especially when #COVID19 is ravaging through them.
The executive orders have been released, changes are starting to take place but our work continues.
This is what the #BidenAdministration has done in its first few days/weeks in office & what it still needs to act on in order to truly achieve #MigrantJustice
A thread 🧵⬇️
The 1st batch of immigration centered Executive Orders & memos included things like...
- Halting wall construction
- The Muslim & African Bans rescinded
- DACA restored
- A repealed census order excluding undocumented people
- Restoring deferred enforced departure for Liberians
With the additional new orders announced yesterday that include:
- Creating a task force to reunify families separated under the Trump administration
- Implementing a 3-part plan to improve access to the asylum system
- And an EO reviewing the existing legal immigration system
Ubaldo has been detained at Pearsall Detention Center since October - 4 months - and is in danger of being deported back to Guatemala, leaving his son behind.
The attack on Congress last week established that walls don't work, yet the half built one on the U.S. - Mexico border remains a symbol of all the hate Trump has spewed & generated during the last 4 years.