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Lindsay Toczylowski

10 Mar, 11 tweets, 7 min read

Jose spent 888 days in ICE prisons before he was freed last April. He fled Guatemala as a child after being shot in the stomach and left for dead. He was ordered deported by Judge Tara Naselow in 2017 when he was just 17 y/o and unrepresented. (thread)

By chance, I met him shortly after & we began long fight to right this wrong. Over the next 2.5+ years I visited Jose in 4 ICE prisons & told him many times that we weren’t going to give up. Sometimes I cried leaving worried I was creating false hope while he continued to suffer.

And then today, a LA Superior Crt Judge made orders finding that Jose was abused, abandoned & neglected by his parents & that it is in his best interests to remain in the US. With this, we are able to apply for his SIJS visa & are now one (huge) step closer to keeping him safe.

@ImmDef

I am so proud of the team @ImmDef & beyond who contributed to getting us here. Especially @Yliana_JM @Meethsoni2 @KarenTumlin @jactioncenter and so many more who poured their hearts and souls into setting him free and bringing him justice. Seeking asylum should never be this hard

Things have not been easy since Jose was freed last April after 2.5+ yrs in ICE prisons. Creating community in a pandemic, while wearing an ankle bracelet & without a work permit, has been hard. If you are interested and able to support his GFM, link is gofundme.com/f/9ewdpu-jose-…

We may never know why all of this happened to Jose. But I am confident that we are on our way to justice. We will keep fighting to ensure all people seeking protection are #welcomewithdignity & Jose’s case will forever remind us that the fight for justice is a fight worth having.

@brittny_mejia

Several reporters have covered Jose’s story in the past, including this excellent piece from @brittny_mejia of the @latimes who was one of the first to take the time to dive into his story in 2018:

google.com/amp/s/www.lati…

@teoarmus

There was another great piece in 2019 about Jose from @teoarmus at the @washingtonpost focusing on the injustice of the “junk science” dental exams the govt used to illegally hold him as a minor in an adult ICE prison for more than a year:

google.com/amp/s/www.wash…

@KannoYoungs

In 2020, as Jose was being freed by federal court order, @KannoYoungs wrote about the plight of Jose and other young migrants who the government was choosing to keep detained in deadly conditions despite a raging pandemic:

google.com/amp/s/www.nyti…

@ImmDef

So getting justice for Jose (which we still have a ways to go to fully achieve) took significant resources from @ImmDef and multiple partner orgs, dozens of lawyers helping, press coverage in 3 of the biggest papers in the country and a whole community of supporters in LA.

All of the effort was absolutely worth it because I really believe that we saved Jose’s life.

But seeking asylum should never be this damn hard.

#RestoreAsylumNow #WelcomeWithDignity
#TeamJose
#ImmDef
#DueProcess4all
#FreeThemAll

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More from @L_Toczylowski

Lindsay Toczylowski

@L_Toczylowski

26 Oct 20

@LastWeekTonight

Wierd thing happens when I watch border/asylum stories on tv. Like every Sunday, I’m watching @LastWeekTonight but this week its focus is asylum & I keep having to pause it to catch my breath. I have seen all this in real life but somehow watching it on tv rocks me every time.

@OITNB

This happened to me with the scene in @OITNB where Blanca was leaving prison and was put on an ICE bus. I was sitting in my living room inconsolable watching her boyfriend stand there with flowers waiting for her, knowing she wouldn’t come.

In the show Vida there was a scene where a guy got picked up by ICE & I wasn’t expecting it and I cried so hard I almost threw up. But in real life I would’ve been the lawyer there, all business, explaining what to do and not crying. Cause no one wants their lawyer to be crying.

Read 5 tweets

Lindsay Toczylowski

@L_Toczylowski

22 Oct 20

Towards end of the Obama admin I took my kids to protest his deportation policies. My (now) 11 y/o has asked me since why we went since Trump is much worse. I tell her we went b/c even if you like some things about a friend you still hold them accountable when they are wrong.

I know many friends, particularly immigration lawyers, are worried that if Biden wins the election, he will repeat many of Obama’s mistakes on immigration. I share this worry, but I am holding onto hope b/c I think that so much has changed. We are not the same country we were.

Elected officials who in 2004 I sat in mtgs where they said ‘asylum-seeking kids need to stop coming to the border b/c they are sabotaging chances for imm reform,’ now publicly commit to #EndMPP immediately, stop endless ICE cruelty, & lead with frame that #FamiliesBelongTogether

Read 5 tweets

Lindsay Toczylowski

@L_Toczylowski

10 Sep 20

@taylorklevy

A couple weeks ago @taylorklevy alerted me late on a Friday night to a case of a disabled, 12 y/o boy that was missing. We jumped into action, but turns out our govt had already put him on a plane, alone & confused, and "expelled" him to Guatemala. reuters.com/article/us-usa…

Gustavo's story is infuriating. On Saturday 8/29, I woke up to an email from ICE telling me they had already expelled him alone to Guatemala. His mom, trapped in Juarez in the "Remain in Mexico" program, still had no idea where he was. I had to call her and be the one to tell her

As Gustavo's case played out, I had flashbacks to 2018 when kids were being ripped from their parents at the border. The chaos, the lack of focus on child welfare, the confusion, the network of lawyers and others helping to find him -- it was all so familiar. And disheartening.

Read 7 tweets

Lindsay Toczylowski

@L_Toczylowski

9 Aug 20

There are little things in #ImmigrationNation that are just infuriating, but also a window in to how ICE officers lie to themselves about the impact of their work. An example is the decision about whether to detain the Salvadoran, former police officer towards the end of ep 2.

Officer asks supvsr about detaining given that the man fears return. Then he says “so should we detain him so his case can be heard quickly?” Supvsr quickly says yes. They seem to be trying to convince themselves (or the audience) that they are somehow helping him by detaining.

But the truth is not only does detaining him rip him from his family causing lifelong trauma, but also means he is less likely to win his asylum/protection case & less likely to get representation.

Read 4 tweets

Lindsay Toczylowski

@L_Toczylowski

27 Jun 20

Tonight’s decision in #Flores recognizes the grave danger children in ICE prison are in due to COVID & orders prompt releases. But it only guarantees oppty for release of kids, NOT PARENTS. It’s time to get loud and demand ICE not separate these families. #FamiliesBelongTogether

This decision sets up a binary choice for these parents. Can you imagine being told your child can leave his prison, but only if they go alone? Or you can stay together in an ICE prison where COVID is spreading rapidly. What would you do? Remember: ICE has power to #FreeThemAll.

Judge Gee will require ICE to file affidavits explaining cases where they refuse to exercise discretion & release families together. ICE will have to spell out the binary choice they are forcing on these families: remain in ICE prison together or send child alone into a pandemic.

Read 4 tweets

Lindsay Toczylowski

@L_Toczylowski

30 Jan 20

On train home to LA from SD, I am thinking about all I saw & heard today as we commemorated the 1 year anniversary of the #MigrantPersecutionProtocols by demanding our govt #RestoreAsylumNOW. And I can’t stop thinking about the last case I watched, a mom w/ her 3 kids. (thread)

@ImmDef

I wasn’t able to live tweet case b/c IJ Simpson randomly told me I wasn’t allowed to have a phone in court, which isn’t true, but I was too tired to argue. If you read thread @ImmDef today, this was the mom w/ the kids who had to leave & come back at end b/c toddler was crying.

Mom was exhausted and overwhelmed when the court heard her case at 4:30pm. She told the IJ that she was desperate. She begged him to help her, explaining that her kids have asthma and they are sick all the time and getting worse. Her loud, deep sobs made IJ Simpson uncomfortable.

Read 11 tweets

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