Jacob
UPDATE: Just in time for Father’s Day, our client, Jacob, is out of detention and reunited with his family.
We fought so that Jacob could hug his family again – and we did it.
Because of our community of allies and advocates making phone calls, writing emails and letters, and showing up in protest, Jacob is now home. (His story is below.)
Jacob is incredibly thankful and appreciative of the effort we all put into his release. He shared the following words with us:
“I would like to thank all those who supported me. All of us are still fighting for all [those] who are being incarcerated unfairly and who are being treated unfairly. And I must say, continue to fight. And if there's any way I can assist, I would be more than happy because I am ready to help and to fight to get some of these people out. Thank you.”
Feb 2
Imagine being trapped behind bars and separated from your family for months simply because you did the right thing. For our client Jacob, that nightmare is his reality.
Jacob is a husband and father of 9- and 10-year-old children who was working as a police officer in the country he called home. (RAICES is not revealing the country where Jacob was born to protect him from additional retaliation. We are also using Jacob as a pseudonym to protect our client’s identity.) When he spoke out about the brutal and punitive corruption that plagued his department and community, government officials threatened his life, and he fled to the U.S. with his family to escape retaliation. Now, police officials in his native country want him extradited so they can continue to persecute him and his family. We can’t let that happen.
An immigration judge denied Jacob’s asylum application, but we’re fighting hard to appeal his case. There is no reason why Jacob should be behind bars as his case moves forward. ICE can and should release him so he can be with his family.
Jacob entered detention as a healthy person who primarily ate a vegetarian diet. Now, for the first time in his life, his blood pressure is spiking. The poor quality of food and the stress of detention are causing his health to decline rapidly. Detention officials gave Jacob pills after his blood pressure tested consistently high but refused to tell Jacob what they were or let him see a doctor. Jacob justifiably refused to take the pills without the advice of a doctor and a proper prescription. Inadequate medical care in detention is systemic but for Black migrants like Jacob, racism in healthcare, including practices rooted in the racist trope that Black people don’t feel pain or need medical care, have caused extreme cases of medical negligence that have led to the sterilization and even deaths of Black migrants.
Detention can be deadly for Black migrants like Jacob. If his high blood pressure goes untreated, it could lead to heart attack, stroke and even death. We need to free Jacob so he can get proper medical attention before it’s too late.
In addition, Jacob has been in detention for months without access to a hair comb suitable for his hair texture. When his wife sent him a comb, detention officials immediately confiscated it. Denying Jacob basic hygiene is one way to strip him of his dignity and humanity – it’s a racist practice rooted in anti-Blackness that institutions have historically used to control and abuse Black people.
Jacob is a father, husband and an incredibly brave person who should be rewarded for blowing the whistle on police corruption, not treated like a criminal.
We know that freeing Jacob is going to be an uphill battle but, at RAICES, we don’t back down just because things are difficult. We protect whistleblowers and believe that every asylum seeker deserves legal representation and due process.
