Jose
In November, we shared the story of our client Jose from Nicaragua, who had been unjustly detained in an ICE immigration prison for 13 months — stuck in cruel legal limbo to the sum of over $60,000 taxpayer dollars.
Jose was unable to secure relief in the U.S. or to return home, rejected by Nicaragua for not being registered with a birth certificate — something true of anywhere from 15% up to 35% of children born each year in the country. With no exit or access to family, he remained subject to the mental and physical torture of ICE custody, at risk of falling through the cracks of our immigration system. (His story is below.)
A month later, we are ecstatic to share that Jose has been released thanks to the skilled and steadfast client advocacy made possible by our community of allies.
Because of our supporters, RAICES could focus on what matters most: the meaningful work in front of us in defense of Jose. Thank you.
Nov 28
Jose has been in ICE immigration prison for 13 months — with no end in sight.
He is one of the 6,000 people who currently entrust RAICES to advocate for their freedom and safety, and his services are underwritten entirely through crowdfunding.
Why are we sharing his story? Simply, Jose is one of the thousands of reasons why our collective advocacy is imperative to the people who depend on RAICES.
Jose came to the U.S. after fleeing persecution in Nicaragua in hopes of securing asylum protections —
The very protections that have been dismantled over the last year and are altogether threatened during current bipartisan negotiations in Congress. His case, like so many others in a state where only 4% of individuals in immigration court proceedings have secured relief over the last 25 years, was denied, and he was placed in deportation proceedings.
You may be asking, why is Jose in detention if he was supposed to be deported? That’s because Nicaragua refuses to accept him. He was never registered with a birth certificate — something true of anywhere from 15% up to 35% of children born each year in Nicaragua.
Jose has been in a cruel legal limbo — unable to return home, or to secure asylum in the U.S. That’s right, over $60,000 of our taxpayer dollars have been spent over the last 13 months to keep him in ICE immigration prison.
There is no one else fighting for Jose to be free — except our attorneys and client advocates who are fiercely advocating for his freedom. If we turn away, then who will fight for Jose and those like him?
Jose’s experience is a sobering reminder of why we are in this fight for a humane immigration system and of the years-long pursuit of justice that is sometimes never achieved, even when it defies common sense. As the largest immigration legal services provider in Texas, RAICES believes in a universal representation model — taking on cases no matter the likelihood of success in immigration court.
We fight relentlessly for the freedom and safety of our clients, but we can only do that because we have a community of supporters who make this work possible. Reckoning with a national immigration system designed to inflict pain, our clients are among the 22% of people in immigration proceedings in Texas who have access to legal representation.
