Prince & Pearline

Country of Origin: Jamaica

Currently LIving In: Brooklyn NY

Sitting in front of an immigration judge for the third time, waiting for a decision that will affect the rest of my life, was one of the most terrifying moments of my life. It took almost 7 years, four different detention centers and years of litigation with the immigration courts, Board of Immigration Appeal and the federal court in New York to reach this point. While in detention I was placed in jails with substandard conditions and no help in sight. Conditions varied from jail to jail. I was detained for almost 5 years in Oakdale, a Federal Detention Center in Louisiana. Throughout that time, I experienced problems getting medication for a serious and debilitating medical condition.

My ordeal started in 2000 when I was detained by the INS (now the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement) officials for a New York misdemeanor charge -- possession of marijuana -- in 1996. Subsequent to the conviction, I was placed in a detention center on Varick Street in New York. Three weeks later, I was transferred to a Federal Detention Center in Oakdale, Louisiana where I spent the next 5 years in “civil” incarceration. While at Oakdale, I witnessed a Jamaican detainee, Richard Rust’s death because the Bureau of Prison officials failed to give him immediate medical aid after a heart attack. I also met a detainee named Patrick Brown who was physically assaulted by prison officials at Concordia Parish Prison. He was later illegally removed from the United States while his appeal was still pending in the Louisiana-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

In 2005, with the help of Families for Freedom, a multi-ethnic organization that assists family members and individuals affected by deportation and de-legalization, the NYSDA Immigrant Defense Project and the Washington Square Legal Services of NYU, I was transferred to Passaic County Jail in New Jersey while awaiting my administrative custody review by Immigration & Customs Enforcement.

After my release on bond, I interned as an organizer with Families for Freedom and worked as an office supervisor for NYSDA Immigrant Defense Project. While waiting for my next hearing date, friends and family members asked why I was doing this type of work; why was I putting my case in jeopardy? The things that I saw happen to other detainees and myself, I would not wish on my worst enemy. The public needs to know. Who better to tell it than someone who has been through it?

At my cancellation hearing after my testimony, my elderly mother was wheeled in to testify. The judge stated that she didn’t need hear any more and granted my application for cancellation. As tears came from my eyes, I still think about those who didn’t get the same chance I got.