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Robert Barkat, a 75 year old man in Philadelphia was hospitalized for lung cancer. He wanted to see his son Joarlais Robert before he died, but he wasn’t allowed to because the government wouldn’t allow him to come to America from Pakistan. The government wouldn’t let him in even though doctors told them that his dad wouldn’t live for long. 

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Robert Barkat died at a nursing home in Yeadon this week, his last and only wish unfulfilled - to see his son one more time.

The U.S. State Department refused to let the son enter the country from Pakistan to visit his stricken father, who had been treated for lung cancer at Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital in Darby.

Barkat, 74, known as Rocky, was given asylum in this country in 1995, after being persecuted in Pakistan because of his Christian religious beliefs. In 2019, the government granted him U.S. citizenship - he took the oath in Philadelphia.

His death marks the denouement to a story of how U.S. immigration policy tilts toward enforcement, giving with one hand and taking with the other, welcoming a father to live here permanently but denying him the comfort of seeing his child in his final months.

"It's a shame that the U.S. immigration system, which is squarely rooted in the notion of family unity and family reunion, was unable to find a way to permit Joarlais to see his father," said Philadelphia immigration attorney Alex Isbell, of the firm Palladino, Isbell & Casazza, who volunteered his services to press the case.
" READ MORE: The hardest change to immigration policy post-Trump? Ending the mind-set that immigrants are criminals.
For years Barkat has been destitute, living on the streets and more recently moving from shelter to hospital to nursing home as his health deteriorated. Since at least October, son Joarlais Robert, 34, had repeatedly sought permission to come see and say goodbye to his father.

The federal government turned down his request for a visa even as doctors warned that time was short.

"He wasn't able to see his son," said Daniel Bonness, 29, a West Philadelphia engineer who became friends with Barkat when the older man was sleeping outside a neighborhood supermarket. "I will miss him."

The problem for son Robert was what's called "immigrant intent," a key concept in federal immigration law. If someone requests approval to visit the United States, the government assumes that the person intends to try to stay permanently.

To overcome that presumption, applicants must convince a consular officer that they have compelling reasons to return to their homelands, such as a spouse, property ownership, and involvement in social or religious organizations.

Meeting those standards does not guarantee approval.

People sometimes deliberately overstay their visas, or even use them to enter the United States while knowing they don't plan to go home. But in 2019 only 1.2% of those admitted into the country overstayed that permission, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. That's out of more than 55 million admissions.

In email interviews with The Inquirer, son Robert insisted he only wanted to see his father, to care for him at the end of his life. His wife, Asma, would remain in Pakistan.

Efforts to contact Robert in Pakistan were unsuccessful Tuesday. A State Department spokesperson said the agency cannot discuss the details of individual cases, as visa records are confidential by law.
" READ MORE: In Pakistan, a son is desperate to visit his dying father in Philly. The U.S. government won't let him in.
Asylum is a protection reserved for those who cannot go home because they have been persecuted or have a well-founded fear of persecution.

Barkat was left brain-damaged by torture inflicted upon him in Pakistan because of his religion, records show. His son said that in 1990, Barkat helped build a church, which provoked a riot. The father was injured and imprisoned, and eventually fled the country, where less than 2% of 243 million people are Christian.

In the United States he suffered from congestive heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and, three years ago, became partially blind in one eye after misunderstanding the directions for his blood-pressure medication.

In March he was diagnosed with small cell carcinoma of the lungs, his life expectancy estimated at months. He was hospitalized in the fall, and died Sunday morning at Yeadon Rehabilitation & Nursing Center.

Bonness said he saw his friend's decline when he visited him at the nursing home Saturday night. The older man had to whisper to speak.

Typically, Bonness said, he didn't say "goodbye" to Barkat when they parted, knowing they would see each other again soon. This time, for some reason, he said goodbye - their final words.

The men shared a strong belief in the teachings of Jesus Christ.

On Tuesday Bonness thought about others who cared about Barkat and tried to help him, like the staff at Wah-Gi-Wah, a Pakistani restaurant in West Philadelphia. They made sure he had food, never charging for his meals.

Christopher Chambers, a Jefferson Health physician who began treating and advocating for Barkat more than a decade ago, earlier described him as someone who "had a light in his eyes and was a fun person."

One time, Chambers said, Barkat showed up with 30 pizzas for the staff. Another day, after a discussion about whether mango was the best flavor of ice cream, he appeared with a case of mangoes, six quarts of cream, and five pounds of sugar, insisting it be mixed into frozen treats for everyone.

Isbell, the immigration attorney, managed to get son Robert another consular interview. The son traveled four hours to Islamabad for what turned out to be a fresh rejection.

On Tuesday, Bonness was considering holding a memorial service for Barkat, perhaps in January. The disposition of his remains, currently at Marvil & Marvil-McFadden Funeral Homes, was unclear.

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Immigration officials denied a son's wish to visit his sick father in Philly. The man has now died.

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Robert Barkat died at a nursing home in Yeadon this week, his last and only wish unfulfilled - to see his son one more time. The U.S. State Department refused to let the son enter the country from Pakistan to visit his stricken father, who had been treated for lung cancer at Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital in Darby.

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Since January 2021 when Joe Biden became president he has been doing things to reverse policies made by trump on immigration. The amount of people receiving green cards since covid started has gone down a lot from 240000 in January to march 2020 too 79000 in April to June 2020. Biden is making a law that will give illegal immigrants a way to become legal and let people who have families in the U.S get a visa a lot easier. 

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(Getty Images)

Since President Joe Biden took office in January 2021, his administration has acted on a number of fronts to reverse Trump-era restrictions on immigration to the United States. The steps include plans to boost refugee admissions, preserving deportation relief for unauthorized immigrants who came to the U.S. as children and not enforcing the " public charge " rule that denies green cards to immigrants who might use public benefits like Medicaid.

Biden has also lifted restrictions established early in the coronavirus pandemic that drastically reduced the number of visas issued to immigrants. The number of people who received a green card declined from about 240,000 in the second quarter of the 2020 fiscal year (January to March) to about 79,000 in the third quarter (April to June). By comparison, in the third quarter of fiscal 2019, nearly 266,000 people received a green card.

Amid a record number of migrant encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border, Biden reinstated in December 2021 a Trump-era policy that requires those who arrive at the U.S.-Mexico border and seek asylum to wait in Mexico while their claims are processed. Biden had earlier ended the Migration Protection Protocols, or "Remain in Mexico" policy, and then restarted it after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a lawsuit by Texas and Missouri that challenged the program's closure. Asylum seekers do not receive a legal status that allows them to live and work in the U.S. until the claim is approved.

Overall, more than 35 million lawful immigrants live in the U.S.; most are American citizens. Many live and work in the country after being granted lawful permanent residence, while others receive temporary visas available to students and workers. In addition, roughly 1 million unauthorized immigrants have temporary permission to live and work in the U.S. through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals and Temporary Protected Status programs.

Here are key details about existing U.S. immigration programs, as well as Biden's proposed changes to them:

Family-based immigration

In fiscal 2019, nearly 710,000 people received lawful permanent residence in the U.S. through family sponsorship. The program allows someone to receive a green card if they already have a spouse, child, sibling or parent living in the country with U.S. citizenship or, in some cases, a green card. Immigrants from countries with large numbers of applicants often wait for years to receive a green card because a single country can account for no more than 7% of all green cards issued annually.

Biden's proposal would expand access to family-based green cards in a variety of ways, such as by increasing per-country caps and clearing application backlogs. Today, family-based immigration - referred to by some as " chain migration " - is the most common way people gain green cards, in recent years accounting for about two-thirds of the more than 1 million people who receive green cards annually.

Refugee admissions

The U.S. admitted only 11,411 refugees in fiscal year 2021, the lowest number since Congress passed the 1980 Refugee Act for those fleeing persecution in their home countries. The low number of admissions came even after the Biden administration raised the maximum number of refugees the nation could admit to 62,500 in fiscal 2021. Biden has increased the refugee cap to 125,000 for fiscal 2022, which started on Oct. 1, 2021.

The low number of admissions in recent years is due in part to the ongoing pandemic. The U.S. admitted only about 12,000 refugees in fiscal 2020 after the country suspended admissions during the coronavirus outbreak. This was down from nearly 54,000 in fiscal 2017 and far below the nearly 85,000 refugees admitted in fiscal 2016, the last full fiscal year of the Obama administration.

The recent decline in refugee admissions also reflects policy decisions made by the Trump administration before the pandemic. Trump capped refugee admissions in fiscal 2020 at 18,000, the lowest total since Congress created the modern refugee program in 1980.

Employment-based green cards

Diversity visas

Each year, about 50,000 people receive green cards through the U.S. diversity visa program, also known as the visa lottery. Since the program began in 1995, more than 1 million immigrants have received green cards through the lottery, which seeks to diversify the U.S. immigrant population by granting visas to underrepresented nations. Citizens of countries with the most legal immigrant arrivals in recent years - such as Mexico, Canada, China and India - are not eligible to apply.

The Biden administration has proposed legislation to increase the annual total to 80,000 diversity visas. Trump had sought to eliminate the program.

H-1B visas

In fiscal 2019, more than 188,000 high-skilled foreign workers received H-1B visas. H-1B visas accounted for 22% of all temporary visas for employment issued in 2019. This trailed only the H-2A visa for agricultural workers, which accounted for nearly a quarter (24%) of temporary visas. In all, nearly 2 million H-1B visas were issued from fiscal years 2007 to 2019.

The Biden administration is expected to review policies that led to increased denial rates of H-1B visa applications under the Trump administration. In addition, Biden has delayed implementing a rule put in place by Trump that sought to prioritize the H-1B visa selection process based on wages, which would have raised the wages of H-1B recipients overall. Biden also proposed legislation to provide permanent work permits to spouses of H-1B visa holders. By contrast, the Trump administration had sought to restrict these permits. The Trump administration also created an electronic registration system that led to a record number of applicants for fiscal 2021.

Temporary permissions

A relatively small number of unauthorized immigrants who came to the U.S. under unusual circumstances have received temporary legal permission to stay in the country. One key distinction for this group of immigrants is that, despite having received permission to live in the U.S., most don't have a path to gain lawful permanent residence. The following two programs are examples of this:

Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals

Temporary Protected Status

Overall, it is estimated that more than 700,000 immigrants from 12 countries currently have or are eligible for a reprieve from deportation under Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, a federal program that gives time-limited permission for some immigrants from certain countries to work and live in the U.S. The program covers those who fled designated nations because of war, hurricanes, earthquakes or other extraordinary conditions that could make it dangerous for them to live there.

The estimated total number of immigrants is based on those currently registered, in addition to those estimated to be eligible from Myanmar - also called Burma - and Venezuela.

Immigrants from Venezuela and Myanmar are newly eligible for TPS under changes made after Biden took office in January 2021 by the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the program. The government must periodically renew TPS benefits or they will expire. The department extended benefits into 2022 and beyond for eligible immigrants from nine nations: El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. In addition, the Biden administration expanded eligibility for immigrants from Haiti based on recent turmoil.

Biden and congressional Democrats have proposed granting citizenship to certain immigrants who receive TPS benefits. Under Biden's large immigration bill, TPS recipients who meet certain conditions could apply immediately for green cards that let them become lawful permanent residents. The proposal would allow TPS holders who meet certain conditions to apply for citizenship three years after receiving a green card, which is two years earlier than usual for green-card holders. By contrast, the Trump administration had sought to end TPS for nearly all beneficiaries, but was blocked from doing so by a series of lawsuits.
Note: This is an update of a post originally published March 22, 2021.

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Key facts about U.S. immigration policies and Biden's proposed changes

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Since President Joe Biden took office in January 2021, his administration has acted on a number of fronts to reverse Trump-era restrictions on immigration to the United States. The steps include plans to boost refugee admissions, preserving deportation relief for unauthorized immigrants who came to the U.S.

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the U.S is going to make it easier for immigrants who don’t earn a lot of money to become permanent U.S citizens.  On December 23 2022 the law that keeps immigrants who need charity like housing vouchers, food stamps, and Medicaid are called a public charge and kept from getting permanent citizenship will be changed. 

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The Biden administration will make it easier for low-income immigrants to become permanent U.S. residents through a new regulation in December that will mark a dramatic shift from strict Trump-era immigration requirements, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced Thursday.

A DHS regulation set to take effect Dec. 23 will codify longstanding standards that dictate when immigrants can be considered an economic burden on the country, or a "public charge." An immigrant found to be a public charge would be disqualified from obtaining permanent residency, or a green card.

The Biden administration's new rules represent a significant departure from those put in place by former President Donald Trump on who falls into this category. During the Trump administration, DHS dramatically expanded the number and types of government benefits used by some immigrants that could make them ineligible for permanent residency.

Under the Trump-era rule - which took effect in 2020 after a months-long legal battle - the use of housing vouchers, food stamps and Medicaid could be counted against immigrants seeking green cards. The Trump regulation also created a new test that considered applicants' income, age, medical conditions, skills and family size to determine whether they were likely to rely on these benefits in the future.

Under the rule taking effect in December, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will only consider green card applicants a public charge if "they are likely at any time to become primarily dependent on the government for subsistence."

That could be the case if they need long-term government-funded institutionalization or public cash-benefit programs, such as Supplemental Security Income or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families.

The Trump administration said its rule promoted immigrant self-sufficiency. But advocates for immigrants denounced the policy as a draconian wealth test, highlighting the "chilling effect" it had on immigrant families, including those with U.S. citizen children, who feared accessing benefits they qualified for.

Within two months of President Biden taking office, his administration stopped defending the 2019 public charge rule against lawsuits, allowing a federal court ruling to block the policy, which Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said "was not in keeping with our nation's values."

In February, the Biden administration released a draft version of its own public charge regulation, which received more than 10,000 public comments. The administration on Thursday said its regulation was designed to curb the "chilling effect" the Trump-era rule had on mixed-status immigrant households.

"This action ensures fair and humane treatment of legal immigrants and their U.S. citizen family members," Mayorkas said in a statement Thursday. "Consistent with America's bedrock values, we will not penalize individuals for choosing to access the health benefits and other supplemental government services available to them."

Hundreds of thousands of immigrants apply for U.S. residency every year, most of them based on sponsorship requests from family members with U.S. citizenship, or from employers. Those granted refugee or asylum status are also eligible to apply for green cards, though the public charge rules don't apply to them.

In the 2021 fiscal year, USCIS received roughly 648,000 green card applications, according to government data. During the first half of the 2022 fiscal year, the agency recorded 280,000 new green card requests.

The public charge test was first codified into U.S. law in the late 19th century, when the federal government started regulating immigration, particularly from non-European countries. During the same time period, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, barring most immigration from China for decades.

The 2019 public charge rule was part of a broader Trump administration effort to limit legal immigration. Under former President Donald Trump, the U.S. slashed refugee admissions to record lows, sought to ban immigrants who could not afford health care, and issued a partial immigration ban during the pandemic.

The Biden administration has reversed Trump's immigration limits and dramatically increased refugee spots. But it has struggled to rebuild the gutted refugee resettlement infrastructure and reform a legal immigration system crippled by bureaucratic delays, reliance on paper records, and a mounting backlog of unresolved cases.
More

Camilo Montoya-Galvez

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u.s. immigration and customs enforcement

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U.S. to make it easier for low-income immigrants to secure permanent residency

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The Biden administration will make it easier for low-income immigrants to become permanent U.S. residents through a new regulation in December that will mark a dramatic shift from strict Trump-era immigration requirements, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced Thursday. A DHS regulation set to take effect Dec.

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This picture is showing that immigrant children get locked up because they don’t have the right documents. It also explains the ways that they should be treated. It says that they should be treated like any other kid, be free, and be looked after 

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In Randall’s island, New York a tent shelter has been set up for immigrants from South America. The shelter cost half a million dollars to make and has phones and lawyers. A lot of homeless people including immigrants who have already been in the U.S for a while have been showing up there to. 

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Tent Shelter for Migrants an Unlikely Draw for Other Homeless Men

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The emergency shelter on Randalls Island constructed by the Adams administration was at first met with criticism. But some immigrants are praising the conditions there.

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In Florida after Hurricane Ian a lot of buildings need to be rebuilt or repaired. There have been a lot of ads for day laborers to repair the buildings. A lot of the ads are in Spanish and take advantage of Spanish immigrants who can’t find work anywhere else. The ads say that everything is going to be great, but when the immigrants get there they get a lot of their pay taken away for their rooms. Some of the workers haven’t even been in. The U.S for a month yet. They make only 12-14 dollars an hour and get part of their pay taken from them.

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Hurricane Ian's wrath had barely subsided in Florida when advertisements for day laborers started popping up on phones across New York through online platforms like Telegram and WhatsApp.

The Spanish-language messages appeared to target recently arrived immigrants and asylum seekers who were desperate for work and had nowhere else to turn.

Advocates said they are worried the migrants are becoming targets of fly-by-night businesses eager to exploit people for hard work and low wages.

"This looks and smells like human trafficking," said Ariadna Phillips, a New York community organizer with South Bronx Mutual Aid.

"They recruit them with these very flashy photographs, saying, 'You're going to make a bunch of money' and 'We're going to give you this great apartment to live in,'" Phillips added.

But when the workers arrive, it's a different story.

Less than two weeks after Hurricane Ian slammed into Florida and devastated dozens of communities, Phillips said she has already heard from several laborers whose wages have been docked to pay for their room and board. They told her that was not part of their agreement with the company.

Some of the people who were recruited had been in the United States for only a week, she said.

"I tell them to stay in New York because that's where they're going to be the safest," Phillips said. "We're a sanctuary city, and Florida was already trying to send people to Martha's Vineyard."

Gov. Ron DeSantis flew two planes of immigrants to the wealthy Massachusetts enclave last month as part of an effort to "transport illegal immigrants to sanctuary destinations," his communications director, Taryn Fenske, said in a statement at the time.

On Tuesday, DeSantis said at a news conference that three of four people arrested last week for "ransacking" communities following Hurricane Ian were illegal immigrants who should be immediately deported.

"They should not be here at all," he said.

His office did not return a request for comment.

On Friday, DeSantis encouraged Florida debris companies to hire locally.

"Many Floridians in Southwest Florida have had their businesses and livelihoods impacted by the storm and are looking for work - the private sector can help them get back on their feet by hiring locally for the length of recovery, which will support the local economy for at least the next six months," he said in a statement.

Experts say immigrants are much more likely to be victims of labor exploitation or suffer disproportionate economic devastation following a natural disaster.

"Not only are migrants the first to be affected by these extreme weather events, but they tend to be the first who try to rebuild," said Ariel Ruiz Soto, policy analyst with the Migration Policy Institute.

Immigrant workers from Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala historically comprise the backbone of the recovery workforce that flocks to regions hit by natural disasters, he added. They helped to rebuild New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and Houston after Hurricane Harvey in 2017.

In a survey of 361 construction day laborers following Harvey, 72% were immigrants who had entered the country illegally, nearly half from Mexico and most of the remainder from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, according to 2018 study co-written by Soto.

Average hourly wages for day laborers ranged from $12 to $14 an hour, and 26% of respondents reported wage theft in the month following Harvey. Many also described not receiving information about job hazards or protective gear.

"These workers are more likely to be working under the table or for companies who are more likely to overlook rules," Soto said, exposing them to potentially dangerous work conditions.

In New York, work advertisements targeting immigrants offered $15 hourly rates, per diems, transportation to and from job sites, overtime and even accommodations, said Phillips of South Bronx Mutual.

One posting reviewed by NBC News included photos of furnished apartments or hotel rooms, complete with full kitchens for cooking meals. Another advertisement written in Spanish and posted by a Florida construction company asked interested workers to contact it through WhatsApp or Telegram and provide their name, age, country of origin and ability to travel.

A third by the same company said it was looking for 300 workers in Fort Myers, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Clearwater, Cape Coral and Port Charlotte.

Phillips said she has spoken with about a dozen immigrants who received the advertisements, and several reached out to her Tuesday through New York's mutual aid community. They had been roaming the streets of Queens for hours, soaked by heavy rain and carrying all their belongings, in search of buses that were reportedly taking laborers to Florida for work opportunities in building trades.

Remembering "horror stories" of immigrants not being paid for work or being deported following previous natural disasters, Phillips rushed to Queens. She helped dissuade a handful of immigrants from traveling to Florida and encouraged them to instead seek help from local shelters and organizations.

Several attempts to reach the company promoting work opportunities were unsuccessful.

"Promises are often not kept to these workers," said Saket Soni, executive director of Resilience Workforce, a New Orleans group that advocates for and monitors migrant workers following natural disasters. "I am concerned they are being recruited through fraud."

In the days following Ian, Resilience Workforce deployed staff members to Florida to observe work conditions on the ground. They were in contact with hundreds of laborers who had made their own way to places like Fort Myers, which bore the brunt of Ian's lashing, and waited outside Walmart and Home Depot in search of work.

Sacha Feinman, communications director of Resilience Force, said he personally witnessed workers "putting themselves in danger," including roofers who were not wearing safety gear and several workers sleeping inside a truck in a parking lot.

"It's real," he said of worker exploitation. "It exists. It operates in the shadows."

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Immigrant workers face wage theft and unsafe conditions as they rebuild Florida

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Hurricane Ian's wrath had barely subsided in Florida when advertisements for day laborers started popping up on phones across New York through online platforms like Telegram and WhatsApp. The Spanish-language messages appeared to target recently arrived immigrants and asylum seekers who were desperate for work and had nowhere else to turn.

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Immigration policies are made by governments worldwide. They are based of of economics, security, and the values of the nation. When a country has a lot of jobs it needs it may make laws that let more immigrants in. On the other hand, when a country can’t support any more immigrants they will make laws that make it harder for immigrants to become citizens. During wars immigrants will be turned away more often because they could be spies. 

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51 people died after being trapped in a tractor trailer while getting smuggled from Mexico to the U.S. they had heat stroke and heat exhaustion. A lot of people have been attempting to cross from Mexico to the U.S recently. The reason they are taking risks like this are because they have no other way to get into the U.S so they pay smugglers to smuggle them in. 

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How U.S. immigration policy is pushing migrants to take more dangerous routes

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Ever since 1996 barely any people were illegal immigrants for very long. After the Illegal immigration reform and immigrant responsibility act of 1996 it became a lot harder for immigrants to become permanent citizens, and there weren’t as many ways for them to get deported. Now it is a lot easier for immigrants to get deported. This law also caused many future laws that made it a lot harder for them. 

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In El Paso a lot of immigrants have been hearing into the U.S because title 42 is ending. Title 42 was a law created by Donald Trump during covid to turn away immigrants from Mexico. Now that it has ended less immigrants are being turned away and the city is getting a lot of immigrants. A lot of the people coming in are really poor and are living in the streets. 

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Officials in El Paso, Texas, brace for end of Title 42 immigration policy

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Border officials and local authorities in El Paso, Texas, are preparing for a further increase in migrant arrivals as Title 42 is set to expire next week. CBS News' Lilia Luciano joins Lana Zak and Errol Barnett from El Paso.

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There have been hundreds of Indian immigrants trying to get into the U.S each month for a long time. However, since October there have been 16,290 Indian immigrants. They are fleeing persecution in India because of their religion. Unfortunately a lot of them are getting detained at the Mexican border. Even after they get into the U.S they still have to convince officials that they can’t go back to their country otherwise they might be sent back.

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US immigration: Why Indians are fleeing halfway around the world

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Facing danger at home, a record number of Indian migrants have crossed from Mexico into the US.

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A lot of immigrants who have been detained by the immigration and customs enforcement have been being abused by the guards there.  Charities like the Freedom for Immigrants have been getting 600 calls a week about the abuse that people go through in immigration and customs enforcement custody. 

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n August 2001, Bel'Or, a native of Congo, arrived at Philadelphia international airport with one suitcase, a visiting visa, and a dream to study at an American university. In the two decades that followed, he learned English and received a bachelor's in finance from Temple University on a student visa. Then one night in 2018, as he returned from spending time with friends to mark the first anniversary of his wife's death, he was arrested by police for a DUI. On 27 January 2020, Bel'Or (identified here by his first name only, for his protection) was placed in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) custody on non-deportable charges.

Once detained, Bel'Or, who had long enjoyed his freedom as one of the 4.6 million Black immigrants in America, joined a new group: the more than 4,500 Black immigrants inside Ice facilities. Ice's database lists about 25,000 detainees nationwide, but does not maintain reliable inmate demographics. Non-profits such as Freedom for Immigrants (FFI) and Black Alliance for Just Immigration estimate that roughly 20% of Black immigrants are waiting for deportation.

Advocacy organizations like FFI also say that this demographic experiences higher rates of deportation; sexual, physical, medical, and psychological abuses in detention; and solitary confinement.

Bel'Or has filed complaints but advocates say those complaints are rarely addressed or even answered. Photograph: Handout/Bel'Or

After 16 months in custody in York county jail in South Carolina, in July 2021, Bel'Or was transferred to Ice detention at Glades county detention in Moore Haven, Florida, where he first learned about filing abuse-related complaints with FFI through its detention hotline. FFI fields close to 600 calls a week, and the team said the bulk of calls received - one in three - are detainees from Black-majority countries.

In the last month alone, FFI has received more than 2,100 complaints nationwide. The most common abuse-related ones are anti-Black discriminatory actions, ranging from forced strip-searches and unprovoked pepper-spraying to prolonged solitary confinement and critical medical treatment negligence.

"There are so many inequities inside of the system," FFI's national hotline manager, Amanda Diaz, said. "It's because the immigration system is rooted in xenophobia and racism that these everyday injustices have become a norm and have been swept under as day-to-day procedure. It's also connected to a larger view that the United States, and I think the average American, have on Black immigrants as disposable beings, and people who are less than human."

During his detention at Glades, Bel'Or called FFI many times. He complained about medical neglect for his pre-existing conditions of hepatitis C, hyperlipidemia, hypertension and diabetes. FFI filed claims with the Department of Homeland Security on his behalf. One complaint includes multiple allegations dating back to Bel'Or's first detention in 2020. The complaint noted that instead of giving him the designated diabetes food tray, as required by Ice's policy, the Armor Correctional Health Services - Glades county's medical subcontractor - increased his insulin dosage. Medical professionals who co-signed the complaint said this could lead to diabetic ketoacidosis - a potentially fatal condition. The letter also noted that long-term uncontrolled diabetes placed him at a higher risk of suffering from severe illness or death.

This level of involvement with Ice detainees is increasingly common for FFI. The group said such cases can be challenging because most of the immigrants they work with are not always candidates for deportation or on a path to citizenship, with some detainees' records indicating they are neither a danger to society nor a flight risk. This also means those with pending cases for citizenship or other legal status appeals are left in limbo, making it harder, if not impossible, to petition their case.

This is precisely what happened with Bel'Or. Before his wife, a US citizen, died from a brain aneurysm, she applied for his permanent residency with the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, when Bel'Or worked as a personal assistant for the Democratic Republic of Congo embassy in DC on a diplomatic visa. However, since his 2018 arrest, the green card application process was stalemated and later denied. His lawyer has requested to reopen the case.

"I've been in this country for over 21 years," Bel'Or said, "and I always made sure I was never out of status."

Bel'Or's struggles navigating the immigration system since his detention have become emblematic of the wrongdoings at Ice facilities across America.

When Ice stopped using Glades in March, after mounting civil rights abuses, inhumane treatments, and federal law violations involving regularly deleting its facilities' surveillance footage, Bel'Or was transferred again, this time to Krome Service Processing Center in Miami, Florida. Krome and Glades are two of 39 detention centers across the country the American Civil Liberties Union advocated to shut down, writing a letter to the Biden administration outlining growing human rights violations.

At Krome, Bel'Or, age 41, has experienced the same "compromised access to counsel and external medical care" and "egregious ... inhumane treatment or conditions" the letter to DHS secretary Alejandro Mayorkas outlined.

Bel'Or said his most recent complaints relate to persistent pain from a tooth infection that has gone unresolved since he first entered Ice custody in 2020. "It's frustrating," Bel'Or said last month from Krome. "They have no compassion for you."

Florida's ACLU deputy legal director, Katie Blankenship, said such cases happen regularly. "People are walking into Ice detention with open wounds or tumors on their bodies, abscess, teeth that are infected, and they will go months without treatment," she said. "That is the system that they have to begin with - you're already set up to fail."

This negligence is a direct violation of Ice's own National Detention Standards, which outline, in part, that all facilities must provide detainees with "medical, dental and mental health care."

Bel'Or also noticed another trend: officers riling detainees into a fight that would land them in solitary confinement - a retaliation technique that has been well documented. A 2020 Punishment and Society Journal study found that Black immigrants are six times more likely to spend time in isolation.

"The guards are very aggressive - physically aggressive - and some of them are verbally aggressive," Bel'Or said. "They try to put me in a situation where it's like they're provoking you. It's like they enjoy it."

Guards have increasingly targeted Black immigrants in Ice custody since 1996 when Bill Clinton's administration mandated the detention of "illegal aliens" - undocumented immigrants - with the passing of the Anti-terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act.

"Those laws increased the pipeline between the criminal legal system and the immigration system," said Jesse Franzblau, a senior policy analyst with the National Immigrant Justice Center. People of color, especially African Americans, were already discriminated against more than other demographics with over-policing. Clinton's bill exacerbated such policing disparities, now targeting Black immigrants for Ice detention and deportation.

A March complaint filed by FFI against Krome to DHS shows that discriminatory conduct has persisted for Black detainees. And recent claims from May and June inside the facility from detainees like Bel'Or indicate it's deepening.

Last month, a Krome detainee reported seeing an officer brutally beat another man for not "moving out of the way" fast enough. The man now uses a cane. When the man who saw the attack later tried to advocate on the assaulted man's behalf, he said he was verbally assaulted by a guard and thrown into solitary confinement.

Detainees at the Krome detention center. Photograph: José A Iglesias/AP

Around the same time, another Krome inmate reported seeing another man being beaten by a guard until he became unconscious. Afterward, the detainee said the guards did little more than cover the man with a blanket.

Yet another person incarcerated at Krome reported that when officers conducted a shakedown of one unit, they slammed a detainee's face against glass (at Krome, there are windows and glass panes embedded in the walls) and later threw him into solitary confinement because he asked guards to be careful with his legal documents.

Blankenship, the ACLU legal director, said from recent visits to the Miami facility, she concluded that assault reports have worsened after the influx in population from the Glades transfer. From January through June, at its peak, the population increased by close to 100 detainees, reaching 400 of its 511 maximum capacity.

"You hear a lot of racial slurs. You hear a lot of dismissive and bullying behavior targeted specifically when people of color are asking for medical attention or have special dietary needs," she said. For example, "we work with a lot of Jamaican immigrants [and] they will request the Rastafari diet, and they are ridiculed for that. They're definitely not provided what they're requesting."

Rolling Manning, a Jamaican immigrant transferred from Glades, said he almost died in Ice custody.

First detained in 2020, the 50-year-old suffered monoxide poisoning from a gas leak in the kitchen at Glades in November. "While working [the day of the gas leak], I began feeling sick," Manning recalled. "My chest was tightening up, and my breath was getting shorter. I was nauseated, weak and my hands and feet began to tremble." Manning was transported to a nearby hospital, Hendry Regional Medical Center, chained at his waist and feet. "My head was pounding, and I brought up blood every time I coughed," he said. "I was going in and out of consciousness."

The next day, still feeling sick, Manning said he was abruptly discharged. During his transport to Krome - a 1.5-hour drive south from the hospital - he begged Ice officers to use the bathroom, but they "refused to stop", he said. "I could no longer hold on any longer and had to go on myself." Since his arrival at Krome, he said he has only been given Tylenol as he recovers.

An internal investigation by the Glades county sheriff's office into the poisoning incident later found several officials responsible, calling the leak a "careless" event that "quickly developed to a full-blown mass casualty".

A release petition filed by Manning in February to Ice outlines, alongside medical reports, his chronic respiratory problems because of the exposure at Glades and what he describes as persistent medical negligence at Krome. Manning also said he feared deportation because he is bisexual and has previously been assaulted over his sexuality in Jamaica. The petition remains unanswered.

Wearied by the continuing abuse, some detainees have banded together and taken matters into their own hands by coordinating mass hunger strikes. When one group in Krome did this recently, protesting cruel treatments, they were handcuffed and placed in isolation for two weeks, according to complaints submitted to FFI.

Luis was one of those who participated in a peaceful hunger strike at Krome. Before turning to that extreme measure, he said he had submitted numerous complaints against guards and staff for denying him critical medical care for his diagnosis of first-degree atrioventricular block, a life-threatening heart condition. Despite recommendations from outside medical professionals, Luis said he failed to receive treatment. Instead, the migrant from the Dominican Republic said he was placed in isolation each of the four times he went on a hunger strike.

Protesters outside the Krome detention center Center in August 2020 after a man died in custody. Photograph: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

"It's like being in hell, you're just looking at the wall," he said of his time in solitary confinement - in all, 60 days. One time, he recalled the guards punched him when trying to force-feed him. "It's horrible, they just tryna break you," he recalled.

After multiple petitions and working with advocacy groups, he was released in April. His lawyer, Stephanie Norton, said it took a concerted effort from his family, community members, and Luis's persistent advocacy. "I was so impressed at his strength and ability to stand up for himself," Norton said, "and to never give up, even though that's all that Ice wanted him to do." Luis and his lawyer are still fighting his deportation charge and to regain his permanent resident status. He said he still fears further retaliation from Ice.

Asked about such complaints, a spokesperson for Ice said the agency is "committed to ensuring that all those [in] custody reside in safe, secure, and humane environments under appropriate conditions of confinement."

The Ice spokesperson didn't outline the agency's investigation or escalation process for reported claims, only saying the agency takes all "allegations of misconduct very seriously - personnel are held to the highest standards of professional and ethical behavior, and when a complaint is received, it is investigated thoroughly to determine veracity and ensure comprehensive standards, which Ice is required to follow, are strictly maintained, and enforced."

Blankenship said that in her experience when complaints are filed with Ice or DHS by detainees or on their behalf, especially Black detainees, they remain largely ignored. "The review process is very slow," she said. "We rarely, if ever, receive results of their investigations."

Though Florida's ACLU detention database lists Krome as having the highest reported violations in the state, disturbing human rights charges targeting Black immigrants are not limited to those detention facilities.

Before his deportation last month from Texas' Prairieland Detention - another detention center the ACLU called out for closure - a Liberian detainee named Romeo Konneh had filed numerous complaints of medical neglect at the many Ice facilities across the nation where he was held, including Batavia, New York, and Bergen county, New Jersey. In one complaint sent to DHS on his behalf by three advocacy groups, he said he wasn't being treated for his pre-existing conditions, HPV and diabetes. "Whenever I go and see the doctor, the doctor refuses to treat me," he said. "The doctor once told me that 'if you don't like the way that I'm talking to you, go back to your country.'"

In December, 16 civil rights organizations, including Freedom for Immigrants and Black Alliance for Just Immigration, sent DHS a letter with evidence of life-endangering harms and anti-Black racism at facilities "under the jurisdiction of the New Orleans Ice Field Office." One of those facilities, Winn Correctional Center, remains open even after DHS's Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties recommended that it be shut down, concluding it has a "culture and conditions that can lead to abuse, mistreatment, and discrimination," including findings of mold, pests, and poor medical care. (The Ice spokesperson did not comment directly about the Winnfield, Louisiana, facility.)

Patrice Lawrence, executive director of UndocuBlack - which advocates for Black and undocumented people, many of whom have either been in Ice custody, or have family members who have been in detention - said human and civil rights allegations continue to go unresolved, even when sites are found to be in violation, because "there's no accountability" within Ice and DHS.

"Nobody believes us when we say they don't treat us like humans, and they grab us and they abuse us and they hurl slurs at us and they do not treat us with any form of dignity, much less compassion," she said. "It's a part of who America is. And it is especially a part of what policing looks like in this country. And Ice is just an extension of the police force with even more power. Because they're dealing with migrants who have less rights."

Before his arrest, Bel'Or had planned to enroll in business school, having just passed the GMAT. Now his greatest worry is being deported without much notice, as he's seen with other detainees, leaving his two American-born children - an 11-year-old daughter and a six-year-old son - without parents.

His most pressing and imminent fear, though, remains his daily life and uncertainties in Ice custody, where it seems the guards don't see the detainees as humans. "For them, even if you're here legally, they want to get you out of 'their country'," Bel'Or said. "They don't want to know you as a person. They don't have any humanity."
To report Ice misconduct, use the Detention Reporting and Information Line or call 1-888-351-4024

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'They don't have any humanity': Black immigrants in Ice custody report abuse and neglect

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n August 2001, Bel'Or, a native of Congo, arrived at Philadelphia international airport with one suitcase, a visiting visa, and a dream to study at an American university. In the two decades that followed, he learned English and received a bachelor's in finance from Temple University on a student visa.

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Immigrants in ICE detention facilities are frequently abused and beat. One prisoner in a facility in Baker County lost their hearing after a beating from one of the guards. Another one had his nose broken by the guards. The detained are also not given proper medical treatment and sometimes none at all. 

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Guillermo De León Serrabi, a 22-year-old Salvadoran who was held at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Baker County Detention Center, alleges he has lost part of his hearing because of beatings he received at the hands of guards at the facility.

"To this day, I always have a sharp pain in my head," he said to Noticias Telemundo Investiga.

His allegations are part of a federal complaint filed by 16 civil rights organizations against practices at the detention center, which is located in Macclenny, Florida. The complaint was sent to several Department of Homeland Security agencies and the Miami ICE office.

The groups cite "inhumane conditions," including excessive use of force and physical assault, verbal abuse, "racialized harassment" and medical neglect.

The federal complaint is calling for ICE to terminate the contract with Baker County, which runs the facility. It is also asking for an investigation, the release of some of the detainees -- especially those held over 120 days -- and a halt to any scheduled deportations.

Noticias Telemundo Investiga interviewed several immigrant detainees including De León Serrabi, whose allegations are included in the federal complaint. According to his testimony, the alleged abuse against him took place after "refusing a COVID-19 test required for his deportation," according to the complaint.

De León said that a beating in December 2021, when a guard "unloaded all his anger with his right hand," caused his ear to bleed and impacted his hearing.

Sofia Casini, director of visitation advocacy strategy at Freedom for Immigrants, one of the groups that filed the complaint, said De León Serrabi was put in solitary detention and had not been able to contact his family or contact his lawyer.

An investigation by the Office of the Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security in 2019 reported irregularities in four facilities, including Baker: "Detainees in the four facilities had difficulty resolving problems through the complaint and communication systems, including reports of verbal abuse by part of the staff." It also identified "serious issues with the administrative and disciplinary segregation" at Baker and two other facilities.

In an email to Noticias Telemundo Investiga, an ICE spokesperson did not directly address any of the specific detainees' allegations described to reporters and detailed in the federal complaint.

The ICE spokesperson stated via email: "In May 2022, the Baker County Detention Center underwent their Annual Detention Inspection to ensure compliance with National Detention Standards. The facility received an acceptable rating."

The statement also stated that "ICE is committed to ensuring the welfare of all those in the agency's custody, including providing access to necessary and appropriate medical care." According to the statement, the Office of Professional Responsibility ( OPR) "vigilantly" manages ICE's security programs, "conducts independent reviews of ICE programs and operations, and impartially investigating allegations of serious employee and contractor misconduct."

'A living hell'

"I felt like dying," said Eric Martinez about his experience at the detention center. The Colombian immigrant, who's 39, had been in the United States for 28 years when he was taken into ICE custody.

Speaking from Colombia following his deportation, he told Noticias Telemundo Investiga that he suffered from physical and verbal abuse at the Baker County Detention Center.

His account is also detailed in the complaint. "Mr. Martinez felt like he was going to pass out and tried to yell that he could not breathe" after an officer allegedly put his knee on his stomach, the complaint reads. "While Mr. Martinez was restrained, Sergeant Griffiths punched him in the face with a closed fist, breaking his nose."

Martinez has been working with an attorney seeking video footage of the alleged assault. "Remembering his time at Baker," the federal complaint states, 'it was a living hell.'"

Despite everything, Martinez told Noticias Telemundo Investiga he hopes to return to the U.S., where he has a family and a life that he left behind.

"He never got justice," Casini said about Martinez.

Other immigrant detainees have described incidents of racism against Latino and Black migrant detainees, including racist slurs, saying they were told to speaking English.

"The people who work there demonstrate a culture of racism and discrimination against immigrants," says Andrea Jacoski, director of the Americans for Justice Detention Program.

Casini said the center has had these problems for 10 years, when Baker County's contract with ICE started.

Cosme Alfredo Frías, a 57-year-old Dominican, was deported from Baker after spending months requesting a colonoscopy prescribed by a doctor at another detention center due to blood found in his stool. Fearing a serious illness, he contacted pro-immigrant organizations who filed a complaint on his behalf, though Frías and the groups allege that only resulted in threats from the guards.

Casini said that the ICE office in Miami should take responsibility for the surveillance and monitoring of these centers.
An earlier version of this story was first published in Noticias Telemundo.

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'A living hell': Migrant detainees detail alleged mistreatment in a Florida ICE facility as groups file federal complaint

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Guillermo De León Serrabi, a 22-year-old Salvadoran who was held at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Baker County Detention Center, alleges he has lost part of his hearing because of beatings he received at the hands of guards at the facility. "To this day, I always have a sharp pain in my head," he said to Noticias Telemundo Investiga.

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13% of the U.S are made up of immigrants. They make up nearly a trillion dollars of the economy and own 1 in 5 businesses. One in 6 workers in the labor force is an immigrant. They make up nearly 41.3% of farmers and fishers. 

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Recently America has needed a lot more jobs. Without them a lot of industries would be almost dead in America. Like restaurants and farming. Undocumented immigrants are hired and payed 70thousand dollars a year because the businesses can’t find anybody else to do the job. They take all the jobs that nobody else will making them an important part of the U.S economy

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The US has a 'thirst' for immigrant workers. Why do so many struggle to get legal status?