They fled a nightmare in Venezuela, only to wind up in U.S. immigration prisons
Venezuelans who crossed the Mexico-U.S. border to apply for U.S. asylum are languishing in detention centers in Louisiana, waiting for replies for six months and more. Desperate, some have asked to be returned to Venezuela or be deported to a third country despite the risks.
Wives and mothers of some of the Venezuelans held at the Winn, Richwood and Jackson Parish detention centers of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency told el Nuevo Herald stories of suffering by their relatives since they entered the United States to escape persecution by the Nicolás Maduro regime as well as the lack of security and humanitarian crisis in Venezuela.
Some have been held in three different detention centers, and others were denied temporary parole even though they passed the initial “credible fear of persecution” screening. No immigration court dates have been set for still others, even though they have been detained for several months.
“Everyone leaves Venezuela to escape political persecution, and what they don’t expect is to come to the United States to face a worse nightmare. To leave Venezuela, where there is no freedom, and be in exile without freedom is traumatic,” said José Colina, president of the group Politically Persecuted Venezuelans in Exile (Veppex).
ICE told el Nuevo Herald that its New Orleans Area of Responsibility held 320 Venezuelan detainees as of Nov. 16. That AOR includes Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee.
Margarita Chalhuob said her son, Semer José Houmeidan, has been detained for eight months — five of them at the Winn Correctional Center — since he crossed the border. He has been held in three detention centers, passed the “credible fear” interview in Texas and has been denied parole three times.
“I think it’s inhumane. … What I want is for them to release my son, who has family in the United States and has a sponsor,” Chalhuob said in an interview from Venezuela.
Her son is a 29-year-old political activist from the state of Zulia who decided to come to the United States after authorities detained him, beat him savagely and freed him the next day. He was not told why he was detained, but had previously received death threats if he did not stop participating in demonstrations against Maduro. Also, unidentified gunmen had fired at his house.
In a similar case, Yucelis Fernanda Rincón Boscán said that her husband, Jesús Alberto Perozo Roble, crossed the border this summer and was held in a detention center in Tallahatchie, Mississippi, where he passed the “credible fear” interview and was transferred to Louisiana. Days later, he applied for parole but was denied.
His wife said members of the former Department for Investigating Extortion and Kidnapping in Zulia threatened him, fired gunshots at his home and business and wanted to force him “to join ranks with them.”
He has been held at the Winn center for more than three months. After learning that his mother has cancer, he asked an immigration judge in October to be allowed to leave the U.S. voluntarily. The judge denied the request but issued a deportation order, and he’s still waiting.
“It’s not possible that in that detention center, or in that state, they don’t follow orders, that people who passed the credible fear test are not allowed to leave under parole. I don’t understand why Louisiana is that way,” Rincón Boscán said from Orlando.
ICE wrote in an email: “On parole, we can share that each case is judged on its own merits with the totality of the situation being considered. And any immigration judge or immigration court questions should go to the Executive Office for Immigration Review, under the Department of Justice.”
ICE added that its officials treat detainees “with dignity and respect” and that the agency provides “safe, humane and appropriate conditions of confinement for individuals in its custody.”
Gustavo Marcano, a senior official at the Venezuelan embassy in Washington, said the handling of immigration cases in Louisiana is “very complex.”
“We have figured out that is the most complicated place and has the lowest statistics for granting parole, a situation that we have taken up with ICE and the offices of members of Congress,” he said.
Marcano added that his embassy has received complaints of immigrants who passed the “credible fear” test and were granted parole but remain detained. Some have been wrongfully asked to post a bond.
“We have taken those cases to ICE, based on the embassy’s duty to guarantee respect for the rights of our fellow country people,” he said.
Miami immigration lawyer Wilfredo Allen said in August that any Venezuelan, Cuban or other immigrants sent to Louisiana face complications because 90 percent of the applicants there were denied asylum.
Niorkelis Romero, a Venezuelan living in Chicago, said her husband, Moaaz Aldaas, is being held at the Jackson Parish Correctional Center, where he’s been denied parole three times even though he passed the “credible fear” test in Mississippi.
“We left Venezuela because of political persecution. My husband told me he did not have the strength to continue with the process and asked for voluntary departure. But a judge denied him and ordered him deported,” she said.
She believes he has not been deported because there are no direct flights from the United States to Venezuela.
Marcano said the embassy can issue a special travel document for use by ICE, but only for criminal cases. “We don’t want them to deport anyone who came to this country as a result of the humanitarian emergency or persecution. On the contrary, we want them to issue protective measures so they can stay legally,” he said.
He added that the embassy has not received any request for that type of document for immigrants who agree to voluntary removal. Anyone who needs assistance with such cases can send a request to Mandatorynotification@us.embajadavenezuela.org.
This story was originally published December 5, 2019 at 12:00 AM.
