Undocumented immigrant advocates at Youngstown’s ICE prison

A new anthology from the Ohio Immigration Alliance features paintings, poems, essays, and short stories by Ohioans who have worked with migrants, including those incarcerated in a Youngstown prison.

YOUNGSTOWN – Although undocumented immigration issues are most apparent at the US-Mexico border, local volunteers shared their experiences helping migrants pass through Youngstown, which until recently held most of the state’s detainees.

Katie Salupo is a Youngstown resident who worked with immigrants housed at the Northeast Ohio Correctional Center. Many were asylum seekers who left their homes to seek legal protection in the United States.

Shari Nacson, a clinical social worker from Cleveland, interviewed and assessed asylum seekers in the privately operated prison. In 2018, more than 200 immigrants were detained there, according to the US Department of Homeland Security. The prison had a capacity of more than 300 people that year.

The stories of Salupo and Nacson have been featured in the Ohio Immigration Alliance’s new book, Far From Their Eyes: Ohio Migration Anthology, which features paintings, poems, essays and short stories by Ohioers who have worked with migrants.

Immigration policy becomes “ugly”

Nacson said that US immigration policy got “really ugly” during President Donald Trump’s administration, and at the time she noted that undocumented immigration became a bigger problem.

There were more than 850,000 arrests on the U.S.-Mexico border in 2019, more than twice as many as the previous year, according to a 2020 study by Pew Research. Between 2013 and 2018, there were between 300,000 and 500,000 arrests each year the border.

Pew attributes the sudden surge to the exponentially higher number of families crossing the border this year.

Although ICE arrests rose between 2016 and 2019, there were still only about half as many as in President Barack Obama’s first year in office, the study shows. While deportations also increased in the first half of President Trump’s tenure, they were still around 20% fewer than at the height of President Obama’s tenure.

“Politics, politics and money take us very far from humanity,” said Nacson. “Our country has always struggled with the emergence of asylum seekers and there is no single right way to deal with it.”

Brian Hoffman, executive director of the Ohio Center for Strategic Immigration Litigation & Outreach, said Youngstown’s male-only prison once housed the largest number of immigrant inmates of any other correctional facility in the state.

“Between Seneca, Geauga, Butler and Morrow District Prisons and NEOCC, [Youngstown’s facility] had a much bigger one [immigrant] Population, ”he said.

NEOCC began housing inmates in 2016 under a contract between the United States’ Immigration and Customs Services and CoreCivic, which operates the prison. The pact allowed immigrants to be incarcerated in Youngstown Prison for 72 hours before they could reunite with their families in the United States

But after they got out, they were often left on their own.

“It’s a global crisis and too many people are in danger and don’t have enough places to go,” said Nacson.

Immigrants had “nobody to stand up for them”

When the inmates left Youngstown Prison, they only had the clothes on their backs, Salupo said.

Salupo said she spent many long nights at the Greyhound bus station in downtown Youngstown helping immigrants leaving Youngstown for states like New York and California where they would reunite with their families.

Her job began in October 2017 when, at the request of her friend, she helped an inmate with a migrant background to find the bus ticket provided by his attorney in Akron. For two months, Salupo continued to meet with these immigrants every week to provide them with backpacks containing groceries, clothing, toiletries, cell phones and other travel essentials.

She said that when she realized the number of released immigrants who were regularly released from prison to find their own way home, she could not ignore them.

“Usually they are dropped off at this bus station to take care of themselves without anyone standing up for them,” said Salupo. “I let them use my phone to call their families and let them know they were away.

“I didn’t know this was going to happen. … But I would do it again 100 times. ”She said. “These men were there every day to take care of themselves.”

Prisons that house inmates only coordinate safe public transportation to the nearest bus station so inmates can travel to families across the country, according to a 2019 report by ICE. They also get a free phone call to make arrangements with their lawyer or family members.

Salupo said that on some evenings only one or two men would show up at the greyhound station. On other evenings, almost 20 men arrived at the bus station who needed help buying tickets.

Salupo said she was overwhelmed. She began reaching out to community organizations such as church groups for donations. St. Christine’s Church in Youngstown advised her of some likely donors, she said.

Eventually Salupo began teaching other residents of the valley to go to the bus station every evening to distribute backpacks and help the men get a prepaid bus ticket from their lawyer or family members.

“I asked [on Facebook] If there is anyone interested in volunteering with immigrants one night a week they can contact me. … In the next two days I got about 10 calls from people who want to help. ”

In the prison, Nacson, a clinical social worker, met with a few inmates every day and wrote psychological reports that could help them file asylum applications. These evaluations peeled off their records of mental health or known trauma. Inmates who had suffered trauma – particularly from the authorities – were often recommended treatment to better cope with the prison environment.

“Everyone I have met is sad to be separated from their home country and family,” said Nacson. “I think everyone wished there was some way they could have stayed where they were.”

Nacson said she is a firm believer in self-advocacy in legal situations.

“People need to be able to represent themselves despite the way the legal system works,” she said. “I’ve seen everything change when clinicians are brave and speak in court and write reports.”

Political disputes continue

Last January, an executive order from President Joe Biden reduced the number of privately operated prisons to reduce the high incarceration rate. CoreCivic’s contract with ICE for Youngstown Prison ended the following February.

“Privately operated prisons do not offer the same level of security for people in the federal criminal justice system or for prison staff,” said Biden’s order, which cited the findings of the Inspector General’s Office from 2016.

Today the NEOCC no longer accommodates ICE prisoners.

The Department of Homeland Security announced in September new immigration enforcement guidelines that would prioritize enforcement of priorities based solely on non-citizen status and instead focus arrest and deportation efforts on those who pose a threat to national or public security represent.

Each non-citizen would be assessed on a case-by-case basis.

On Thursday, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost announced a new lawsuit to stop this new immigration policy claiming it violated a federal law that obliges the ICE to notify non-citizens who have received final deportation within 90 days to deport from the country. Attorneys-general from Montana and Arizona have also joined the lawsuit.

In fiscal 2021, more than 1.7 million migrants were detained on the southwestern border – an all-time record, according to Yost’s office.

“As part of the non-enforcement policy, ICE will no longer transfer most deportable migrants from local prisons into ICE custody if they are to be released from prison,” Yost is quoted in a press release.

https://www.mahoningmatters.com/local-news/no-one-advocating-for-them-the-stories-of-ohioans-who-helped-immigrants-detained-in-youngstown-4771649