Words From Inside Essex County Jail

DECEMBER 2020

Artwork by Marcial Morales Garcia, a survivor of Bergen County Jail and former hunger striker. Testimony from person detained by ICE at Essex County Jail originally published on Abolish ICE NY/NJ's social media (Instagram/Twitter: @abolishice _ nynj)

What needs to be done is to call and make a complaint regarding the protocols and the way in which Essex County treats us. First is the complaint about the inconsistencies in medicine distribution. Sometimes it comes late, sometimes it doesn’t come at all. We have people dependent on the medicine that’s supposed to come, but since they don’t receive it they ’re suffering.

Second, when you make the complaint, let them know that it is for heads of households. All of us here are heads of households, our families depend on us. We are the kind of people that work hard to support our families, so that they can get ahead in life. Next, we need to let them know that what [our families] need right now is not just financial help, but they also need us emotionally. Why? Because they need us in the middle of a pandemic. Because we are the face, the head of household, they need us for support, not just with money, but as parents. Our children are suffering, so they need a father figure.

We also need to let them know that those of us fighting these cases are doing it in order to remain in this country. We’re not fighting to leave, to get on a plane and go to Italy, or Canada, or Honduras. No, we’re fighting because I want to stay in this country with my children, in this country where I have lived for so long and which I consider home. I don’t want to leave it. Especially my children, how will I leave them? 19

They are very young. You have to let them know that our families need a lot of support, not just money, but the warmth of a home. They need their father, because a father is a light that his children want to follow to move forward. Because, if children don’t have their father, what will they become?: drug addicts, thieves, murderers. Therefore, they need their father.

Also, you need to, humbly, let them know that the judges are manipulating the laws to not let us free. There are people in discretionary detention, which means that you ’re not a danger to society. If so, why don’t they give me the chance of parole, or a bracelet? There are many ways to monitor me. And believe me, if I want to stay in this country, then I don’t need to be monitored [sic]. I also provided you with the phone numbers where you can make the complaints.

I gave you the contacts for Legal Services, American Friends, American Bar, Human Rights, HHS, etc. Also, everyone who’s taking part in this protest should keep in mind that it’s important to fill up a document where they will let the police, the sergeant, the lieutenant, know that this fight, this protest, this hunger strike is not against Essex County, but against ICE. And that the administration at Essex County please notify ICE about what they ’re doing.

We will also let them know that we’re doing this voluntarily. We’re not being threatened by anyone, instead we’re doing it out of our own will.

We’re sacrificing our bodies, letting them know that staying in the country with my children, and my children’s well being is more important than my life. I am showing them that my life is worthless if I don’t have my family.

What we’re going to do is a disciplinary effort. We’re going to show these people that what they ’re doing is wrong. We are detained without our consent.

They are taking advantage of what they ’re doing. We’re going to let them know that just because we weren’t born in this country we don’t deserve it, of course we do. We work very hard, sometimes fourteen, fifteen hours a day to provide for our families, because the people above me don’t let me succeed.

Why? Because I am illegal, because I am an immigrant, because I don’t have a paper with nine digits to support my status in this country.

I’m going to show these people that, just because I don’t have a social security number, doesn’t mean I have to leave. I’m going to show these people that, regardless of what they say, God is with us and he will move skies, oceans, and mountains so that we can stay here. Because we are honest people who come here to work. We are people who love our families. And we need to, we want to fight so they understand that we are worthy of having that chance.

We’re going to show all those people that we are united as a people, and that the words of President Donald Trump are wrong. We’re going to get out of this jail and help this country succeed. Why? Because we love this country, because we consider it our home. We have lived here for so long that we already have roots here. We love this country the same way we love our families and we don’t have any kind of intention of harming this country. On the contrary, we have the will to make this country prosper in the best way.

We’re going to fight for this cause and we’re going to do it, God willing. We will proceed with the determination and courage that we have as Latin American people, who have always succeeded on our own, because we have always made sacrifices, because we always have discipline, and because we always put our heart and soul in what we do. We’re going to show this country that we are human beings with dignity and the right to remain here.