2007年9月19日水曜日

Habeas Corpus Sample

Following is a copy of an actual Habeas Corpus turned in for a case. I have tweeked a few things so that you can cut and paste and put it to use. Please do not hire an immigration lawyer. They charge you $5,000 to $7,500 for this document IF they know it even existing. I have heard of too many cases detainees` immigration lawyers just took their money and disappeared.
If you have been detained at an immigration detention center for more than 6 months, then this, Habeas Corpus, is to tell you and ultimately the U.S. Homeland Security that they are in violation of the law. Read the content.

If anybody would like a real copy of it, since there is a certain way to do the title page, please feel free to leave a message stating so with your email address. I would be more than glad to send it to you.



UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE
NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ALABAMA


Name_____________
A#­­­__________

PETITIONER
V.
SCOTT HASSELL
CHIEF OF OPERATION


RESPONDENTS
____________________________________

PETITION FOR A WRIT OF HABEAS CORPUS
PURSUANT TO 28 U.S.C § 2241.


Name________
A#_______
ET.C.J.
ETOWAH COUNTY JAIL
827 Forrest Ave
Gadsden, Alabama
35901




COMES NOW, PETITIONER, ­­­_________ hereby petitions this court for a “writ of habeas corpus’ pursuant to Title 28 U.S.C. § 2241(c)(3) to remedy petitioner’s unlawful detention by Respondents. In support of the petition and complaint for injustice relief, petitioner alleges as follows:

CUSTODY
1. Petitioner is in the physical custody of Respondent and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, (I.C.E.). Petitioner is currently detained at the Etowah County Jail Gadsden, Alabama. The Respondent, I.C.E., has contracted with Etowah County Jail to house Immigration detainees such as Petitioner. Petitioner is under the direct control of Respondent and their agents. Therefore, this Court has Jurisdiction over Petitioner’s place of confinement.

JURISDICTION
2. This action arises under the constitution of the United States and Immigration and Naturalization Act (INA) 8 U.S.C. §1101 et. seq. as amended by the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigration responsibility Act of 1996. (IIRIRA), Pub. L. No. 104-208, 110 stat. 1570, and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), 5 U.S.C. § 701 et. esq.
3. This court has jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 2241; act I § 9,cl.2 of the United States Constitution (Suspension Clause); and 28 U.S.C. § 1331, as petitioner is presently in the custody under color of the United States, and such custody violates the constitution, laws and treaties of the United States. This court may grant relief pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2241, 5 U.S.C § 702, and the all writs Act, 28 U.S.C.§ 1651.
4. Petitioner has exhausted all administrative remedies to the extent required by law.
VENUE
5. Pursuant to BRADEN V. 30TH judicial circuit court of Kentucky, 401 U.S.C. 484, 493 – 500 (1973), venue lies in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, Judicial District in which Petitioner resides. 28 U.S.C. § 1391 (e).
PARTIES
6. Petitioner _______ is a native and citizen of ______. Petitioner was transferred into ICE custody on _______and has remained in ICE custody continuously since that date. Further, Petitioner wishes to notify this honorable court that he migrated to the United States as a refugee.
7. Respondent Alberto Gonzales is the Attorney General of the United States who is responsible for the administration of the DHS/ICE and the implementation enforcement of the Immigration and Naturalization Act (INA). As such, Mr. Gonzales has ultimate custodian authority over Petitioner.
8. Respondents Raymond Ramonse is the District Director of the Atlanta District Office of the ICE and is the Petitioner’s immediate custodian. See Vasquez v. Reno, 233 F.3d 688, 690 (1st cir. 2002), cert. denied, 122 S. Ct. 43 (2001).
9. Respondent DAVIS VENTURELLA is the Director for ICE Headquarters Post Order Detention Unit (HQPDU). The HQPDU makes final custody decision for certain aliens like Petitioner with a final order of exclusion. See 8 CFR § 241.4(c)(2).
FACTUAL ALLEGATIONS
10. Petitioner is a native and citizen of ______who first arrived in the United States on or about ______ through _______ Airport, _______. He has continuously lived in the United States since that date.
11. Petitioner was ordered deported on or about _________, based on his criminal conviction for _________ by the Immigration Judge in Atlanta, Georgia.
12. The Supreme Court suggested the constitution prohibited an administrative agency from making unbelievable decision affecting one’s fundamental rights.
13. Petitioner had his non-appearance custody review on _______, 200_ with a decision to continue detention. The Supreme Court held in Zadvydas v Davis, that indefinite detention of a removable criminal alien after a removal proceeding would violate a due process right to liberty under the Fifth Amendment. Id. at 682, 121 S.Ct. 2491. The Court also held post-order that detention of aliens may continue past 90 days, but only after an individual administrative review. 121 S.Ct. at 2495. Also, Title 8 U.S.C. §1231(a)(1)(A) states as follows:
Except as otherwise provided in this section, when an alien is ordered removed, the
Attorney General shall remove the alien from the United States within a period of

90 days.

8 C.F.R. § 241 (d) states as follows:
Custody determinations. A copy of any decision by the District Director, Director
Of the Detention and Removal Field Office, or Executive Associate Commissioner
to release or to detain an alien shall be provided to the detained alien. A decision
to retain custody shall briefly set forth the reasons for the continued detention.

8 C.F.R. § 241.4(h)(2) states as follows:

Notice to Alien. The district director or Director of the Detention and Removal
Field Office will provide written notice to the detainee approximately 30 days in
advance of the pending records review so that the alien may submit information in
writing in support of his or her release.

Clearly, the I.C.E. is in violation of petitioner’s constitutional rights in view of the finding in Zadvydas v. Davis and the facts present in his case. Petitioner has been under I.C.E. custody for more than six months without I.C.E. holding an custody review to explain the reasons for his continued detention.
14. Petitioner has exhausted all administrative remedies to the extent required by law, and his only remedy is by way of this judicial action. The ultimate authority to interpret and give meaning to Federal Statute is vested in the Courts of the United States, and not in the administrative agencies that are charged with enforcing those statutes. See: U.S. Constitution Act.


LEGAL FRAMEWORK FOR RELIEF SOUGHT
15. Under the current custody review regulations, there is no appeal available from an HQPDU custody decision. See 8 C.F.R. § 241.13(g)(2). While the regulations direct the HQPDU to acknowledge receipt of a custody review request within ten business days, see 8 C.F.R § 241.13(e)(i), the HQPDU is not required to issue a decision within any particular length of time, and there is no administrative mechanism for compelling HQPDU to issue a decision; see 8 C.F.R. § 241.13(g).
16. In Zadvydas v. Davis, 533 U.S. 678 (2001), the Supreme court held that six months is the presumptively reasonable period during which ICE may detain aliens in order to effectuate their removal. id. at 702. Interim administrative regulations also recognize that the HQPDU has a six-month period for determining whether there is any significant likelihood of alien’s removal in the reasonably foreseeable future. 8 C.F.R. § 241. 13 (b) (2)(ii).
17. Similarly in Benitez v. ICE 543 U.S. 03-878, 03-7434 (Jan. 2005) the Supreme Court held that continued detention of an alien after the six-month removal period if there is no significant likelihood of removal in the reasonably foreseeable future is unlawful.

CLAIMS FOR RELIEF

COUNT ONE
STATUTORY VIOLATION

18. Petitioner re-alleges and incorporates by reference paragraph 1 through 17 above.
19. Petitioner’s continued detention by Respondents is unlawful and contravenes 8 U.S.C. § 1231 (a)(6), as interpreted in the Supreme Court in Zadvydas.
20. Petitioner’s ninety day statutory removal period and six-month presumptively reasonable period for continued removal efforts both have passed. Petitioner has still not been removed. In Zadvydas vs. Davis and Benitez vs. Wallis at separate rulings, the Supreme Court held that the continued indefinite detention of someone like petitioner under such circumstances is unlawful.
The Petitioner’s ninety-day statutory removal and six-month presumptively reasonable period for continued removal period has passed. It is extremely unlikely that the Respondents will be able to remove Petitioner to Thailand or any other Country in the reasonably foreseeable future. Petitioner has assisted the immigration with fingerprint and pictures in an efforts to obtained travel documents.
The Supreme Court held in Zadvydas and Benitez that the continued detention of someone like the Petitioner under such circumstances is unreasonable and is not authorized by 8 U.S.C. § 1231 (a)(6).






COUNT TWO
SUBSTANTIVE DUE PROCESS VIOLATION
23. Petitioner re-alleges and incorporates by reference paragraphs 1 through 22 above.
24. Under the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment, an alien is entitled to a timely and meaningful opportunity to demonstrate that he should not be detained. Petitioner in this case has been denied that opportunity.
25. The I.C.E. does not make decisions concerning alien’s custody status in a neutral and impartial manner. The failure of Respondents to provide a neutral decision maker to review the continued custody of Petitioner violates Petitioner’s rights to Procedural due process.
26. Further, Respondents have failed to acknowledge or act upon the Petitioner’s administrative request for release in a timely manner. There is no administrative mechanism in place for the Petitioner to demand a decision, ensure that a decision will ever be made, or appeal a custody decision that violates Zadvydas.

COUNT THREE

PROCEDURAL DUE PROCESS VIOLATION

27. Petitioner re-alleges and incorporates by reference paragraphs 1 through 27 above.

28. There is no significant likelihood that Petitioner will be removed in the reasonably foreseeable future, because Petitioner’s detention is permanent and in violation of Petitioner’s fifth amendment due process rights.







PRAYER FOR RELIEF
WHEREFORE, Petitioner prays that this court grant the following relief:
1. Assume jurisdiction over this matter.
2. Enter a Preliminary injunction - restraining Respondents from transferring Petitioner to another Detention Center/Correctional Facility, until the disposition of this case.
3. Grant Petitioner a writ of Habeas Corpus directing the Respondents to immediately release petitioner from custody.
4. Enter a preliminary and permanent injunctive relief-enjoining Respondent from further unlawful detention of Petitioner.
5. Grant any other and further relief that this court deems just and proper.
I affirm, under penalty of perjury, that the foregoing is true and correct.

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED THIS ________DAY OF ____________200_.

____________________________________
PETITIONER
Name__________
A#________
Etowah county detention center
827 FORREST AVE
GADSDEN, ALABAMA.
35901






CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE

i HEREBY CERTIFY THAT ON THIS __________ DAY OF __________200_, A COPY OF THE FOREGOING PETITION FOR A WRIT OF HABEAS CORPUS PURSUANT TO 28 U.S.C § 2241 WAS SENT BY FIRST CLASS MAIL TO:

ALBERTO GONZALES
Attorney General
United States Dept. Of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC. 20530-0001

MICHAEL CHERTOFF
Secretary of Homeland Security
425-I Street N.W.
Ullico Building,
Washington DC. 20536

RAYMOND RAMONSE
Interim District Director
ICE Atlanta District Office
77 Forsyth Street,
SW. Atlanta, Georgia 30303

NORTHERN district Of ALABAMA
United States District Court
1729 5th Ave N.
Birmingham, Alabama. 35203

DAVIS VENTURELLA
Director Headquarters Post Detention Unit, Immigration and Naturalization Service.
8011 Str., NW, Washington,
DC 20536.

SCOTT HASSELL
ETOWAH COUNTY JAIL
827 FORREST AVE
GADSDEN, ALABAMA. 35901




_________________________

PETITIONER
Name______________
A#________
ETOWAH COUNTY JAIL
827 FORREST AVE
GADSDEN, ALABAMA. 35901

Letter for Thailand

So Ye Myint
(A# 7453****)
Etowah County Jail Detention Center
827 Forrest Ave.
Gadsden, Al 35901


Embassy of the Union of Myanmar
Consular Section
2300 S St., NW
Washington, DC 20008

To Whom It May Concern,

My name is So Ye Myint (Alien # 745-3**-**), and I was born in a Karen family on Novermber 27, 1970, in the jungles right on the bordre of Thailand and Burma. I came to the United States of America as a refugee in February 2000. I am writing this letter to inform you of who I am as well as to attemp to obtain a citizenship status in neighboring countries such as Myanmar and Thailand.

Both my father and grandfather died in a combat against the Burman government fighting for the freedom of the Karen people. I also joind the Karen State Mana Ploc K.N.U. Army at the age of 10 in order to fight against Burman regime. I lived at various camps through my time with the Army. I have been injured by severe gun shots in the past; one, in my left leg; another, in my jaw; the other in my stomac. I also became a member of A.B.S.D.F. Army (Army of Burman Students for Democratic Form) in 1992.

Once again, I am writing you to make you aware of thousands and thousands of Karen people who find themselves in a situation that I am also in now. We have no citizenship. The United States government is tightening up on Immigration, and now I am facing deportation to Burma by them.

I do not have any family left in Burma, and I do not wish to be in Burma. Instead, I believe I, too, deserve a fair chance to pursue stability in life; to work and to live peacefully just like everybody else. I speak Karen, Thai, English, and conversational level of Burman, and I sincerely ask that you and your country would consider granting me a citizenship so that I may be able to return closer to my homeland.

Please feel free to ask me any question you may have. I will be looking forward to hearing from you. Thank you very much.



Sincerely,





So Ye Myint

Things that I went through (Psalm 51:1-19, Jonah 2:1-10 on my mind)

With the Lord, there is no such thing as a travesty. The way everything has turned out, I can’t help but to see it as nothing but a blessing in disguise. It says He disciplines those He loves (Heb. 12:6. The Lord disciplined Jacob hard. Esau, not at all.) I can tell you right now that in the future I know I will look back on all of this and say that it has been one of the best experiences I’ve ever had. I know for fact, this is going to go down as one of the highlights in my life.

On June 14th 2007, I took a plea bargain offered by the prosecutor on my charge. They proposed that if I take it, they would drop the charge and just ask me to leave the country.

This is what happened. On September 31th, 2006, I was charged with something I did not commit. It was brought against me by a high school girl who had been going to my church. I admit that I was not always above reproach, and I sure did not always put myself in the most favorable situation. Just as I have always claimed, I did not do it. Yet, I know my own dirty heart, and I know I am not completely innocent of all things if I were to be tried in different ways. Well...I guess there is no other way to explain this...I have made out with her in the past, I said things I shouldn't have said. But, I did not do what they claimed. (If that makes me guilty of it all, then so be it.)

I know why she did this to me. I clearly remember the day she turned into this, hateful, vindictive person. She had been trying to get my attention for over 3 months after I told her I could not have her around me at all. She kept emailing me, I did not respond to any of them, she would say hi at church, and I would completely ignore her, I did not even acknowledge her presence…which I deeply, deeply regret. I just did not know what to do exactly, so I just decided to ignore her.

My lawyer and I were going to take it to trial initially. Then, after the plea was offered, I remember his attitude toward me clearly changing as well. He started to ignore my calls and quit giving me concrete information. Forget any sort of advice. I never got any. He started to say, if it were to go to trial, he does not know how long it could take, maybe 2 years maybe 3 years…he was so sure that he could get me off the charge for the first 5 months, then all the sudden started say things like, “whatever you want to do, you want to take it to trial, do it, if not that’s fine, too.”

I contemplated for 3 to 4 months. I knew, in the eyes of the Lord, I was guilty of acts way worse than what was claimed. For 1 to 2years prior to this, I had been willingly living in complete lawlessness; lying to and taking advantage of my own friends, and fooling around with my ex girlfriends, etc. I remember even saying to myself during these years, I would ditch Christianity if it would hinder me from pursuing my goals of the moment; to be a multi-millionaire in the United States and be married to a young trophy wife. (Oh geez…this sounds so dumb and immature reading it now myself…pretty embarrassing…). I was completely carnal. And I had no concerns for holiness. (And, I was showing up at church every Sunday as the Director of my home church, teaching K1-6, doing maintainance, etc. I hated going to church. But I did it so that they would get me a green-card. That was it. That was only real motive behind my stay in SC for so long.)

I read Romans 1 to 3 sometime during my lowest point in February 2007, and I realized I was vile; that I do nothing but seek selfish ambitions and hurt those around me in the process. Selfishness is ultimately an evilness. If God is the righteous God, I knew I deserved death and a complete separation from Him. This is exactly when I really started to see the Gospel for what it was and what it was intended to tell the world. Then on, I remember crying everyday, literally every single day, after I would read or think about the grace that spared me.

Now, I see what has happened to me and honestly say that it was nothing but a discipline from the Lord, rather than a punishment for my sins. And, I take much comfort in that.

As far as the legal things were concerned, I hung on to take it to trail as long as I could, but I eventually ran out of money. The more I fought for my legal “rights”, the hope for U.S., and my reputation among my friends, the worse it got quickly. My stocks never moved, every trade I made was the wrong one. Literally, everything went south. For the month of April and May, I only had $100 in my account, my mother and I had not talked to each other for sometime, but I remember clearly having this “joy” or “peace” about everything. I really felt “happy” for the first time in my life. I think my good friends, Tim and Allyson can recall that. And somewhere down the road, I just stopped fighting. It did not matter whether I was in the U.S. or not.

I also calculated that it would cost me another $25,000 or so for it to actually go to trial. I had no way of making money because my visa ran out on the 20th of April. I could not work anywhere.

I know a lot of dark, questionable history about this girl and her family that no one else seems to know about. And I really wanted to take it to trial, but I decided to stop fighting. If they wanted get some sense of “justice” out of it by me pleading to it, then I thought, “well, so be it”. I guess it was from knowing the real judgment and the real justice that was about to fall on each person’s head that I feared more, that I just stopped fighting.

So, on, I think it was, June 14th, (by the way, this was a long, long wait. From March to June, my lawyer and the prosecutor kept switching my court date for total of about 5 times!) I took the plea. They lied to me and did not drop the charge like they said they would initially. They, instead, put me on probation, ordered me to register as a sex-offender (which they clearly told me I would not have to), and then ordered me for deportation. I had GPS tracking device on my ankle for 2 weeks, I was basically under a house arrest from then on until…

My probation officer, whom I was ordered to see once a week, called me on the 26th saying that he needed me to come in and bring the G.P.S. unit. I woke up the next morning thinking that it’d just be a quick errand, shouldn’t take anymore than 2 hours. I even put on two different colors of socks, one; black, the other; gray. I go into his office and then two other guys in casual clothes come in there with chains and handcuffs. I’m not going to lie, I almost panicked. It wasn’t part of the deal in plea bargain at all, and I thought they lied again and these guys were going to take me to prison. It turned out that they were I.C.E officers, who came to detain me for my deportation. Just like everybody else, after my plea, I assumed that when they said, “I.N.S. (now I.C.E.) is going to contact you in about two weeks”, they’d just call me and arrange a date for my flight departure or what not. But, no, that’s apparently not how it goes down. They were about to take me to Charlotte, NC's Mecklenburg County Jail (for deportation!).

That was the first time I had chains around my ankles, my wrists chained to my waist. A few people saw me being taken into the Strom Thurmond building, and I felt being judged very harshly, and I felt sad at the same time...for they not know what they are doing.

I was able to see Tim and Mark just right before they took me to Charlotte at the Strrom Thurmond building. The I.C.E. officer who took me up there was a very nice, younger guy, and he mentioned that he thought that my case was very unfortunate. He also said that I had great friends like Tim and Mark. I figured he gethered this when he saw us pray together right before we left. He was really nice to me all the way up. He sympathized with me deeply and even said that he wished he could have gotten to know me in a different circumstance...and that he would hope that I’d be able to return to the U.S. eventually later in my life sometime.

No one really knew how long it’d take until I’d actually get on the plane. And I can see why they don’t really tell you that. I know they know roughly how long it takes. I think they refrain from that just because it varies case by case.

Just to keep you in mind that it takes a long, long time to be processed once you get to the jail. Very long time. Here is how it goes down. First, you have to wait to be searched. There is usually two metal doors all operated from inside. You usually sit in-between those two doors for anywhere from 10-20 minutes. Once the second door opens, you get body-searched. It’s kind of like the airport body search. They pat you down, then, make you take your shoes off. What makes jail security procedures different is that once you walk through that door, they treat you like crap. Officers really show some nasty attitude toward you. You really start to feel like the scum of the society. No matter how corporative and submissive you are, no matter how much you show respect to them and that you are a normal person just like them, they still look at you, order you, and treat you like you don’t deserve to live. It’s the hardest part of the whole experience of being in the system.

After you go through all that (by the way they take your belt and everything else except your legal papers), they usually make you wait again for another 15-30 min. Then they take your fingerprints and a mug-shot. Then, they make you wait again for an hour to 1 and1/2 hours usually. Then you get sent to a “holding cell”, where there is anywhere from 5-30 of you put in a cell; some jails bigger than others. Yup, it’s pretty miserable. Of course there is a toilet right in there, so a lot of times it smells. You are locked up in there, and that’s where you wait the most. Up in Mecklenburg where there is a jail population crises, I was with about 20 guys in a cell no bigger than 25ft. by 25ft., and there were 5 of those next to each other. I left Columbia at around 1:00pm, got to Mecklenburg at around 2:30pm. So, by at this point it was already past 7:00pm. Yea, so imagine what it might be like if you get processed at around 11:00pm. Most of us don’t go to sleep. If did, you would be on the floor of that cell. There was a guy in that holding-cell who had been waiting for 14 hours. When you are in there, you just make conversations with people to make the time go by. You’d most-likely make complaints about how ridiculously long this whole process is. It’s really brutal.

When I was in there, I quickly spotted a non-threatening, maybe a little bit intimidated, and nervous looking guy. (I just realized that when you are new to the system, everybody knows you have never been in jail, but you have no idea who has been or who hasn’t. It’s like the first line of the movie, ‘Rounders’ - "if you can't spot the sucker...") His name was David. He turned out to be a fellow who knew passages from the Scripture here and there. I’m assuming he grew up going to church. All throughout my early stage of Mecklenburg, he became the person I spent a lot of time associating and speaking about the Bible with. David was taken to be processed at around 8:00pm, 2 hours before me.

They take a few of you at a time to get you dressed in a jumpsuit or what not. I think for my case this time around (keep in mind I had to go through the same exact process last year for my initial charge in Columbia back in October), it was at around 10:00pm. Yes, I got to Mecklenburg at 3:00pm. Once again, nothing moves smoothly in the justice/U.S. police system. After you turn in your clothes, they take you to your dorm, or the pod, or the unit, depending on what they call at that specific jail.

I didn’t get to my first pod, to my first cell till 1:00am. I walked in, everybody was locked down of course, was ordered to take a shower, went straight to my cell after that, and straight to bed. This is usually how it goes. Your processing is finally, officially over, and your life in jail starts at this point. And this is how my first day ended.

Before I go onto my life in the system, I ought to mention this. I called my ex-girlfriend earlier that first day during my processing. I only had three numbers to my friends with a working landline (calls to cell-phones are restricted in most jails and prisons), and her number was one of the ones working. Her landline turned out to be the key instrument in eventually getting in touch with Tim and John, who were kind enough to take possession of all of my belongings.

I memtioned that I was living in completely lawlessness. Well, toward the end of our relationship, I found myself caught in between a rock and a hard place. I was desparate for some divine intervention. I did not want to go back to the god and the christianity I had learned and come to understand - legalism and performance oriented religion with rules which I could not keep by any means. Yet, I also did not want to go back to living the way I was living with her. Her family`s existentialic ways; "well, we do not know what exactly what the truth is, so do whatever fits you the best, we won`t say anything" type of mentality, really bothered me. But I really liked her. She was very good to me. We even discussed possible engagement with our parents (Oh geez...this is embarrassing, too). Only thing that kept me away from that and gave me the real motive to get out of all this mess was my family friends, the Withers, and the Reeds - Tim and John Reed`s family. If anyone gets a chance to meet any of these guys, it is awesome. I had no idea that a family can actually exist in such harmony with each other on this earth! The way each one of these guys live their lives actually led me to my true repentence. (Thank you, guys for your testimony.)

Just about a week before this, abrupt detention, she visited me at my house (this is about 3 months after we had broken up), and we were starting to rekindle our friendship again (you know ex`es and past relationships often get us in big trouble). So, when I called her from the jail that day, we still had that sentimental feelings toward each other....I even heard her say “I love you, Keesh” as she shed tears. That was pretty tough on so many different levels…spiritually I knew the Lord was leading me elsewhere, but emotionally I still thought there just may be a chance with her...I knew I could be very vulnerable even though I had been feeling a strong sense of spirituality and a optimism and exitement for a new chapter of my life... it was tough.

I slept like a rock in that single-man cell that night.

Next morning I woke up to the breakfast call of the loud clicking sound of the cell being unlocked. It was at around 5:30am (ok, I’m having a flashback now. This is not cool. I hated that unlock sound). I immediately saw David from the holding cell. What are the odds, right? It really is. Most people you see during processing, you would almost never see them again in your life (maybe because a lot of them remain in the system? Who knows). He has been one of only two people in my entire experience that I came across with twice. It is very rare. (The other was a kid named, Andi, from Indonesia. Get this, he turned himself into I.C.E. since he had no money to fly home after his visa had expired. Yup, they put him in jail with us! I was with him in the next pod, then I saw him again on my last day on the U.S. soil.)

That day went pretty slow. David and I shared the book, “Purpose Driven Life” that day. Mecklenburg only has single-man cells, and single-man cells can be hard. You get bored pretty quick. I hate it. It’s boring especially when you first get there because you have no pen, no paper, no reading materials, etc. I don’t think they opened the pod till about 10:30am that morning after breakfast which is always ridiculously early; at around 5:30-6:00am. So, all that time in-between, I sat there read, prayed, thought about God, and thought about my friends and people in general.

What would you do if you had so much free time? From 6:00am to 10:30am in a cell with no TV, no internet, no cell-phones, nor no music, no magazines, nor books. You won`t be able to talk to anybody in the pod while locked down, you can`t hear them, and you can`t see them. You see nothing eye catching, and you hear nothing interesting. Just the buzzing of a lightbulb or some sort of electricity. You won`t even hear the lighting even if it were storming outside. It is THAT quiet. You really get the sense that you have NO contact with the outside world. You feel really left out at times. What would you do with yourself? That’s all you have got. You have nothing but you, and yourself left to deal with. Sometimes you really get aggravated with your own voice in your head. Your thoughts are the same thoughts in the same pattern of thoughts, saying the same old things you already know and have heard many many times. It`s like when a song you are sick of hearing being stuck in your head. There is nothing else to take your attention away from it, so you hear the same thing in your head over and over and over. It gets really, really aggravating. You really get bored with yourself. It`s kind of scary.

You see why so many people develop mental problems within the system.

I don’t remember much about what I did that afternoon. I remember playing chess with a few people. That’s about it. I remember myself being a little upbeat, assuming that I should be heading to Japan in a week or two, even a day or two. And I figured I would leave straight from that pod.

Boy, was I wrong...

Also that afternoon, I met a kid who had just come into the pod and was terrified about his case. I do not know why, but he just started talking to me about it, and I felt for him.

I told him what I knew to be true about life. We also talked about God. But, in about 15 minutes, the C.O. notified me that I was being sent to a different pod. We went on a lock-down right then, and I tried to catch him during dinner, but, once again, I was told to get my stuff packed and get ready to get going. My dinner was cut short. I told David to look out for the kid, and I left the book with him so that they can go through it together as well.

My next destination, the Pod 3300, was nothing like the 4200. 4200 was turning out to be like a day-camp to be honest. There was nothing threatening about it (mainly because it was a processing pod, meaning just about everybody in it was on their way to elsewhere, some of them even get bailed out from there; if that is the case, their charges aren’t that severe, that means most of them are not violent. That's why the processing pods are often mellow.) I got transferred to 3300 with another guy. As soon as both of us went through the first metal door and glanced at the inside of it, we said to each other, “I think we are going to like 4200 better. This does not look good at all.”

The best I can describe 3300 is...well, just picture the worst neighborhood you have ever driven through. Take those rough looking guys just hanging aournd on the corner, multiply them by about 30, put them all in the middle school gym. You get the 3300.

All pods in Mecklenburg are triangular in shape, accomodated with a public bathroom and a recreational room. It really has the feeling of being trapped and confined. There is not a place you can hide, everything is out in the open. There are only 56 single-man cells, all occupied, so the extra 20-25 of us slept on the floor. The cell doors were wooden, which I thought was rare for jail. There is a vertically long but slim window on it, and the cells have a very, very small window with a view of other parts of the building. (3300 sat on the 4th floor, I believe. The jail facility went up to 8th floor.) A lot of guys covered up cell windows with contrabands. They would take stickers from lunch bags and tape a toilet paper over the window. They also stuck crumpled up papers in the cell doors so that it’d jam it, causing the latch from locking the door when the C.O. tries to shut down.

We had a few murderers in that pod, some definitely, mentally unstable, some you would not even think they are killers. We had lots and lots of thieves, armed robbers, violent offenders, and drug dealers. They displayed no signs of respect for anyone whatsoever. Cussing at C.O.’s was a usual matter. We never got our lunch and dinner on time. We would line up and would never get our food for hours because these guys just would not line up, and once somebody gets agitated with it, it`s over. The fussing, the arguments, and the fights won`t stop. (Mecklenburg County was unique in that they make you line up before every meal and call out your name. They also did this for C.O.’s shift change as well…Kind of annoying to be honest. I have not come across with anybody who has seen the similar system in other jails...and I have met many from all sorts of places within the system.)

My first night there, the C.O. announced that there would be a Bible study. I decided to go.
I didn’t want to say anything that night there just because I was new, but I couldn’t help it. I feel as though I was very misled by many conservative teachings of others. I do not think what many preach as the Gospel is actually the Gospel. So, I speak out nowadays if I see it being mispresented.

I spoke out, and everybody in there thought that I had no idea about the Scripture. The vocal ones of them said that I was new to the system, thus new to the Bible.

Let me just remind you quickly that most of these guys had already gone to prison in the past. Most of them are back in jail for a different charge shortly after being released from prison. (Seriously, some of them just do not last. I met a guy in there who served time for 5 years, and after being released for 6 months, he was right back in jail.) Plus, the judicial system in NC especially take a long time to process your paperwork. So, some of them had been in there for well over a year just waiting for a court date.

For those who might be confused, here are the differences between the jail system and the prison system.

Jail
- County Police jurisdiction. You are their property.
- If police has enough reason(s) to believe that you have broken a law and want to detain you, or incarcerate you, they send you here.
- It doesn’t matter if you are innocent or guilty, you get sent here.
- You are held there until your court appearance issued by the judge.
- You can be bailed out however, then you are released free. But you still have to make your court date. (Then, if you plea or found guilty, with the judge ordering you to serve time, then you will be right back in jail, then off to prison to serve time.)
- If you have no one you can contact on the outside to bail you out, or if you can’t afford the bail bond, you are stuck there until your court date (you see how they use that system against somewhat lower income population? It keeps the county steady jobs.)
- It’s under the county police responsibility, thus they are not really trying to spend lots of money on the facility and food.
-You only see people with charges committed/allegedly committed in that very county.
- Smaller buildings than prisons but as crowded as prisons, and they have no control over how many can be detained in it. The more commit crime in your county the more overcrowded your county jail gets.
- You will not go outside, ever. There are no yards.
- They might have a small recreational room, but a lot of places do not. Yards in prison, you can run around all day. Rec. rooms in jails are about 30ft. by 30ft.
Prison
- You are a State or a Federal government property.
- You start serving your time here after proven or pleading guilty and being sentenced by the judge
- There are State and Federal prisons; State - state charges, cases relating breaking state laws, mostly misdemeanor charges; Federal - federal charges, usually much more severe than state cases because the case consist of breaking the U.S. laws, like the Constitution, etc. Often more severe than misdemeanor charges.
- If you are in State prison system, you get moved all around the state. It varies how often you get moved.
- If you are in Federal prison system, you get moved all around the country. A lot of times, if you are from the eastcoast, they move you to the westcoast as far away from your home as possible, if from the westcoast, then to the east.
- Both State and Federal have different rules and commodities, but they both have a big outside yard, and you as an inmate can choose to be out there on the yard for total of about 6-8 hours a day (unless you are in one of the maximam security penetentiaries/USP's - the worst one, for convicts with life sentenses. In USP, you only get out of your cell for 1 hour a day.)
- You can go to school and take classes.
- You can work out (with actual weights).
- You usually get fed really well (Prisons have much more money than jails).
- You can have a T.V. with Cable channels in State prisons.
- You can have a radio in both State and Federal.
- You have a job and you actually get paid (usually something like 10 cents a day or something like that).
- There is a lot of gangs, but most people know “how to do time”, meaning, most of them already have coped with the fact that they are going to be there regardless, so they’d rather make their time there much more enjoyable by not causing trouble, where guys in jail are often young and immature. (The unit in Etowah County; Alabama, where I was eventually transferred to is different because it`s an Immigration Detention Center).

I hope this helps.

Back to the story of be going to the Bible study.
Most of these guys are usually there at these Bible studies so that they can at least get out of the pod for a little while...and I can understand that. Every one of the Bible studies I went to in Mecklenburg was more like a “Social study through the Bible”, or a “self-help, self-improvement through the Bible”. Every one of them was held by somebody from outside, and that’s nice, but they still talk to you like you have failed in life. I heard things like, “obviously, you made a wrong choice in life, and that’s why you are here. Now, it’s time to change. You tried living your way, and it led you here. So, now it’s time to let God live your life”, bluh bluh bluh. I have a big problem with that. Here is my point; just because you have never been caught or been accused of some wrong doing, does that make you righteous? does that give you the right to judge others? How knows what is really in your heart?

It’s always all about “making the right choice in your life” type of messages. Even other non-religious inmates make comments like, “they (the Bible-Study-going inmates) don’t have God, they just have jail religion”.

Every time the teacher implemented that being in jail was a horrible thing, and how “God didn’t intend for you to live this way”, I spoke out eventually. No, jail is not great, but to say that the life outside is greater, I have a problem. Life outside is just as unfair and just as tough, if not tougher...you just have more things around you to numb your senses. People live in bondage everywhere. You are given a lot more access to things on the outside, no doubt about it, but to implement that it is better, I have a problem. How many are actually taking the blessings and blessing the others? I know I didn`t when I was on the outside. I was filled with self-righteousness and envy.

I would try my best to communicate this to them, but they only hought that I didn’t know the Bible. Have you ever thought to yourself that you know about certain people more than they know themselves? I am not boasting, but I come across with that all the time. I know exactly where their thoughts are coming from philosophically. I know the sources of their influences. I know the pattern of their thoughts and exactly what they would say at the end of their sentences, and they don`t even know who has influenced them! Scary...

A lot of the messages give by these teachers included how God would "bless" you if you choose to do good...like you would be rich. That is why you go to God? Yup, I definitely have a problem. Being in jail is not fun, obviously, but since when did the Bible start talking about storing treasures on earth? Since when did it implement that that`s why we have a life? Every one of these guys acted as they were the experts and will talk your ear off about their "expertise". It was hard to bear at times. Just think about the background of these guys…most of them are very, very insecure about themselves. No wonder why they try to sound like they are better than you.

After the Bible study one of these guys talked my ear off. I didn’t say much at all. I just listened. He basically kept on telling me I needed to accept Christ right there right then.

I hope that paints the clear picture of the nature of the most “Christians” I was around in that pod.

Another incident that should shed light on what kind of environment I was in is this.
On my third night there, one on the guys sleeping on the floor with us woke up in the middle of the night, maybe at around 2:00-3:00am, walked over to another guy who was completely asleep, and started ramming on him. The guy bled everywhere, the goon squat came in and everything else. All of this took place maybe only about 15 feet from me. We all suspected that they had problems with each other, but that wasn’t the case. One of the guys told me the attacker was saying bogus things earlier on that day, like, “why do I always feel like everybody is against me?” We are sure he was one of the ones mentally unstable.

Just imagine this though...what if this guy had decided to walk over to me instead...and what if he had chosen to choke instead of throw punches? Everyone of us especially the ones of the floor felt pretty unsafe after this incident.

There was a constant tension and the sense of threat all over the pod. Keep in mind that we literally do not leave this place for reasons other than medical and the Bible studies. There is not a hidden place in the pod. Everything is out in the open literally. There is not a blind spot. I literally had to constantly watch my back. I always put my chairs against a pillar and always tried to keep my body facing the bigger crowd.

We also never touched anything from dining tables for meals to toilet seats without spraying on a sanitizer. Those who slept on the floor, like me, sprayed the mattress (it’s the kind that’s in high school gymnasium for wrestling practices), and we sprayed everything in sight especially thing around where we would be sleeping, even the pillar. It is by far socially, emotionally, environmentally, and physically the unhealthiest and the riskiest place I’ve put myself in, hands down.

But, even in the midst of a hostile place like this, I somehow felt the divine protection for whatever He had set in His mind. (Literally, that was the first time in my life I actually felt like I was set out to do something specifically for and by the Lord and that I was right in the middle of His hands, walking right in the middle of the path He had already set before me. Those of you who know me really well, you know that I don’t usually like to over-spiritualize things, but, that`s about the best way I can describe it.)

One of the things that confirmed me of that was meeting Henry. I still remember how I noticed this guy out of the bunch. He often sat by himself and played Scrabble and attended every one of the Bible study. He did not miss it once. There was this, unexplainable peace and calmness about him. I’m not going to lie, at first I thought he was kind of a geeky looking black guy. He wore black flame glasses and had his tighter fitting pants pulled up. Keep in mind that everybody else in that pod was a thug. They wore pants about 3-4 sizes bigger and pulled them down past the butt-cheeks. I did not realize that my pants fit really tight, and I always tucked in my shirt since I did not want any trouble with the C.O., so I’m not saying he was the only geeky looking guy, but that was my initial impression of him.

Right away, I noticed the difference in the way he approached the Word. You can tell these things...not hard to spot those that are truly sincere.

I think it was after being misunderstood by the crowd again at the third bible study, we continued to talk as I was trying my best to explain my position. I think we ended up talking for about 3 hours straight after that.

He is in the light. There is no doubt about it.

That’s the crazy thing. After coming to realize how wrong I was in my previous walk with Christ (or what I thought was a walk), I was skeptical with just about anybody who claimed to know the Lord. (I have total of 5 years of Bible College and a Graduate level work under my belt, and I didn’t realize how twisted my so-called faith was till just about 5 to 6 months ago…February to March 2007.)

That’s why I felt as though that the Lord had His hand in it so strongly. Henry has told me specifically about his case, and he also asked that I would keep it confidential. He meant “in the pod,” or even “on the outside”, I do not know…regardless, I chose not to say anything about it for now.

At this point, all I can say is, he has got an amazing story. The gospel of the Truth sure is the power of God; II Cor. 2:18, and you see just that in his life. His life is a true testimony to that.


Henry let me hold his copy of Walt Chamber’s devotional book every day. I cannot recall a day that we did not get together and just share the Word and pray. We memorized the Scripture together all throughout the day. I literally felt as though we were on a battle field (the spiritual battle field) together in that constantly stressful environment. It was by far the closest thing that I have ever experienced to “iron sharpens iron” analogy. Pod 3300 type of environment is not anything I want to experience ever again, but just for the sake of being united with Henry, I do not think I would mind being in there again.


Even to this day, I still miss having somebody like him around. He was a great encouragement to me.


Among the other 15-20 immigrants in 3300, the rumor was that we, the I.C.E. related detainees, would not spend any longer than 30 days there. Also it was said that our next stop was Atlanta, then off to our home country almost right away. We all assumed that it’d only take a day or two once we get out of Charlotte. That would make sense, right? The I.C.E. always came to pick up immigration detainees once a week on Tuesday. So, a lot of us kept our hopes up. I was detained in Charlotte on Wednesday, so the first Tuesday I figured my time wasn’t here just yet. There were also other detainees who have been waiting for over 4-5 weeks, so I figured that I may be there for a little longer than I expected.

When the second Tuesday passed and I was still not picked up, Henry figured I would still be here at least another week, but somehow I felt uncertain for some reason. On Thursday morning of that week, I was picked up. (They wake us up at around 4:00am to tell us this. No warning whatsoever.)

Again, the processing takes a ridiculously long time. I got to downstairs to pick up my clothes, change, and wait again. I’d say at around 5:00am, I was finally dressed. Then, as usual, they put me and a few others in a hold cell for several hours. We all figured we were getting transferred but did not know to where exactly. I didn’t get in the transfer van till about 9:00am.

There were 6 of us males, and 4 females in the van. We were chained around our waists and ankles again just as we came. Both in our holding-cell and in the van, our hands were chained to our waists and had to eat our meal in that position.

The van is the type of van that dry-cleaners use for deliveries. Not the type of van soccer moms drive. There are no nice comfortable seats in it. The interior of the van was completely metal all around. A fence segregated the males and the females. There was no window, none. As you sit on the “seats” on the side of the van, you had to tilt your head and curl up. There is not enough headroom. We had no leg room either, because of our personal belongings shoved up in the aisle. One of the guys threw up 5 times on our way up.

We were all curious to see where we were headed. No one knew. The driver had told us it was going to be a 6 hour drive, and we thought he was kidding. We all had Atlanta in mind. We all thought we’d go see the Immigration Judge there right away, maybe even later that day. And we hoped that, then, we are off to our home country, or for some of us, even a dismissal of our case.

The ride took actually 6 hours, and we ended up in Etowah County Jail/Detention Center in Alabama.


One of the girls in the van was a Canadian native. She was incarcerated on a trespass charge, which was eventually dropped. So, why is she still in the van? I don't know. It's either that the system has some major flaws like that, or that she is hiding something. Who knows. (After hearing so many things like this, I have come to conclude that, neither should I trust the system, nor the people who tell me about their cases and that there is something majorly wrong with the system.) One of the guys in the van was an Iranian-born from New Jersey. He had just taken an exam for the U.S. citizenship in Charlotte. He passed the exam, and as he was about to walk out the door, they told him he had to be detained and be sent to Mecklenburg. He had a felony of gun possession from back in 1995. This is back when he had just gotten to the States, and he did not know that the licenses in one state would be invalid in anther. He had the license to carry it in N.C., but not in New Jersey. This means that he is too a convicted felon. I am afraid that he would get deported as well.

These two individuals have all their family members in the States right now, and are faced with deportation. And this seems to be occuring on the daily basis nowadays.

Also, back in Mecklenburg, I met a guy from Costa Rica, while I was seeing a nurse on my in-growing toenail that had just come off (any kind of cut injury on your foot, you want to immediately get treated. Diseases and infections are very common in jails. I heard about inmates getting amputated). He had a dying mother in Ontario, Canada, where he had grown up. His flight connection was in Charlotte, and as he was getting on-board, they detained him. He had a D.U.I. charge in Florida back in 1985. They claimed that he was attempting an illegal entry to the U.S. He wanted to hurry up and get to his mother’s place, so he pleaded guilty to the charge, "conspiracy to illegal entry to the U.S.". According to the law it is now a felony to "re-enter into the U.S. illegally. The sentence is anywhere from a year to 25 years in prison depending on the frequency of the person’s this particular violation, his past records, and the judge. I am afraid that this Canadian man just might end up in prison for a while. At least I know this for sure, he will end up in one of these I.C.E. detention centers like Etowah County. (After you serve prison time, the I.C.E. will try to deport you as well. We had many straight from prison in Etowah County. I was one of very, very a few right of the street.)

My cellmate in Etowah told me he rode with a girl on his way here, where she was driving without her license and got detained. She was a single mother and had to leave her 5 year-old son. She is now facing deportation.

I am amazed at how much they are cracking down on Immigration. As I write this, the U.S. government approved the increase on application fees for both green-card and citizenship. Green-card application went from $300 to $1,000 (this is not a typo). Citizenship application went from $300 to $700. I just might have gotten caught at the worst time of U.S. Immigration history. U.S. runs on cheap labor, which means without fresh-legs coming in, I wonder who is going to do these manual labors? Many of the Latino detainees told me in several different occasions in different Detention Centers that they are now heading up to Canada to find work instead of U.S..

It is also worrisome that they are not taking into consideration that they are breaking up the family by deporting many of the immigrants. Since I have been in Etowah (which is only a little over a month), I have come across with at least 8 individuals with a wife and children in the States but still deported back to their birthplace. Out of those 8, about a half of them had not seen their native country since they were infants. 3 guys were sent back to Liberia just several weeks before I initially logged in this part of the journal. If we see 2 people go “home”, as in being released here in the States, that’s a pretty good turn out for the month. Now, I understand that a few have to suffer for the bigger cause. I understand that all this has to happen just for the system to be consistant all across the board. But, here is what bothers me. The U.S. can deport you on charges like such. They will deport you for much more severe charges such as assult, etc. But, you can come back in on a few conditions. And these conditions all have to do with your financial status. If you have one million dollars to invest in the U.S., a visa will be granted. If you can open up a business in a town with population more than 20,000 on the U.S. soil and be able to hire more than 20 personnels from that town, you will be back in the U.S.

You see where the problem is? You will be granted a permission to come back much easier based on your financial status rather than your marital and your family status. That is where my concern is.

Now, the nuts and bolts of detention procedure you would want to know.
The length of your detention depend on whether the I.C.E. can verify your identification in your birth country or not, and whether the Consulate of your birth country would issue travel document; a valid passport or a birth certificate. Countries like Laos, Vietnam, and Cuba do not take their people back, as well as cases in which your country does not recognize you as a citizen, like, a guy who was born in U.S.S.R., former Soviet Union. His exact birthplace now would be what is called Ukraine. So, neither countries would recognize him as a citizen since he came to the States with an U.S.S.R. passport. Same is true with Somalia. (There were 5 of them in these exact situations while I was in Etowah County.)

These people usually get released back on the streets after 6 long months of detention and filing in a few key legal paperwork (one is called “Habeas Corpus”). This is very, very key, and I’m very lucky to have come across with, not only the knowledge of this, but also an atual copy of it on a floppy disk. There are some even in such detention centers who do not know about this particular filing. There was a guy from Liberia who had been detained for 14 months just because he did not know what that was. (The files and the actual material of Habeas Corpus is posted as another blog on this site. Please feel free to ask me for the details of it.) Isn't it crazy that they would just detain you forever if they do not know what to do with you?

These are the exact steps you want to take in such a case.

1. Decide whether you are going to fight your case or not. If you choose to fight your case, be prepared to be detained for a while. It usually takes 2 to 3 years, and the statistics tell us that your winning percentage is only 7%. If you do not fight your case, regardless of whether you are deportable or not, the longest the U.S. I.C.E. has is 6 months for your detention. So, that`s good news, but, once again, they do not always practice that unless being forced and threatened to practice it. This is exactly where Habeas Corpus comes in. It is a notice to the U.S. government that they would be breaking its own law by detaining you for more than necessary amount of time for deportation process - 6 months.
2. Once you are in the system, your assigned deportation officer will come to you sometime during the first or second week, (not places like Mecklenburg, but Etowah where it is actually an Immigration detention center.) Then, you will sign the Final Deportation Order. This is important. Keep this paper. Then, you will countdown to the 6 months. Habeas Corpus time limit starts when you first get detained, i.e. the first day at Mecklenburg in my case. The Final Deportation Order is a proof that they are detaining you to get you deported. Once you sign it, you go back to when you were first detained and start counting the total of 6 months from that day on.
3. I.C.E. technically only has 3 months to deal with your case. If they determine that you are still deportable after these three months, they can obtain a 3-month extension. So during these 3 months, I highly suggest that you contact your Consulate (I have included the list of addresses to your Consulate in the U.S.) Also, contact your friends and your family, and ask them to contact your deportation officer as often as possible. My estimate is that one deportation officer carries about 80 caseloads. Most of the time, they don’t remember who you are.
4. As your 6-month period gets ready to wind down, you want to prepare what is called, a “Custody Review”. It is a letter you send to I.C.E. asking them why you are still being detained for so long. Most of the time, they don’t reply back, and the reason is because they can’t find a paperwork on you. (If you are detained for so long, your chances of released is very high.)
5. After you send in the Custody Review, you just wait for the 6 months to be up, then in a week or two, you file in your Habeas Corpus.

I’ve seen people being released in about 2-3 weeks after Habeas is sent in.

This means that this whole thing is a waiting game. Nothing else.



I got to Etowah County in the van at around 3:00pm. I didn’t get to my cell till around 9:00pm that night. I was tired, and I slept like a rock.

Etowah County is a country jail as well as the I.C.E. headquarter for the southeast region. It’s a very, very small, old jail in a small town. I have heard that there is also another Immigration detention center in Georgia. 4 of the 10 units in Etowah County are all occupied by Immigration detainees. Unit 8 is for the highest risk detainees, then 9, then 1, then 10. Unit 8, my unit, and Unit 1 are set up very similar; with about 60 detainees, Unit 9, being the biggest, holds about 200 detainees. I do not know much about Unit 10. Once again, I was put in Unit 8. A man who rode up with me, who also had just come from a 10 year sentensing in prison on a kidnapping and a assult with deadly weapon charge was put in Unit 9, a lower risk unit. I thought that was special.

But again, that, too, was a blessing in disguise. I think Unit 8 was much more bearable. We do not come in direct contact with the C.O. on duty in our unit, unlike in the Unit 9. It actually makes it much more relaxing that they are not in our faces all the time. Unit 9 C.O.’s are a lot like Mecklenburg C.O.’s in that way. There was no such thing as noise control in Unit 8, where there was all the time, constantly, in Unit 9 and Mecklenburg.

Of course, we never saw the outside in Etowah County. We do not have a direct exposure to the sun. We are constantly in a confinement. I missed playing soccer and going to the gym, but I was also a home-body, so it was somewhat easier to adjust. Having the Word of the Lord made it all that difference as well. I think some people have literally lost their minds in Etowah County.

We have an older Indian (Asian) fellow, whom we called “Pacer”; we don’t know his real name), he stands in various parts of the unit with his commissary items (snacks and toiletries we can purchase from the store. It's call "Canteen" in prison.) in his hands and poses all throughout the day. No one knows why he does this. For those who may be wondering, I have asked my roommate Dee why we call him “Pacer”. He said the reason is because he paces himself to another location of his choosing. "Cause he paces himself", is what he said.

He does not talk to anybody. He would not say, "hi" back to you. People in the past as well as some of us tried to get some kinda reaction from him, and the result was always the same. He would move to another spot, or he would actually start cussing at you with this furious anger. We did not doubt that this guy could really kill us if we kept pissing him off. Other than that, he would just pose. He would stand there for hours and hours and pose. I never saw him hold a conversation with anybody there, only expressions of fury. And, he sure knew exactly when the commissary was coming and what he had to order.

One thing I was very surprised about Unit 8 was this. When I first came into the unit, an Asian fellow came up to me and said, “[h]ey, come up to room 813, that’s where all the Asians hang out.” I was very skeptical about that at first. It is very common in jail and prison that, when one is overly friendly, it’s often a sign of a trap. It’s a warning sign. But, come to find out, in the federal system, the Asians often prepare a package for new comers so that the first a few weeks, he’d have an easier time adjusting. They also show them around and let him in on certain basic “rules” among inmates. So it’s pretty sweet if you are an Asian. And that was apparently what Cee was doing here.

Cee was in the federal system for about 6 years, then, after finishing his sentence, was sent here for possible deportation. (He was not deportable since he is a Laosian-native). He was one of the most reliable, generous individuals I have ever met inside the system. He looked out for me all throughout my time at Etowah.

I was put in a two-man cell by myself. I didn’t get a cellmate till the following week. I remember looking out the cell window that very night and feeling settled. (I know it sounds weird.) I felt like I was already in a different country or something. One thing was for sure, it was a nice change from being in Mecklenburg.

I woke up the next day, had a breakfast, went back to sleep, then had a good, alone time to myself to think and read. I eventually made my way into cell 813 after the doors opened. (Unit 8 was pretty easy going, we even called the cells our "rooms".)

Room 813 was occupied by Phang, Kay, and a guy we called “the Haitian”. The first thing I saw as I walked in was Phang rolling up a cigarette. Yup, they were about to have a puff. They had figured out a way to start a fire using a microwave as well.

Funny story here...Just a few months before I arrived there, there was a guy named Jay. Apparently, Jay was sort of a leader of the Asian gang, and what Dee described him as a smart-elick. When a C.O. caught them smoking in their cell, he asked Jay where he got the fire from. Jay responded saying, “I put it out of my [behind]” (he had hid the lighter between the butt-cheeks). C.O. did not take him seriously and responded back saying, “I will get you one of these days”. Next time he got caught smoking by the same C.O., he was asked the same question. He responded saying, “I put it out the microwave”. Again, he was telling the truth. These guys had learned to start a fire using just a pencil, a piece of paper, and some toilet paper. C.O. did not take him seriously again, and he was never caught.

Smoking was not allowed in Unit 8, but apparently it was very prevalent.

I forget when my cellmate-to-be, Dee, came up to Unit 8 from Unit 9. But I remember Cee telling me about him. He told me Dee was sent on a "mission". Come to find out, Dee was down there to acquire some cigarettes in Unit 9 where smoking was allowed (wierd, huh?). Keep in mind that, we do not come in contact with detainees from other units. This was obviously one of the ways to get your hands on cigarrettes. Only time we meet or see somebody from other ones were when one would get transferred. If you get in trouble, they send you up to higher-rate units, like Unit 8. I always thought it was funny how guys in other units thought that Unit 8 was absolutely the worst place in existence. But, for us Unit 8-ers, Unit 9 was a lock-down.

I met a lot of creative, intelligent, risk-taking individuals at Etowah County Unit 8.

Gutter was one of those guys. He migrated to New York City from Liberia when he was 8, grew up in rough black neighborhood of Brooklyn, has had 18 different aliases in the U.S., started his own business at the age of 19, through which he still operates and pays 2 mortgages while being locked up. His uncle is the U.N. ambassador to Liberia, and his aunt is the Mayor of the capitol of Liberia, Monrovia.

By the way, when I was in college, a Canadian friend mine said "[The U.S.] is founded on violence and the cut-throat culture". I did not quite understand what he meant. Now I do, especially hearing stories from people like Gutter and many other detainees who came as an immigrant to the U.S. Obviously, the huge majority of them go to places like N.Y. where they know of someone from their home so that the transition is easier. But most of them come with no money, not much language skills, and no paperwork, so if they can't land a decent job, they end up hustling. And you know what that means when you hustle. Everybody except your family, relatives, and your family friends are enemies.

They told me a bunch of story, and I mean A BUNCH...at least one of these a day, where they would be going somewhere, and as they turn the corner on a street, they see a crowd of mobs. They seem to be coming toward them. Obviously, you do not know who they are and what they are up to, so if you are out numbered, you either turn around and start running, or you just head for the biggest guy in the crowd and lay your first punch on that guy. That's how a lot of fights start, they say. And often times, it's a simple mistake. They initially thought you were somebody else.

Sounds likea typical day in the hood of Brooklyn and South Bronx?

All these N.Y. movies I had seen rushed coming back to my mind when I heard this, and they all made sense. I realized what a sheltered, naive mind I had developed. It was crazy to me we both lived in the United States, and we both had developed a competely different mindset all together.

Geez, I'm naive.

Another iteresting fact here with Gutter. He is a friend of the rapper, Akon, and he is the one who brought him to Columbia. Gutter lived in and still has a house in Columbia. We were surprised to find that we both lived really close to each other and that we had come across with the same people at some point in the past.

I also met a guy we called “Thailand”. We could not really pronounce his name, so we called him that. I am going to attach a letter I wrote for him while I was at Etowah County. That tells you everything about his background.

We had a Cuban-native who worked for C.I.A., and then got sentenced 25 years in prison for cocaine use. No, it is not a typo. It is 25 years for cocaine for an ex-C.I.A.

Let me get off trail here to talk about inconsistency in sentencing.

With my case, my sentence was10 years, which meant that if I broke probation, I was to be in prison for that long. Obviously, I got off with probation on plea bargain. The “victim” was “15 years and 11 months old” when the allegation took place (in SC, 16 was legal and it read that they could not specify exactly which day it took place…Hmmmmmm, interesting). Dee told me when he was at court once, and the guy before him (white guy) was caught with child-molestation. The victims were 4 and 6. The guy was sentenced for 2 years. Two years! Another case he saw in court was similar. A guy was charged with the same kind of thing, the victims were 10 and 5. He was sentenced for 18 months.

Dee has gone to jail several times for not having his driver’s license. I know at least a dozen who have gotten off with a ticket.

He was sentenced for 2 years in State prison for not even an ounce of dope, but they did not know what his intention was with it. He saw a guy in court get bailed out for selling crack to an under-cover cop.

Just makes you think why and what is going on…
I want to warn you. This had been the reoccurring theme while I was in the system. I have seen way too many cases where, they would charge you with two counts, one; directly relating to your case, the other; a decoy. For example, this was Luis’s actual case. He was so clueless as to when he was supposed to get a lawyer (he was just a careless, young, free-spirited Latino). He stole a car, then drove it home within the county. Now, the police charged him with two things, one; theft, two; possession of a stolen vehicle. The police told Luis if he pleas guilty to the first charge, they would drop the other. Luis did not have a lawyer (did not even care to even think about getting a lawyer to be honest. He wanted to think about throwing orange pills at people during lock-down.)

Donald and I looked into this, and we found out that “possession of a stolen vehicle” applies when you take it out of the county.

I have seen way too many cases where people were charged with “conspiracy to…” Cee’s case was the same thing. They did not catch him with anything. They just knew he moved a lot of drugs, and they had been after him or his posse for the longest time. They charged him with a “conspiracy to…”

A Canadian guy living in Costa Rica I met in Mecklenburg was the same thing. They charged him with a “conspiracy to illegally entering into the U.S.A.”

It seems like a scare tactic and some what of an abuse of authority to me. I think you see a lot of stuff like this nowadays especially after Sept. 11, 2001. Those in the States. Please be careful. Once they have your record, they will try to weed out anybody with an unfavorable record. It only takes for them to say, “you resisted an arrest” with your bad attitude even if you know your rights and you know what they can and cannot do. Unless you are constantly filming what goes on during your encounter with an officer, they will do this if they want to. Please be careful.


Following is a letter I wrote to my Consulate while I was detained about the living condition of Etowah County, so that if anything happens, I was going to mail it out and create some sort of buzz on the outside world. Please read. This should explain clearly how we lived.

The Embassy of ABC
Consular Section
**** Massau Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20008

August 21, 2007
To Whom It May Concern,

Greetings. This is Unknown Contributor (A#**-***-***), an ABC citizen detained by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (I.C.E.) at Etowah County Detention Center in Alabama. I hope this letter find you well.
I am writing you this letter to you since I was recently not able to reach the Consulate General of ABC in Atlanta GA.via phone. Mr. XYZ at this office has been my direct contact to the Consulate, and he has been a tremendous help in this whole process. He has even mentioned that he has been keeping in close contact with my mother upon my progress.
It has come to that my detention here in the Etowah County has been getting tougher and tougher as the I.C.E. decides to delay on scheduling my flight. They have already obtained my valid passport in their possession and have varified my citizenship in ABC, and I signed the Final Order of Removal on the 17th of July, 2007 as well. However, they have not yet to proceed on actual deportation for well over 2 months now. (I have now been under I.C.E. custody for total of __ days now.) My Deportation Officer, K.Chasteen has not seen me, nor talked to me in any form since the 17th of July, 2007.
As I patiently wait for this draining procedure, not only it is taking a toll on me motionally, but also I believe that it is putting my mental, physical, and social health at serious risk. We, the detainees, are barely fed all throughout the day. The average estimate on our food intake is only about 1,200 calories; there is absolutely no fruit and raw vegetable in our diet, there is hardly ever any fish and meat served. For the last two months I have been here, they have served fish only twice. On average they serve meat products only up to 2 to 3 times a week. All meals are very small in portion. By any means do I believe that the portion they serve is adequate for any adult male nor female.
We do not have any direct exposure to the sun here, either. And we do not have any means for physical activities and exercises. The recreational room, which is only available one hour per day, is about 20 ft. by 30 ft. in size, there is no fitness equipment, nor recreational tools such as basketballs and soccer balls provided whatsoever.
Although every person here is detained for a reason such as our past records, I believe that the way we are treated here is unsuitable and inappropriate. I strongly believe we could even make a case to say that some things going on here are very close to being a violation of human rights. We are civil detainees, not cattles.
I desparately need your help. I wish to get back to ABC and to be united with my aging, widowed mother as soon as possible. I also wish to get back to my business and to start to be productive again just as I had always been before this detention.

Here is all the information I have of I.C.E. personnels directly relating to my case;

K. Chasteen – My Deportation Officer: 77 Forsyth St. SW Room G-81 Atlanta, GA. 30303; Phone (404)-331-2765 ext. 5436.
D. Rivera – K. Chasteen’s Supervisor: 77 Forsyth St. SW Room G-81 Atlanta, GA. 30303; Phone (404)-331-2765 ext. 5438.
Travel Unit Officers in charge of scheduling flights for deportees are;
B. Freeman – (404)-331-2765 ext. 5432
T. Applegate – (404)-331-2765 ext. 5447
C. Walters – (404)-331-2765 ext. 5409

I was not able to verify of which officer above is actually in charge of booking my flight back to ABC. But I trust that this information is more than enough for you, the Embassy, to encourage U.S. I.C.E. to start moving forward with my case. If there is any question, please feel free to contact me at any time. I wish to hear from you very soon.



Yours truly,



There are many more things that took place after arriving Etowah County. But I think right here is a good place to stop for now.

I will add more, especially what the actual deportation process was like.

But for now, I will see you on the flipside.

“Remember your Creator before the silver cord is loosed, Or the golden bowl is broken, Or the pitcher shattered at the fountain, Or the wheel broken at the well. Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, And the spirit will return to God who gave it. `Vanity of vanities,` says the Preacher, `All is vanity.`…Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, For this is man’s all. For God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, Whether good or evil.” Ecclesiastes 12:8, 13-14