Everlee Wihongi has been held in US Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention, and her mother reports disturbing conditions during transfers and confinement. When detainees are moved between facilities, they must remove assigned uniforms and put on the clothes they wore when detained. Her mother says the clothing detainees wear can indicate what they were doing at the time of apprehension, including people in scrubs, road-worker clothing, and pregnant mothers with children, all shackled. Wihongi, 37, has a green card and was detained in Los Angeles on 10 April after a trip to New Zealand. Her mother says she had a decades-old marijuana possession conviction but had traveled in and out of the country without being asked to declare it. She has been detained for nearly six weeks, including being housed with many others for most of the day in Adelanto, with lights left on at night and guards talking outside the room.
"When detainees are transferred between facilities they are required to remove their assigned uniforms and put on the clothes they wore the day they were detained, Betty Wihongi, tells the Guardian from Wisconsin, her home of nearly 30 years. Everlee says you can tell what people were doing when they were apprehended by ICE. There are nurses in scrubs, road workers, pregnant mothers with children all shackled, she says. They're not gangsters, they are not people causing trouble, they are just normal people who want a good life."
"Wihongi had a conviction for possession of marijuana dating back more than a decade and she had travelled in and out of the country several times without issue. She was not asked to declare her conviction on any of those trips, including her attempt to re-enter the US on 10 April, Betty says. We felt sick, we were just terrified, because anytime ICE comes on TV here it is never good news. The family hoped Wihongi would soon be released. Instead, she is nearly six weeks into her detention."
"After an agonising seven hour wait at the airport, Wihongi called her family saying there had been an issue with a historic conviction and she was being sent to an ICE processing facility in Adelanto, California. Wihongi, 37, who moved to the US when she was six and holds a green card, was detained in Los Angeles on 10 April, after a family trip to New Zealand."
"During her time in the Adelanto facility, Wihongi was housed in a room with 45 people for 22 hours a day, Betty says. The guards would regularly leave lights on during the night and talk and shout outside the room. Betty claims Everlee saw guards tel"
#ice-detention #immigration-enforcement #detainee-conditions #family-separation #criminal-conviction
Read at www.theguardian.com
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