A look back at immigration laws passed in 1996, under the Clinton administration, that radically changed how the U.S. immigration system operates today, and a conversation with Tony Chen, a restaurant manager and father of three in New York City, who - because of these changes - spent seven months detained by ICE in the Bergen County Jail in Hackensack, New Jersey.
We end with an update on the 2019 Supreme Court ruling in Nielsen v. Preap, and a recent win by the Corporate Backers of Hate campaign.
This episode was produced in collaboration with Freedom for Immigrants and the Immigrant Rights Clinic of NYU Law School. Special thanks to Liz Martinez, Daniela Ugaz, Priya Sreenivasan, Nancy Morawetz, and Alicia Schmidt Camacho.
Amy Gottlieb and Janice Hoseine are longtime friends, allies and leaders in the NYC immigrant rights movement. They have also both been personally impacted by the detention of their partners. In this episode we talk with Amy and Janice about how detention impacts family members on the outside, and also, their strategies for staying connected to loved ones inside, while supporting each other and other families separated by detention.
We end with an update on the Campaign for Prison Phone Justice, an over fifteen-year-long campaign to lower prison and jail phone rates nationwide, and information about Freedom for Immigrants’ detention visitation programs, available in 23 states.
This episode was produced in collaboration with Freedom for Immigrants and the Immigrant Rights Clinic of NYU Law School. Special thanks to Liz Martinez, Daniela Ugaz, Priya Sreenivasan, Nancy Morawetz, and Alicia Schmidt Camacho.
Sylvia and Luis travel to Newark, New Jersey, to record a concert performed in the parking lot of the Essex County Correctional Facility, by the band Los Jornaleros Del Norte, to serenade everyone inside. The event was organized in support of Jose Hernandez Velasquez, a 20-year-old Dover High School alum who is currently, as of this podcast release date, detained by ICE inside the facility. Jose has lived in New Jersey since he was 1 year old, but he is undocumented and currently facing an order of deportation to El Salvador due to a series of low-level offenses.
We recorded the event, in order to broadcast it over local airwaves to try to reach Jose and others inside, so they could hear the music and words of support sent out to them that night. And, because of the incredible help of Jose’s family, friends and legal support – and Jose’s own efforts – when this episode first aired on WKCR 89.9 FM three weeks later, Jose was listening, from inside his cell in solitary confinement. In this rebroadcast, we share Jose’s message back.
More information on Jose’s case here
& you can support Jose’s campaign here
This episode was made possible because of the support and courage of Jose Hernandez Velasquez. Special thanks also to Jose’s family, friends and legal support, Karol Ruiz, Brian Lozano, Jorge Torres, Omar Leon, Pablo Alvarado and all the members of Los Jornaleros Del Norte, to everyone who shared a message for this broadcast, and to our local broadcast partners at WKCR 89.9 FM.
Luis and Sylvia talk with their mentor (and the person who introduced them) Professor Alicia Schmidt Camacho, about how this project came about, why they love radio so much, and what their hopes are for it.
This conversation was originally recorded for the Yale Public Humanities Podcast.
You can donate to our radio fund to buy radios, headphones and batteries for people currently detained or incarcerated, here!
In this episode, Luis talks with Yimy Aldair Benitez Lopez, a trans woman who spent five months in an all-male ICE facility in New Jersey, and was in detention when the pandemic first hit. Their conversation explores the deadly conditions Yimy experienced inside during the pandemic, the difficulties they faced in continuing their hormone therapy treatment in detention, but also, their artistic life as a performer by the name of Itzel Ferrati, and the importance of creativity even in the worst of conditions.
Sylvia also speaks with Rachel Levenson, one of Yimy’s attorney’s with Make the Road NY, about the significance of Yimy’s case, Yimy’s central role in organizing and breaking the news about a hunger strike inside of the Hudson County Correctional Center to protest these conditions, and the ongoing fight to #FreeThemAll.
For more information see:
Hosted by Luis Luna, co-produced and edited by Sylvia Ryerson. Production and research assistance by Annie Rosenthal. Music by Olmeca. (More at www.olmecaofficial.com.)