"I hope it is not a crime to dream or else they will keep me locked up for life."

From a letter send to FFI by Anthony Miranda, currently detained at Northwest Detention Center

Let me start by saying I am a very shy man. However I do try to express myself on paper by drawings. I am learning something new every day about myself especially when I am drawing or writing.

Since I have been detained I have taken the time to reflect on my past years to get my mind right and think of everything I have to be thankful for.

I am alive. I regret nothing. Not even the sins and failures. I came to the United States when I was just a two-year-old boy. I was raised in California until I was 19 years old. Then I moved to Seattle with my girlfiend and our newborn son, Michael. When I arrived in Seattle, I fell in love: the huge mountains, beautiful green forest and clear blue rivers flowing down the mountain curves and into huge lakes. Ahhh! What a sight! Let me not forget the fresh green smell of nature, with beautiful sunsets and broken reddish-gray clouds.

I really miss seeing the sun. Since November 12, 2016 I have been detained. I am not a criminal. My only crime is being an immigrant. My experience here is very emotional, deprived, suppressed, miserable, dreadful, fearful, depression, emptiness, loneliness and painful. No contact visits with family or friends, there are no programs to help us deal with what we are going through. Can't really get any medical care. Our movement is basically restricted to a small area. The laundry system they have is real bad, [we are] always breaking out with some kind of body rash.

Now about the food. There is still room for improvement. I doubt we will ever get that steak and lobster we had requested or that apple pie with extra whipped cream. The commissary: very expensive and unhealthy. Nothing but junk food.

I first started drawing women, then one day my son asked why I draw so many women, then after that I started drawing other things that interested me. I never knew I could draw like this. Self taught. I know my art is not the best but I do keep on trying. By doing this it helps me, by distracting my mind that my body is in detention. While I draw I listen to music and when I'm not drawing I am dreaming (dreaming in my mind) by designing the next drawing or building in my mind a future home with a roof that opens up to the night sky (I have a thing about the moon and the stars). But until then I will keep on fighting for my dreams.

I hope it is not a crime to dream or else they will keep me locked up for life ...

Signed,

HUMAN