by Cindy Knoebel
"He was detained at a routine check-in with ICE ... We went in feeling we would be OK. Then they basically said this is it, you’re done – [my husband] actually fainted, lost consciousness… Even though he had a stay of deportation, they still tried to take him to the airport … there was a whole chunk of the day, many hours, when we didn’t hear from him. You feel completely helpless and defenseless…" - Amy Gottlieb
"It was hell … we just didn’t stop. We held on strong. We just kept reminding each other we weren’t going to give up." - Janice Hoseiene
In this episode of Melting the ICE / Derritiendo el Hielo, producer Sylvia Ryerson, talks with two women whose husbands were detained by ICE.
Ravi, Amy Gottlieb's husband, was targeted by ICE for his immigrants' rights activism. Ramesh, Janice Hoseiene's husband, was targeted because of a years-old conviction. Both men persevered in detention, finding powerful ways to stay connected to their families and the outside while supporting others that they were in detention with.
Amy and Janice remind us that behind every separation, whether by detention, imprisonment or deportation, there is a family rallying behind the scenes, fighting hard to get their loved one back.
About Melting the ICE / Derritiendo el Hielo
Melting the ICE / Derritiendo el Hielo is a bilingual podcast and radio show dedicated to sharing stories of how U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is impacting families across the U.S., unpacking how this current system works and who is profiting, and to sharing information and strategies about how people are fighting back.
Most of all, this series is dedicated to broadcasting messages of love, solidarity and support to people currently held behind ICE detention center walls. This show airs on local, independent airwaves that reach three of the largest ICE immigration detention centers in New Jersey and the surrounding areas, as well as communities across New York City and Connecticut.
This project was created in collaboration with a team of amazing individuals:
Liz Martinez, Director of Advocacy and Strategic Communications at Freedom for Immigrants. Through policy campaigns and other initiatives, Liz amplifies Freedom for Immigrants’ mission and message to help end immigration detention.
Daniela Ugaz and Priya Sreenivasan, law students at New York University and student advocates with the NYU Immigrant Rights Clinic, under the supervision of Nancy Morawetz, Professor of Clinical Law at NYU.
Sylvia Ryerson, an independent radio producer and graduate student in American Studies at Yale University, where she is a member of the Migrant Justice Initiative under the direction of Alicia Schmidt Camacho. Prior to graduate school, Sylvia co-hosted Calls from Home, a nationally recognized radio program sending toll-free phone messages from family members to their loved ones incarcerated in the U.S. prison system, and she founded Restorative Radio, a participatory documentary project working with families to create "Audio Postcards" for their loved ones in prison.
Luis Luna, Field Director with the Working Families Party in Connecticut, photographer, community organizer and radio host with WPKN-FM Community Radio, where he hosts his program Modulo Lunar mixing alternative and politically charged music with discussions of social justice issues to amplify collective voices in his community.
