From a letter sent to FFI from by G.E.R.S., currently detained at West Texas Detention Facility
I hope this letter finds you and your family in good health. Thank you for writing to me. And I congratulate your organization for listening to immigrants.
I have a story to tell. I am a 41 year-old Salvadoran. I have 2 children, boys, ages 15 and 13. They live in Italy with their mother and had to immigrate there because of the problems we faced in El Salvador.
I crossed the U.S. border illegally at Santa Teresa, NM on August 3, 2018 at 11:15 p.m. Border control agents detained me and I was taken to an immigration office where I was interviewed. I explained that I came to ask for asylum for my family and me. Members of the MS 13 gang threatened us with death. I was tortured and they wanted to kill my children for not getting involved with them. For this reason I was given 24 hours to leave the country.
My last court date was January 7, 2019. The immigration judge, Tuckman, denied me everything for two reasons. First, the lack of more evidence (being detained makes it harder to collect evidence). Second, the report of the border patrol agent, which was manipulated to harm me. I am defending myself, not having the economic resources to pay for a lawyer. Now I will appeal the judge's decision, because it was not fair they manipulated the information, which is not correct. I am waiting for documentation for the Supreme Court to settle my case and have a trial. And I have been detained for 8 months and I have observed that in my court the prosecutor is the boss, not the judge. There is a lot of corruption in ICE and immigration judges do not have fair trials. This is a part of my story.
