and abuse. We made a lot of stops in California before we got to the airport in Arizona. A bus came to take us to our final destination -- the ICE’s Federal Detention Center in Eloy, AZ. After two days in a row without getting any rest, the only thing that I wanted was to get somewhere, even if it meant being detained for a long time. Eloy is not too different from a county jail or prison, and the treatment is almost the same. They even have similar ways to abuse us. The only good thing about Eloy is that the food is a little better. The health services in Eloy are low, just like the ones that we received in the county jails and prisons. Inmates who needed medical attention seemed to never receive them. I even saw a man die in front of my eyes in the exercise yard. The staff eventually came to help him, but they were too late, and the guy died. The first thing that crossed my mind was the guy’s family and how ICE was going to have to explain to them that their loved one died because of ICE’s incompetence. My point of view on being detained by ICE is that we are treated like criminals and put in very bad conditions when the only wrong thing that we are accused of violating is immigration laws. For that, we are put in county jails, state prisons, and places like Eloy, and after all this, we still have to explain why we deserve to stay here and not get deported. For people like me, legal residents who have been convicted of a crime, the punishment is double because we have to pay for the same punishment twice. We have to go and serve our time in a county, and after we are done with that sentence, we still have to go and serve time with ICE for the same infraction. I think Obama and his administration should listen to our complaints and start working on amnesty. And while immigration reform is being debated, they need to find an alternative to the way immigrants are treated who face criminal charges. To watch the video on Jeysson entitled, “No One Can Do This Alone: How a Young Immigrant Family Beat Deportation,” go to www.acjusticeproject.com
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