Episode 02: Alton’s Story
By Addyson Peters
During the Trump Administration, the United States implemented a zero-tolerance policy on immigration. In response, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) developed a close-knit relationship with detention centers across the nation, including Kern County, California’s Mesa Verde facility. Mesa Verde, located in the city of Bakersfield, is one of the many detention centers owned and operated by the GEO Group, which – according to their website – owns and operates sixty-five facilities across the United States.
Typically, ICE picks up individuals in sweeps, at the border, or from jail once they have completed their sentences, and brings them to a detention center like those owned by GEO. These individuals can be detained for months and even years. Many end up deported and only a few have been fortunate enough to be released. This is Alton’s story.
Alton was released from the Kern County detention center Mesa Verde in September, 2020 after spending four months in the GEO run facility. Alton is originally from Jamaica but has lived in the United States for twenty years. He has been a legal permanent resident with a green card ever since he entered the country legally. This means he is lawfully allowed to reside in the United States. He works in construction and has three children who were born and raised in the U.S. Alton’s life was relatively normal, until he visited a friend in California.
Alton originally went to the California with the intent of visiting his friend and returning home but, unfortunately, his trip did not go as planned. While in California, Alton was racially-profiled and mistaken for someone who had committed a crime. He spent fourteen months in jail until he was released. Although Alton’s case was eventually dismissed by a judge, ICE picked him up by claiming that he now had a charge against him. This led to being detained at Mesa Verde for four months until he was eventually let out with an ankle monitor. His attorney took his case pro bono and was able to secure his release due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Alton’s case is rare. Typically, individuals in detention centers are not able to receive legal representation, but Alton was one of the lucky ones.
While Alton is no longer tormented by being unjustly jailed or recklessly “detained” in Mesa Verde, his time locked up was nonetheless traumatizing. What started out as a short visit with his friend turned out to be a year and a half stolen from his family, due to someone else’s mistake and a flawed immigration system. His experiences could have resulted in being deported from a country where he is a legal permanent resident. Alton could easily have been deported – and still could be – from the United States, a country he has lived in for twenty years, and where all three of his children live. Thankfully, this did not happen and he was released.
This does not mean Alton was left without scars.
Mesa Verde, where Alton was detained, is notorious for its poor conditions and terrible treatment of detainees. When asked about his experience, Alton spoke about how he was treated very badly by guards at Mesa Verde and how the food supplied was awful. He also explained how the medical services provided were extremely inadequate. Despite the fact that Alton was released because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the virus originally made his situation much worse.
According to International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, detainees from African and Caribbean countries, whose populations are predominately black, are six times more likely to be put in solitary confinement when compared to other detainees. Alton, who is from Jamaica, was no exception As a response to the COVID-19 virus, Mesa Verde guards placed Alton in solitary confinement for seven days, in spite of the fact that Alton had tested negative for the virus multiple times. Others tested negative as well, but Alton was separated from them and put in solitary confinement to quarantine. The others were able to remain together. Alton’s ‘intake’ room was windowless and had no bed, which forced him to sleep on a mat on the cement floor.
After seven days, Alton was moved to a small cell where, again, he was alone. He had only his Bible to read and was provided nothing else. Other detainees who had tested negative remained together. Because he was locked away by himself, Alton felt as if he was being punished, instead of being protected from those with the virus. Although the virus did in fact make Alton’s situation in Mesa Verde worse than before, it was also the reason he was finally freed after a year and half of being locked up.
Alton’s unfortunate imprisonment occurred because he was racially-profiled and mistaken for someone who had committed a crime, in spite of being both innocent and a lawful resident in the United States. The fact that Alton resided in the U.S. for over twenty years, has three children here and has been gainfully employed makes it clear that Alton has built his entire life in the U.S., legally.
Alton’s story paints a sad reality of the injustices individual immigrants face every day in the United States. The immigrants detained in America’s immigration detention centers are our neighbors, our friends, our co-workers, and our classmates. They are the shoppers we see at the grocery store, parents we see at Little League, and families we see at school events. They are Alton. A man who did everything right for himself and his family but was punished in return.
While Alton lost eighteen months of life due to mistaken identity and a failed immigration system, he is now free. Countless others, however, are not – in no small part because immigration detention centers like Mesa Verde remain open across the United States.