The good news for 20-year-old asylum seeker Joselyn Chipantiza-Sisalema is that a Manhattan federal judge has left the door open on her bid to stay in the U.S. and avoid what her family says is persecution and certain death if she returns to Ecuador.
The bad news is that federal agents, lying in wait outside the courtroom, arrested her anyway despite a pending court date, tossing her in a detention cell with 50 other women where she sleeps on the floor, has no access to a shower and has worn the same clothes for more than a week.
“I don’t understand these laws that led to the detainment of my daughter,” said Joselyn’s father, Marco Chipantiza, 40 on Thursday. “I don’t understand why they are subjecting her to these conditions. She’s not eating. She’s sleeping on the floor. I’m begging the authorities to understand my situation, and the situation of many immigrant families who are here looking for a better life.”
Chipantiza and his distraught family made their emotional plea just yards from 26 Federal Plaza, where they were joined by advocates, attorneys and elected officials protesting what they said is ICE’s “unlawful” abuse of power.
Migrant supporters said that masked agents have been lurking outside federal courtrooms detaining asylum seekers regardless of the status of their cases.
Federal agents have been seen sitting inside, or just outside of courtrooms, and staging themselves in the hallways to ambush and arrest these migrants as they step foot outside the courtroom, the supporters said.
“What we see is Trump again directing agents to break the law,” said Alexa Aviles, chair of the City Council’s Committee on Immigration. “These are people that are following the legal right and their proceedings that they are being asked to do. They are doing the right thing and they are being abducted by masked, armed agents. In many circumstances, it’s unclear what agency they even represent. This is abhorrent. It is frightening. There are people with children, and we see an ongoing escalation in these courts against people who are following the law.”
Joselyn’s family said they fled to the U.S. to escape the lawlessness and vengeful gangs in Ecuador. Joselyn was in a GED program before she was arrested outside a courtroom last month following a routine immigration hearing where she was given a date for a future appearance.
Since then, she has been able to speak to her parents only three times, each call no longer than a minute, her father said.
“It’s complicated but we came to this country to save our lives because it’s very dangerous there,” Chipantiza said. “It’s very different with the gangs that all over the country.
City Council member Julie Won told reporters about two West African migrants who were arrested back to back when they stepped outside of the courtroom despite having open cases.
“They were told that their case had to be pushed back because they did not have a translator,” Won said on the eve of the Fourth of July holiday. “Clearly there is no due process. People are trying to follow the law. People are here with their papers to make sure they have a hearing. They’re not even given a hearing.
“They were supposed to have a hearing and they were adjourned because they did not have the proper translation services which is what is due to them by the court of the United States of America. This is not the U.S. anymore.”