10 Billion People, Ep 5: The politics of dead immigrant bodies by Alexis Okeowo; Hero Marc Gasol
Channel: fronteraLabor
Date: 2023-02-08

The main article discussed in this article by Alexis Okeowo is here: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/letter-from-italy

THE CRISIS OF MISSING MIGRANTS
A shadow of a boat looms over the scene of a pathology lab. 
What has become of the tens of thousands of people who have disappeared on their way to Europe?

---More links further below -----

Episode 5 Intro thoughts: (Eli)

This topic, migrant deaths, hits close to home for me. It is of course the subtext for a lot of the issues we have covered so far, but issues only truly matter when they become real. Immigration policy became real to me when I visited Richwood Correctional Center, outside Monroe LA in October 2019 to meet with clients and inquire about the suicide of Roylan Hernandez Diaz. 

I had been to Richwood a few times before and the conditions there were always absolute s***. There had been numerous hunger strikes asking for unspoiled food, sanitary items, medical attention, etc. The use of solitary as a punishment was widespread. (Another client at Richwood came unglued during his time there). 

Royland was outspoken in the hunger strikes and I had heard about him in my previous trips. He was described to me as intelligent, kind, outgoing, and a leader within the prison. I remember being told he was always helping new arrivals translate their documents, fill forms etc. Many of the Cubans I experienced were highly educated, highly informed, and absolutely righteously  pissed. 

Roylands crime was speaking out against the government in Cuba, for which he was imprisoned multiple times, 9 years the final time, according to his wife. The way people spoke about him always stuck with me. In such an absolute *****hole, he was looking out for people and advocating for more humane treatment. 

In short, the ICE office in New Orleans again denied his release from ICE detention. Two days later he was ‘segregated’ (solitary) due to hunger strike, six days later, he was dead in his cell following an apparant suicide. 

I traveled to Richwood a few days after with another atty to do client case check-ins (try to figure out what happened and send it to reporters). That day was one of the first times it became real to me. As I interviewed people about the hunger strike and events that followed, it became clear that the most obvious, dumbest, and most depressing story was hard to look past - the small but earnest collective actions at Richwood, along with Roylands mental health and life itself, had been unceremoniously steamrolled by a system that I pay for. That most of you pay for. This was only one of many deaths in ICE detention, and after seeing the conditions in those tiny, rural detention centers, I can honestly say I’m surprised there aren’t more. 

But hey, you only have to face the luxuries of ICE detention if you manage to enter our country alive. Given the trajectory that Obama, Trump, and now Biden have adhered to, the ability to do so is becoming ever more tenuous. 

Anyway, researching for this episode brought me back to that story and reminded me of what and who we are dealing with here. As I think we’d both agree, criminally ineffectual bureaucracy paired with aspirationally-evil characters like Trump and Miller breeds endless comedy. It also breeds dead mothers, fathers, and children overwhelming morgues in Brooks county TX. I don’t want to pay for this s****. 

----Show Notes -----

Biden's Asylum Changes:
In recent years, the ability to apply for protection in the U.S. at the southern border has been severely restricted by a combination of policies, practices, and regulations. Together, they form a barrier to asylum and due process for migrants that is unfair, inhumane, and in violation of long-established U.S. and international refugee norms. We are witnessing unprecedented migration around the globe, including record numbers of fatalities of migrants en route or at our border as attempts to control migration force migrants to take even more deadly routes.

Other Links From The Show:
nyti.ms/3Yhy1Ok
bit.ly/3HHIf3v
bit.ly/3jJ1CkI



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