Edwin Chavez speaking at San Quentin Rehabilitation Center
“If I am considered a threat to the Salvadoran government, why is President Bukele accepting us deportees and locking us up without us having committed a crime?” – Juan Lopez-Urrutia
Thousands of illegal immigrants have been deported from the U.S. to Third World countries, including El Salvador, where they are confined in prisons accused of gross human rights abuses.
The Salvadoran deportees, which could soon include naturalized U.S. citizens, are stripped of their clothing and checked for signs of tattoos. They are also stripped of the few items of property they own—and more importantly, of the rights guaranteed under the U.S, Constitution.
Salvadorans in California prisons face the terrible choice of parole and a deportation to San Salvador, where they would face conditions far more dangerous and harsh than any they would face incarcerated in the US. Some Salvadorans are considering delaying their scheduled visit to the Parole Board to avoid the risk of being forced to go to El Salvador.
On February 3, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio publicly announced Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele’s offer to lock up foreign criminals, including U.S. citizens, in the notorious Terrorism Confinement Centre (CECOT).
Rubio’s announcement was in line with the Trump Administration’s determination to deport illegal immigrants by the thousands.
The Salvadoran government has practiced a policy of imprisoning its own people for having tattoos. The “Association with Illicit Activities” law criminalized all skin-ink images ranging from the Virgin Mary to praying hands. Any image could be considered a link to gang membership under this law, which is a part of a state of emergency that has been renewed every 30 to 90 days since March 2021.
Gabriel V. Chavez, 51, formerly a California prisoner incarcerated at Soledad, is now confined in prison in El Salvador. Chavez lived in the US as an undocumented citizen since he was nine years old and had been imprisoned since he was 16. After 32 years in prison, Chavez was released and immediately detained in an ICE detention facility for two years before his return to El Salvador. He is covered in tattoos.
Maria Elizabeth Hurren, his mother, said in an interview, “As a mother, the pain I carry inside is so intense that there are no words that I can express to consult any other mother who may end up being in my situation. [Gabriel’s] imprisonment in a foreign land, when he has not committed a crime, when he has not been there in 42 years. I can’t hear his voice over the phone, see him, or even correspond with my son, so I don’t know if he is alive.”
“As a mother, the pain I carry inside is so intense that there are no words that I can express to consult any other mother who may end up being in my situation.” – Maria Elizabeth Hurren
(Editor’s note: the author of this article is Gabriel’s brother and also a son of Senora Hurren.) The plight of the Chavez family resonates with other Salvadorans in San Quentin.
“If I am considered a threat to the Salvadoran government, why is President Bukele accepting us deportees and locking us up without us having committed a crime?” asked Juan Lopez-Urrutia, a resident at San Quentin. “Why not refuse us? If we are accepted, why can’t he [Bukele] create a program for deportees to integrate back into society? This could give us the opportunity to become law-abiding citizens. Help us get a job, not a pair of handcuffs. Does he even care about his returned citizens? There are many options, he can even put a ankle monitor on us to see how we’ll behave. To send us to Izalco, CECOT, for having tattoos is an additional torture.”
Not all San Quentin residents agree. Some men interviews argued that since they were here illegally, they shouldn’t be in the country.
Los Angeles podcaster Marlin Henriquez, creator of El Salvador Patria Querida, said the Salvadoran president is thinking about holding on to power. In a phone interview, he said he believed that Bukele is locking up his follow citizens to suppress them and to demonstrate that he is in charge:
“Bukele has created a pipeline of mass incarceration in a Third-World country where food is scarce. El Salvador is the only country in the world that charges inmates between $100– $260 just for food, and clothing is an additional charge of $80. These very same people are dying from starvation.”
Henriquez argued that the U.S. should not be sending people to die under inhumane conditions.
Oscar Aguilar, a San Quentin resident, said that it does not make any sense that the Salvadoran government is locking up its citizens for having tattoos: “Why haven’t the United Nations fired Human Rights Watch for failing to intervene and stop this inhumane practice of incarcerating innocent people?”
“Bukele has created a pipeline of mass incarceration in a Third-World country where food is scarce. El Salvador is the only country in the world that charges inmates between $100–$260 just for food, and clothing is an additional charge of $. These very same people are dying from starvation.” – Marlin Henriquez
According to a January 9 report from YouTube, a disturbance broke out on January 8 at Izalco, one of the Salvadoran prisons, where Gabriel Chavez is confined. Fifteen prisoners were wounded by gunfire and three died. The Izalco prisoners reportedly have no access to the judicial process.
Leandro Gonzales, 44, also a San Quentin resident, was twice served with the “Foreign Consulate Notification and Foreign Prisoner Transfer Treaty Program Notification” for him to serve his time in his native El Salvador. A photocopy shows that he declined and signed this forms twice.
“I am afraid that when I get off the plane, I will be arrested and housed in El Cecot for having tattoos,” Gonzales argued. “In my twenty-years of incarceration, the CDCR has cleared me of any gang associations. If I was placed in Cecot, my life will be in limbo, not knowing if I will ever get out”
Enriquez asked for the U.S. to investigate the atrocities and arbitrary treatment that the regime of El Salvador is conducting. He said more than 300 persons have died in prison there.
The author of this article is an incarcerated Journalist at San Quentin Rehabilitation Center, and is suffering similar hardships.
Categories:
Breaking News Everyday Injustice Opinion
Tags:
CDCR Gabriel V. Chavez Juan Lopez-Urrutia Leandro Gonzales Marco Rubio Maria Elizabeth Hurren Marlin Henriquez Nayib Bukele Oscar Aguilar San Quentin
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