The mother recounts the weeks she spent in immigration detention with her American citizen children
Jeff Bennett:
The Trump administration has said its anti-immigration campaign targets the worst. But many people without criminal records are arrested and detained, some with their families.
Lisa Desjardins spoke earlier with one of them.
Lisa Desjardins:
In October, Jackie Merlos was released from the ICE processing center in Tacoma, Washington, after spending more than 100 days in federal custody. Merlos came to the United States illegally in 2003 from Honduras. She later received temporary legal status while her full visa was pending. She has no criminal history.
Jackie was detained with her four children, all US citizens, in a park in Washington state near the Canadian border. She and her children spent 14 days in detention before her children were released to a family friend. Jackie was able to reunite with her family after her detention.
Meanwhile, her husband, Carlos, was deported to Honduras.
Joining me now is Jackie Merlos and her attorney, Sarah Khan.
Jackie, you were there at Peace Arch Park after just getting back from visiting your sister who lives in Canada. What did the officers who approached you say and then what happened?
Jackie Merlos, detained by CBP and ICE: They approached us and took us to the detention center, saying I was smuggling my family, which is a false accusation and makes no sense.
Lisa Desjardins:
You were in a windowless detention room with your four children, who are primary school age, for two weeks. How do you explain that to a child?
Jackie Merlos:
They don’t treat us as human beings. They treat us more like animals. The detention center was not suitable for raising a family there. My children started experiencing a lot of hunger because of all the stress and trauma they were experiencing.
Getting down on our knees and reading the Bible was one of the things that helped us during those long 14 days we spent in detention. I told them, don’t worry about it. You know my mom didn’t do anything
They kidnapped us for 14 days. No one knew anything about us. They wouldn’t let us use the phone to call my father. They did not allow me to communicate with my lawyers. They blocked everything for us.
Lisa Desjardins:
You had a thriving construction business. Can you help us understand where you are now?
Jackie Merlos:
I lost my job. I lost all my clients. We live in fear. My children live in fear. Those fourteen days and four months I spent in detention were very bad for them, because there was a lot of trauma.
My little boy is urinating his pants, and he is no longer the happy children he was before we were arrested.
Lisa Desjardins:
Sarah, I want to ask you. In your view, none of this was legal. Can you help us? Let’s start with the children. What laws do you think allow them to detain these children for 14 days? Are there any?
Sarah Khan, Jackie Merlos’ attorney:
No, there are no laws that allow the Department of Homeland Security to detain United States citizens. CBP and ICE now detain children all the time, including US citizens, when a parent is detained. But, no, it is illegal for DHS to detain a citizen.
Lisa Desjardins:
I also want to ask you about Jackie’s condition. I applied for a U visa, which we talked about earlier on this show. An African Union visa is given to a person who witnesses a crime and may assist in its prosecution. She was held at gunpoint in a different incident.
Now, she doesn’t have that visa yet. Can you explain why you think this is a protected legal position?
Sarah Khan:
So, for 30 years, Congress has written and strengthened legislation that protects crime survivors. This protection includes this path to obtaining a visa and then citizenship. Since there is a cap on the number of visas, people wait for a very long time.
If, while they wait, the government considers their applications and determines that they are very likely to be approved, it grants them deferred action and work authorization. Jackie had postponed the procedure and received permission to live here and work legally when she was arrested. There was absolutely no reason to arrest her.
Lisa Desjardins:
We asked, and DHS did not respond to News Hour’s requests for comment.
But a spokesperson for U.S. Customs and Border Protection told Oregon Public Radio that agents arrested you, Jackie, for attempting to smuggle illegal aliens into the United States on June 28, that children were present during the smuggling attempt, and that you requested that the children remain with you during detention.
How do you respond to that?
Jackie Merlos:
They interrogated my children twice without my presence. It’s–when I came into the cell, they were very afraid of them.
They said to me: “Mom, they say they will hand us over to the Department of Homeland Security.”
And I say:
“There’s no way they’re going to hand you over to DHS. My mom is a good mother. If they try to do this, families should be together, not apart. And they want to keep us apart.”
Lisa Desjardins:
Jackie, you arrived in this country illegally. What do you say to people who think you shouldn’t be here and should be removed from this country?
Jackie Merlos:
I fled my country because of the violence and because I was thinking of one day starting a family, so we could live freely, and not feel afraid. Now we live in fear.
My children live in fear. It’s, what are we going to do with all this generation living in fear, even knowing they are American citizens? They no longer have rights.
Lisa Desjardins:
As I mentioned, your children are US citizens. They’re also only in elementary school. You said they live in fear now. Do you have any idea how they see this country now? How do you view this country now?
Jackie Merlos:
I don’t really make it up – I don’t really have words to describe it. How will we deal with this generation, with all the children who are supposed to play and enjoy their lives?
Now, anytime we go somewhere, they have to look over their shoulder anytime, if ICE isn’t coming, if nobody’s coming to arrest us. Every day before they go to school, they say to me: “Mom, don’t go anywhere.”
I barely drive. I don’t have the life I had before. I would take my kids to all the things they enjoyed, like music lessons. I stopped taking them to music lessons. I stopped taking them to a lot of activities simply because I live in fear that they will arrest me again.
Even though I won my case and spent four months of my life in detention, I still live in fear.
Lisa Desjardins:
Jackie Merlos and Sarah Kahn, thank you so much for speaking with us.
Jackie Merlos:
Thank you.
Sarah Khan:
Thank you.
