What is KWESI?
KWESI started in 2015, when an asylum seeker from Ghana named Kwesi requested a visit. He was released in May 2015 after spending two years in detention. He was only released because of the tireless advocacy—including protests, letters and appeals by lawyers and community activists.
Since then, members of KWESI have been regularly visiting asylum seekers and other immigrants awaiting deportation hearings who are from all over the world: Cameroon, Ecuador, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guatemala, Honduras, India, México, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and Somalia.
KWESI also helps support those who have been released from detention. Immigrants often come to this country with little more than the clothes on their backs. We offer them clothes, backpacks, toiletries, and food to take with them on their way to where they will start their new life in the U.S. They also often need bus or train tickets as well. Frequently, they need a place to stay for a night or a few days (and in some cases, KWESI members have housed asylees for months!). We do not proselytize religion or offer legal advice to immigrants.
Since then, members of KWESI have been regularly visiting asylum seekers and other immigrants awaiting deportation hearings who are from all over the world: Cameroon, Ecuador, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guatemala, Honduras, India, México, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and Somalia.
KWESI also helps support those who have been released from detention. Immigrants often come to this country with little more than the clothes on their backs. We offer them clothes, backpacks, toiletries, and food to take with them on their way to where they will start their new life in the U.S. They also often need bus or train tickets as well. Frequently, they need a place to stay for a night or a few days (and in some cases, KWESI members have housed asylees for months!). We do not proselytize religion or offer legal advice to immigrants.
What is Mesa Verde?
Photo by KWESI
Mesa Verde Detention Facility opened its doors on Golden State Freeway in March 2015. It's a 51,000-square-foot facility that holds up to 400 people—300 men, 100 women—who have been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Many of the people who KWESI volunteers visit are immigrants seeking asylum from persecution in their homelands. This includes Cameroonians fleeing deadly political unrest, Mexicans escaping cartel violence, African women who have been subjected to female genital mutilation and human trafficking survivors. ICE detains those whose immigration status is in question (and in some cases actual American citizens). ICE also holds lawful permanent residents who have family and community ties. Mesa Verde officials claim the average person in detention stays less than a month, but some have been detained several months or even years.
All of the people in detention are awaiting hearings in immigration court. Judges who handle the cases of those detained at Mesa Verde are based in San Francisco Bay Area, and hearings are conducted remotely via video teleconference. The attorneys who handle these cases that are largely pro bono are also based in the Bay Area, though some of them make the 5 hour drive periodically to meet clients face to face.
When it opened, the global private prison company estimated that Mesa Verde would generate about $17 million in annual revenue. As of 2015, taxpayers pay $107 a day for every person in detention. The facility is responsible for about 100 jobs, but it also relies heavily on labor from immigrants detained inside. They are paid $1 a day to do everything from laundry to cooking, a practice that has made them the target of lawsuits.
Many of the people who KWESI volunteers visit are immigrants seeking asylum from persecution in their homelands. This includes Cameroonians fleeing deadly political unrest, Mexicans escaping cartel violence, African women who have been subjected to female genital mutilation and human trafficking survivors. ICE detains those whose immigration status is in question (and in some cases actual American citizens). ICE also holds lawful permanent residents who have family and community ties. Mesa Verde officials claim the average person in detention stays less than a month, but some have been detained several months or even years.
All of the people in detention are awaiting hearings in immigration court. Judges who handle the cases of those detained at Mesa Verde are based in San Francisco Bay Area, and hearings are conducted remotely via video teleconference. The attorneys who handle these cases that are largely pro bono are also based in the Bay Area, though some of them make the 5 hour drive periodically to meet clients face to face.
When it opened, the global private prison company estimated that Mesa Verde would generate about $17 million in annual revenue. As of 2015, taxpayers pay $107 a day for every person in detention. The facility is responsible for about 100 jobs, but it also relies heavily on labor from immigrants detained inside. They are paid $1 a day to do everything from laundry to cooking, a practice that has made them the target of lawsuits.
What is ICE detention?
Via Freedom For Immigrants:
The U.S. immigration detention system is a relatively recent phenomenon. Prior to the 1980s, only approximately 30 people were held in immigration detention on any given day. The 1980s gave rise to two major private profit-making prison corporations, GEO Group and CoreCivic. These corporations have successfully lobbied the government to expand detention and other forms of incarceration. A host of federal and state laws have resulted in a new prison built every 15 days throughout the 1990s.
In 1996, President Bill Clinton signed the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA) and the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA), which doubled the number of people in immigration detention from 8,500 each day in 1996 to 16,000 in 1998. These laws gave the U.S. government the ability to deport lawful permanent residents convicted of certain crimes, required victims of persecution abroad to be immediately detained when claiming asylum at a U.S. port of entry, and took discretion away from judges to grant release to certain immigrants, creating a class of individuals in “mandatory” immigration detention. Today, the detention population has increased fourfold to more than 34,000 individuals each day, due in part to a Congressionally mandated lock-up quota.
This lock-up system is not only inhumane, but also a massive waste of taxpayer dollars. Congress has allocated a huge budget to immigration detention. ICE estimates that it costs the government $12,500 to deport each individual, but when the costs of apprehension, detention, legal processing, and transportation are combined, the government spends more than $23,000 to deport each person. Detention alone cost taxpayers approximately $2 billion in 2015.
Since no independent oversight of the system is in place, people in immigration detention are vulnerable to abuse. Immigrants in detention facilities around the United States are often subjected to punitive and long-term solitary confinement. They are provided inadequate medical care, vulnerable to rape and assault, and often isolated from access to legal assistance and community support.
The U.S. immigration detention system is a relatively recent phenomenon. Prior to the 1980s, only approximately 30 people were held in immigration detention on any given day. The 1980s gave rise to two major private profit-making prison corporations, GEO Group and CoreCivic. These corporations have successfully lobbied the government to expand detention and other forms of incarceration. A host of federal and state laws have resulted in a new prison built every 15 days throughout the 1990s.
In 1996, President Bill Clinton signed the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA) and the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA), which doubled the number of people in immigration detention from 8,500 each day in 1996 to 16,000 in 1998. These laws gave the U.S. government the ability to deport lawful permanent residents convicted of certain crimes, required victims of persecution abroad to be immediately detained when claiming asylum at a U.S. port of entry, and took discretion away from judges to grant release to certain immigrants, creating a class of individuals in “mandatory” immigration detention. Today, the detention population has increased fourfold to more than 34,000 individuals each day, due in part to a Congressionally mandated lock-up quota.
This lock-up system is not only inhumane, but also a massive waste of taxpayer dollars. Congress has allocated a huge budget to immigration detention. ICE estimates that it costs the government $12,500 to deport each individual, but when the costs of apprehension, detention, legal processing, and transportation are combined, the government spends more than $23,000 to deport each person. Detention alone cost taxpayers approximately $2 billion in 2015.
Since no independent oversight of the system is in place, people in immigration detention are vulnerable to abuse. Immigrants in detention facilities around the United States are often subjected to punitive and long-term solitary confinement. They are provided inadequate medical care, vulnerable to rape and assault, and often isolated from access to legal assistance and community support.