Luis Manuel Rivas Velásquez, a 38-year-old man from Venezuela, was recently incarcerated and experienced major difficulties. He is now incarcerated at Alligator Alcatraz, a newly established immigration detention center in Florida’s Everglades. Like many others, last year he had obtained advance authorization to enter the U.S. legally through the El Paso port of entry. Now, he’s applying for asylum and has an appointment with U.S. immigration officials, made through the CBP One mobile app. Then, his journey took a nightmarish turn. He has recounted life in detention as a “nightmare” and “living hell.”
Rivas Velásquez was first held at Alligator Alcatraz, as the cruel facility was dubbed, where he allegedly suffered horrific conditions. He went on to describe the treatment of detainees as that of animals. He reeled off a litany of the decay found in his neighborhood and pleaded for better housing. In 2019, Eric Lee, his attorney, noted that Rivas Velásquez has been denied access to essential medication for his blood pressure and anxiety. Yet this denial has done nothing but exacerbate his suffering.
All Mr. Rivas Velásquez really wants is to not be deported. Despite this incredible progress, the government continues to fight to keep him detained at taxpayers’ expense. Lee stated.
As prison officials attempted to resuscitate him, Rivas Velásquez fell unconscious on the facility’s floor, raising immediate alarm. He was treated on the field and transported to the hospital as a precaution. According to reports, he had lost consciousness and received care, but the health conditions in general were brutal as far as living quarters. He spent five days without even a change of clothing, deepening his trauma and damaging his health.
In a desperate move, Rivas Velásquez signed an agreement for deportation, revealing how worn down he felt by the extended detention and difficulties in securing asylum. His story is the story of many who suffer and struggle in the hard shiny grasp of our immigration enforcement system.
Instead of being allowed to stay with his father at Alligator Alcatraz, he was taken to an immigration detention camp at Fort Bliss, Texas. According to Rivas Velásquez, the conditions at Fort Bliss were just as bad as what he had encountered in Florida. The transition didn’t exactly live up to his idealistic visions, though. Even after that, he continued to endure insufficient treatment and a lack of the support he needed.
“The Fort Bliss facility will offer everything a traditional ICE detention facility offers, including access to legal representation and a law library,” stated Tricia McLaughlin, a representative for ICE. “It provides necessary accommodations for disabilities, diet, and religious beliefs.”
Though all these thoughts might offer some consolation, Rivas Velásquez remains in a serious position. This echoes growing national outrage over the treatment of detainees throughout the U.S. immigration system. Becca Sheff, another attorney representing him, emphasized that many detainees share similar experiences, noting that “all that Luis wants desperately is to get out of detention, even if that means being deported to Venezuela.”
Yet Rivas Velásquez’s circumstances have sent shockwaves through the advocacy community and her own family. His family, who remained in Venezuela, were thrown into an emotional limbo, not knowing if he was safe or alive. As Sheff remarked, “His family did not know if he was dead or alive.”
According to a Miami New Times report, Rivas Velásquez does indeed have a robbery conviction in Miami. His legal counsel who now represent him in the case argue that shouldn’t drown out his experience as an asylum seeker enduring his own plight in detention.
All of these changes are happening though just a moment in time. It remains to be seen how long Rivas Velásquez will remain in detention or what steps immigration authorities will take next in his case. His story is a reflection of not just personal pain and loss but of the gross failure of the U.S. immigration system to protect and uplift.