Deported to Death by Slack Jeremy;

Author:Slack, Jeremy;
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780520297326
Publisher: University of California Press

A group of 20 deportees arrived one night and officials informed the shelter staff that there was some bad blood in the group. “One man had severe mental problems, I’m not sure if it was delusions of persecution or what . . . . The official told us that there was a problem at the port (of entry) and he had jumped on top of another deportee. The military had to intervene,” said Tonatiuh, the shelter manager. “My decision was not to let him in and send him somewhere where he could get psychiatric help, but the director intervened and let him stay. However, he seemed calmed. I made a mistake, I thought. The man washed dishes and everything, but at the moment when they were headed upstairs to the dormitory, right in the middle of the stairs where there is the curve (landing) he punched another deportee and sent him rolling down the stairs. The deportee fell unconscious at the bottom of the stairs.” Tonatiuh rushed to check on the unconscious man, but the rest of the deportees grabbed the attacker and began beating him. The priest told them to take him outside. “They were still beating him and they had him facedown, pressing down on him. I called the army. I called the immigration authorities. I called the Red Cross. The Red Cross arrived and helped the unconscious man, but they said, ‘The other one, he isn’t breathing anymore. Not anymore, ya no. He is dead.’ The army arrived, the state police and the ministerial police. They took me to make a declaration and I was there until three or four in the morning.”

“I was scared that they wouldn’t let me go,” he explained. He and the migrants were released. The director skipped town and left the city, so Tonatiuh was subject to further questioning and interrogation, as the police asked for more witnesses. One of the bystanders volunteered to talk to the police. “This kid was watching from the window upstairs. He was not even down there. He just said, ‘That was really ugly.’ But they [the police] took him and blamed him for it. That innocent man, that innocent migrant who had nothing to do with it, they have him locked up there still.” After going to speak with the police again and stressing that the accused was not one of the people fighting, Tonatiuh contacted a lawyer. Things escalated from there. The police stopped by the shelter on the following nights and made cryptic comments: “Are you saying that the police are lying?” and “You definitely need more protection here.” These were threats. The lawyer called and told them that she would no longer help them, and told them it was too dangerous to proceed. “My whole declaration had been changed. All of the information that I gave them had been changed, even my signature. It was not my signature anymore.” The director told him to let it go. “I didn’t like that. It made me lose my philosophy of service and justice.

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