Wife of Hunger Strike Organizer at Delaney Hall ICE Jail Speaks Out

TOM HOMAN: We’re not going to change what we do because someone goes on a hunger strike. As a matter of fact, if it gets bad enough and the physicians feel like they’re putting themselves in extreme danger, medical danger, then we’ll force-feed them. We’ll get a court order and force-feed them. Hunger strikes do not work.

GOV. MIKIE SHERRILL: I’ll continue to work to go in, but at the same time I think this really brings to light why the state has been fighting Roxbury so hard, because this type of facility shows exactly why we should not have private mass detention facilities.

REP. ROB MENENDEZ: I went in and said I was there to conduct an unannounced oversight visit, as I have the legal right to do, and over the next 18 hours was kept waiting, misled by ICE multiple times. But what I ultimately told Gabriela, Martín’s wife, was that I would find him and I would see him. And that’s just what we got done doing here at the Elizabeth Detention Center, where he’s been transferred to.

GABRIELA SOTO: He was detained in Kearny, New Jersey, in the 1st of February. He was out getting diapers for our son. He left around 5:30, 6:00. And around 7:00, I, like, didn’t hear from him, so I started calling his phone, but it was off. Then, around 10:15, 10:30 at night is when he called me from a prison jail number. I got a call from a prison jail number. And at that moment, like, my heart just stopped, because I already knew what that was.

When I started this protest for Friday, I wanted press to come, so that they can see what they’re doing to destroying families and separating them. It was unfair that they targeted my husband, because on that same Friday, after the protest, like two hours after, they got him downstairs to the management office, and the first question that he was asked: “If we release you now, will you tell your wife to stop this protest?” The second question was “Did you know your wife was organizing the protest outside?” And the third question was “Are you the one organizing the strike inside?” He said “no comment” to all of those three questions, that he wants to go to his cell. They took that literally, and they locked him in his cell. I didn’t hear from him for hours.

On Saturday, when I did visit him, his name was already highlighted on the paper. All the detainees that came down for visiting hours, they came down. My husband was the only one that didn’t come down. I went to the guard, and I told him, “Why did my husband not come down? His name was highlighted on the paper. I saw the paper.” And the guard told me, “Oh, I wanted to talk to you before I brought him down.” He took like 10 minutes asking me questions about why I’m spreading lies, why I am talking to the press, why I’m trying to bring light into what they’re doing is unjust. He said, “Why are you telling people that we’re feeding them worms? Why are you telling people that we don’t give them medical care?” I said, “Because it’s true.” And he said, “It’s not true. You’re just spreading lies.” I stood back a little bit, and I said, “Do you want me to get testimony from every detainee here? Do you want me to do that?” He said, “No, just stop spreading lies.” And I said, “Bring me my husband.”

After I left, it was — I stayed out the night. It was Sunday now. I got a call from him at 3:00 saying if I’m going to go in to see him. I said, “Yes.” We were on the phone talking about that he was waking up, what he’s doing today, and everything. And then, on a recorded monitor line, I heard agents tell my husband, “Release Martín Soto. Release, release. Outside, outside. América, América. Release, release,” like you’re getting released, like you’re going out, like you’re not getting deported, like you’re — like you’re getting out. I have witnesses from the detainees inside of Unit 2 that they saw my husband sign the order of release.

I was in the ramp, on the visitation chapel ramp. I was looking at the door when they get released or when they get transferred. I saw him handcuffed and two agents. He was refusing to get in the van. Two agents grabbed him by his ankles and his arms, or his wrists, and threw him in the van. I saw him personally thrown into the van. At that moment, I called inside. I said, “Sally, Steph, like, he’s — it’s Martín. Like, that’s him.” I rushed out. I opened, I ran out. And the guards, the security people in the little house, in the little penthouse, they were laughing while I was — while I was running out. Everybody was blocking the van, because they knew it was Martín, they knew it was my husband. He was banging on the windows, saying, “Gaby! Where’s my wife Gaby? Help! Help!”

Right now my husband is in Elizabeth Detention Center, but if you look up his name, he’s not in an ICE location. He’s not in the ICE locator. Like, he’s disappeared from the locator. And that is what ICE is doing. They’re separating people. They’re disappearing them, innocent people.

AMY GOODMAN: Did you get to see your husband in Elizabeth, where he’s being detained now?

GABRIELA SOTO: Yes.

AMY GOODMAN: And what did he say?

GABRIELA SOTO: When I saw him, he had his wrists bruised, his arm bruised. It was red, purple, black. He told me how they — how they threw him in the van, how they threw him in the floor. When they returned him back to Delaney, he — how they — how they threw him in the last car when they were trying to escort him out. Sorry.

On Monday, after midnight, when ICE agents showed up to Delaney around 2 a.m., the first three cars that were there were a diversion, because they knew protesters were there. As soon as they were closing the barricade to not let any more cars through, one of the last cars, like, the gray-looking, the gray car speeding off, that was my husband in it.

He told me that he saw every single moment. He saw ICE agents pepper-spraying people. He saw people blocking the cars. He saw people trying to fight for him. People were trying to fight to not let that van, to not let those cars leave. He saw all of that. But he was restrained to the car.

AMY GOODMAN: And a GoFundMe page has been set up for you, Gabriela?

GABRIELA SOTO: Yes, because my husband, he’s facing criminal charges from ICE, because they are claiming that my husband assaulted him — assaulted them. So, I’m trying to find out on what more charges that they can charge him with. I’m trying to see if I can get associated with lawyers, whether it’s pro bono or whether it’s, you know, paid lawyers, anything, because I know that criminal charges, they’re very, really bad, and because I did the I-130 petition for him to give him citizenship, because he’s my husband and I’m legally married to him.

AMY GOODMAN: And you’re a U.S. citizen.

GABRIELA SOTO: And I’m a U.S. citizen. So, these criminal charges can actually hold back on his process. So, I’m trying to find a lawyer willing to take on his case, so that they can prove that he didn’t assault ICE. He’s one person with five ICE agents, five, six, seven ICE agents. So, how can one person, arrested, like, handcuffed, assault so many people, so many ICE agents, who are armed? They’re armed. They have guns. They can use their hands. They’re a lot bigger than him. My husband, in four months, lost 30 pounds. He is really skinny right now. How can one person who is completely skinny and selfless and helpless assault so many people?

AMY GOODMAN: So, they’ve charged him when they were transferring him to the Elizabeth jail?

GABRIELA SOTO: Yes.

AMY GOODMAN: You have two children together with Martín, and you’re pregnant with your third. What are you telling — how old are your little ones?

GABRIELA SOTO: One and 4.

AMY GOODMAN: What does your 4-year-old understand?

GABRIELA SOTO: She thinks dad’s at work. When we were at the protest, she was holding up the sign for her dad. She didn’t know what was happening, but she — but she said, I think, to, like, a reporter, “Papá. I want my Papá,” like, ”Te quiero a mi papá,” like, “I want my dad. I want to see my dad.” She cries every time we leave the visitation, which is why I stopped trying to take her, because she gets anxious, she gets heartbroken. We’re trying to tell her, “Dad’s at work. He’s coming. He’s going to just — he’s working because he has to buy you a little toy, a big toy,” or because she really wants a puppy. So we try to also tell her, “Dad is working to get you the puppy.” And then, she was like, “Puppy, no. Dad, yes.”

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: I’d like to bring in Li Adorno from Movimiento Cosecha. Li, welcome to Democracy Now! Can you talk about this detention facility? It’s been in operation, the largest one in the New York metro area — it’s been open over a year. How many incidents have occurred in that facility that you’re aware of?

LI ADORNO: Yes, so, the facility has been reopened for about a year now. You know, there was a lot of resistance in the community. We all said that it was going to be a bad idea for them to reopen it. There was already abuse reported prior to that.

This year, unfortunately, we saw the first death at Delaney Hall during intake. The person who was being put into the detention facility wasn’t even there for a day. And when we asked for explanations, the only thing that ICE — well, GEO really said was that he had fallen in the staircase or in the stairs. But nobody dies from falling down, right?

We have been demanding more transparency. This, what has started to happen here at Delaney Hall in the past recent days, that has gotten a lot of attention, is actually the culmination of different letters that we have gotten from people who are detained describing the conditions.

AMY GOODMAN: If you can talk, Gabriela, about the demands of the people? Now, it’s two things, right? They’re on hunger strike and on a work strike. This is a for-profit company, GEO Group, that runs this facility. It’s very interesting that the governor, Governor Sherrill, said that a private company should not be running a mass detention facility.

GABRIELA SOTO: The conditions in there are horrible. They get paid $1.50 a day for a whole day of work. That is why mainly the hospitality tent outside of Delaney Hall, we help families with getting to their commissary, because it’s never enough. And there’s families that sometimes just can’t pay all the time for, like, these things for them. It’s basic things — toothbrushes, food, essential things. Their demands are not to get better conditions. Their demands are to get freed and be heard. They’re innocent people in there.

AMY GOODMAN: And, Gabriela, how are you communicating with people inside Delaney? And how aware are they of the protests outside?

GABRIELA SOTO: So, we got phone calls every day. Martín, my husband, gave my number to his inmates, to his detainees, to contact me if anything. I get phone calls.

They are very much aware of what is happening outside. We made it very strong for them to know that they are not alone inside, that we’re not letting anything happen to them.

My husband personally told me to tell Unit 2 to pass along the message to every single person to continue with the hunger strike, to continue with the labor strike, and for me to not give up on these detainees.

AMY GOODMAN: How much danger do you face?

GABRIELA SOTO: I don’t know personally, but I feel like I’m in a lot of danger, because my name is out there everywhere. Personally, I am happy that I started this to protect these people, but at the same time I also feel scared, because if they were capable of doing damage to a congresswoman —

AMY GOODMAN: LaMonica McIver.

GABRIELA SOTO: LaMonica McIver, facing criminal charges, a congresswoman. If they were capable enough to do harm to her, me, being just a nobody, what can they do to me or my husband? Like, I’m scared for both of us. I’m scared for my kids.

AMY GOODMAN: We heard Governor Sherrill mention Roxbury. Can you explain what Roxbury is? Not Roxbury, Massachusetts, but Roxbury, New Jersey. This was a warehouse that was purchased by ICE for, what, $130 million to warehouse people?

LI ADORNO: Yes, it was at sale for 60, but then ICE paid 120-something million dollars, like double the price of what it was worth. So, we’re already starting to see the red flags pop up.

AMY GOODMAN: This was under Kristi Noem, who was fired by Trump?