In the Middle Ages, the "oubliette" (from the French verb oublier, "to forget") was a subterranean grated dungeon where political prisoners were deposited to be erased from memory. Buried alive.
Cut off from their families and communities, in legal limbo, without access to adequate food, medical care, news or information about their cases, the men trapped behind ICE razor wire in Torrance and Cibola counties exist in what Kelly McCloskey of VIDA calls a "tortuous vacuum" not so different from those sinkholes of despair.
But Ms. McCloskey and VIDA (Volunteers for Immigrants in Detention Albuquerque) make sure those men are not forgotten. Fluent in three languages, she has been visiting them, listening to their stories, exchanging letters and advocating on their behalf since 2019.
As a special session of the New Mexico legislature considers House Bill 9 that would prohibit municipalities in our state from contracting with ICE to operate private prisons, Donovan Kolbly and Gary Kowalski of Indivisible Santa Fe sat down last week with Kelly to hear her firsthand accounts of the desperate conditions behind prison walls.
Their interview is the second episode in a new podcast, Indivisible Santa Fe Radio, which can be heard on Spotify, Amazon Music and other listening platforms.
VIDA makes monthly visits to Torrance County Detention Facility and Cibola County Correctional Center, reminding detainees that they are not alone; writes letters to those behind bars in New Mexico and all over the country; advocates for the abolition of immigrant detention at local, state and national levels; communicates with New Mexico's congressional leaders about the reality of immigrant detention and human rights abuses; and supports those in detention with commissary money
VIDA will be hosting an Advocacy Event: Wednesday, February 4th at 6 pm. Participants will watch the film “Unidos con Libros," discuss strategy and the landscape of immigrant detention in New Mexico with attorneys from the Deportation Defense Team of the New Mexico Immigrant Law Center, and contact lawmakers to show support for the Immigrant Safety Act (House Bill 9). For location details, please contact abqvida@gmail.com.
In the meantime, call your state legislators to pass House Bill 9. (You can find your state rep here.) Shut down the ICE prisons in New Mexico. No more oubliettes!
Listen to Indivisible Santa Fe Radio on RSS.com for an interview with Jane Steinberg on legislative efforts to address our state's shortage of doctors and other health care providers, and stay tuned for an upcoming podcast with our own legal scholar Heidi Feldman on our broken constitutional order.
