For days after the East Palo Alto housekeeper with an expired visa was moved from Stanford Medical Middle into ICE detention in Bakersfield, she may barely communicate to her household attempting to attach together with her by FaceTime cellphone calls.
Aleyda “Yeny” Rodriguez solely mumbled and family mentioned they had been sure she remained in some form of shock since she fainted whereas being arrested by ICE brokers Aug. 25 on her technique to work. On the Bakersfield Mesa Verde facility, she refused visits from her father and son-in-law.
“She did not trust anyone,” mentioned Issy Tovar, Rodriguez’s cousin. “When they would say they’re calling you, they’re here to visit, she just didn’t believe anybody.”
However now, after per week within the detention heart’s medical unit and with the assistance of a compassionate fellow detainee, her well being has improved and she or he is awaiting a deportation listening to, Tovar mentioned. A choose will resolve whether or not she will voluntarily deport, alongside together with her Mexican-born 13-year-old daughter, to her father’s house in Guadalajara — a plan she had in place even earlier than she was arrested, Tovar mentioned.
On the identical time, a gaggle of Stanford hospital staff and activists, upset at how her household and her lawyer had been banned from her hospital room throughout most of her five-day keep, are asking hospital executives to alter the way it interacts with ICE sooner or later. As ICE arrests improve underneath the Trump Administration’s crackdown of unlawful immigration, hospitals across the nation are grappling with the identical points, together with whether or not armed brokers may be banned from affected person remedy areas.
“They are common sense changes,” mentioned Michelle de Clean, the household lawyer who was denied entry to Rodriguez whereas she was a affected person. “What happened was not okay for her health, legally, anything.”
Aleyda “Yeny” Rodriguez, in a photograph from her household’s gofundme web page, stays at Stanford Medical Middle with ICE posted exterior her door after being arrested in East Palo Alto with an expired visa. (Courtesy of Rodriguez household)
Rodriguez’s arrest — two years after her 10-year vacationer visa expired — drew consideration to what gave the impression to be the random nature during which brokers from U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement had been apprehending immigrants within the U.S. with out correct documentation. High ICE officers initially mentioned their precedence was to focus on immigrants with violent prison information. A latest assertion the White Home mentioned that “while anyone in the country illegally is eligible for deportation, the priority remains criminal illegals who terrorize American communities.”
However President Trump had additionally promised to deport tens of millions of immigrants — far outnumbering these with prison information. And Rodriguez’s household has mentioned their solely crime was not renewing their visas. Her husband, Oscar Flores, works as a gardener together with her brother in East Palo Alto. Her 29-year-old nephew, Dario Jasso, who works in development and was arrested the identical morning, didn’t have any prison document, both, the household has mentioned.
A household pal, Carol Zink, mentioned it’s lengthy overdue that Congress give you a authorized path for citizenship for immigrants who “have not not been involved with the law in any way other than maybe a parking ticket or a speeding ticket. They do really necessary jobs that, for the most part, native born folks are not interested in doing.”
With out complete immigration reform, even Tovar, who was born within the U.S. and works as an interpreter at UCSF Medical Middle, mentioned she’s afraid ICE brokers can randomly detain her as a result of she has darkish pores and skin.
“I can be walking down the street talking with my mother, who is a citizen as well,” she mentioned. “I can be talking in Spanish with my mother, and I can be stopped. I can’t put it in just a few words. I’m very sad about this whole situation.”
Rodriguez was dropping off her husband at her brother’s home when she was arrested on the street. Her husband ran to security in a neighbor’s yard — personal property that’s off limits to ICE brokers with no warrant. As ICE brokers handcuffed her and carried her to their van, she handed out. They took her to Stanford the place they guarded her room for 5 days.
Her main care doctor, employed that week by her household to verify on her, mentioned she was catatonic hours earlier than Stanford launched her. A bunch of Stanford well being staff and different native activists protested her launch and are calling for quite a few modifications, together with prohibiting brokers from getting into remedy areas and relegating them to public ready rooms as a substitute.
Stanford mentioned in a press release Wednesday solely that “Stanford Health Care’s protocols are in place to ensure we deliver the highest quality clinical care to all our patients and comply with federal law enforcement directives.”
ICE didn’t reply to questions on Rodriguez’s situation and care or subsequent steps in her deportation.
After Rodriguez was discharged from Stanford and despatched to Bakersfield, a fellow detainee with a “kind heart” gained the belief of Rodriguez, Tovar mentioned, serving to her bathe and finally join together with her household.
“I would say that she is more aware and understanding of her situation,” Tovar mentioned, “and is feeling less frightened.”
