‘I was told I wasn't in America’: Activist detained by ICE recounts custody experience
One of the U.S. citizens arrested in Linda Vista at the beginning of July during an immigration operation decried the treatment she received in federal custody and called for immigration officials to unmask and identify themselves.
Written by Kate Morrissey, Edited by Lauren J. Mapp
One of the three U.S. citizens arrested during an Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation in Linda Vista at the beginning of July made an impassioned plea on Thursday to a federal judge to dismiss the charges against them.
Jeane Wong told Magistrate Judge Allison Goddard about the ordeal that she and two other U.S. citizens experienced in federal custody, including spending the night in the basement of the San Ysidro Port of Entry without access to a phone call.
“Let justice begin here by ending what should have never started,” Wong said, asking the judge to be brave.
The three U.S. citizens are facing felony charges of assaulting, impeding or resisting a federal agent, but video of the incident has caused many in the community to question the validity of those charges.
Goddard told Wong that she didn't have the power to dismiss criminal charges as a magistrate judge. She said Wong would have to talk to the district judge.
“I'm very sorry for the trauma you're experiencing,” Goddard said.
Wong and the other two U.S. citizens arrested on July 2 will face different district judges over the next month for the next step of their pre-trial hearings.
Prior to Thursday's hearing, Wong gave a speech describing what she went through and warned that if she could be arrested and disappeared into the federal detention system, that could happen to anyone.
“We are far past ‘They came for.’ They have come, and no one is safe,” Wong said. “There is no safe. There is only right, and there is wrong. There is no intersection.”
Watch Wong's full speech here:
