ST. PAUL, Minn. — Four Minnesota-based clients of the Center for Victims of Torture (CVT), who survived torture in their home countries and were receiving therapeutic care from CVT, have been arrested by ICE agents in recent days. These individuals were in the United States legally; each was in the asylum-seeking process when they were taken by ICE and then flown out of state by the next day.
“Our clients are survivors of torture who fled violence under some of the most dangerous regimes in the world. They are in the United States in a legal process, have done nothing wrong and came here seeking safety and asylum,” said Sara Nelson, CVT program manager. “Survivors recognize these actions. This is the kind of harsh and militaristic environment they fled.”
Below are details and background for three of the four detained clients:
One client is a torture survivor from an African country who is an asylum seeker with a work permit. He was detained after being stopped by immigration authorities while leaving a mosque. The arrest was witnessed by several community members. He originally fled his country after surviving a terrorist attack and multiple targeted assassination attempts that resulted in physical injury and ongoing psychological trauma.
Another client is a torture survivor from an African country who is also an asylum seeker with a work permit who was detained while entering her workplace. ICE agents tackled her in the snow in front of her co-workers and others. When she tried to show them her asylum application receipt, which indicates that she is in this country legally, the ICE agents laughed at her. She called her social worker from the back of the ICE van, panicked and begging for help. The social worker could hear the ICE agents laughing in the background as our client asked them why she was being detained. Less than 24 hours later, she was flown to a detention facility in Texas. She fled her home country after she was arrested and detained for several days, during which she was beaten and raped as part of her torture, for attending a rally in support of democratic elections.
Another client is a torture survivor from an African country who is also an asylum seeker with a work permit. He was detained during a routine ICE check-in appointment. He had been in complete compliance for multiple years with all ICE’s check-in requirements. When he was detained, he was able to text his psychotherapist a message before the ICE agents took away his phone. His message read, “I need help.” Before fleeing to the United States, he had been living in his home country during a civil war and was falsely accused of being a spy for the rebel forces; he was imprisoned and beaten and only escaped because his family paid a bribe for his release.
In addition to clients, a CVT student intern, a U.S. citizen, was pulled over by ICE while driving her car from Minneapolis to go to the St. Paul clinic. The intern, who is a woman of color, was ordered to get out of her car by five or six ICE agents, who asked about her citizenship status. They demanded her driver’s license, which is a real ID, but they said that was insufficient. Multiple agents had their guns drawn. She then showed them her passport card, but they would not accept that either, so she gave them her passport book, which was passed among all of them. The agents asked about the ethnic origination of her last name, saying that her name sounded Hmong. The agents Googled her name to confirm that it was not a Hmong name.
“These actions are reprehensible,” said Alison Beckman, CVT senior clinician for external relations. “The authorities keep claiming that ICE’s work is to arrest violent criminals, but they are actively taking law-abiding asylum seekers. CVT’s clients fled violence and oppression in their home countries. The U.S. was once seen as a safe haven. Not anymore.”
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The Center for Victims of Torture is a nonprofit organization with offices in Ethiopia, Iraq, Jordan, Kenya, Mexico, Uganda, United States and additional project sites around the world. Visit www.cvt.org
