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To: Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE)
Wilmer's health and life are in danger. Demand his immediate release and stop his deportation!
To: Ricardo Wong, Director
Chicago Field Office
Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Sylvia Bonaccorsi-Manno, Assistant Director
Chicago Field Office
Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Dear Director Wong and Assistant Director Bonaccorsi-Manno,
I am writing to request that Mr. Wilmer Catalan Ramirez, A(098 500 300), be released from immigration detention immediately. Mr. Catalan is in urgent need of medical care, and needs to be with his family where he can receive the support he needs.
Mr. Wilmer Catalan first came to the United States in 2006 with hopes of achieving a better life for himself and his family. That same year, Mr. Catalan was deported back to his home country. Mr. Catalan was the victim of an armed attack which has left him partially paralyzed and having to use a prosthetic leg.
In March 2017, Mr. Catalan was violently detained by ICE while he was still recuperating from this attack, still experiencing mobility issues and still requiring constant medical care. Since being detained, Mr. Catalan has been denied needed medical care, and has been subject to physical and verbal abuse.
Mr. Catalan does not belong in detention and his health issues cannot be adequately addressed while he is incarcerated. He is also not a threat to anyone: much to the contrary, he is responsible, hard-working, a loving partner and supportive father to his US citizen children.
I urge your office to consider the gravity of Mr. Catalan’s condition and and to ensure he is released immediately. There have been too many deaths in ICE detention this year. I also urge you to take into consideration Mr. Wilmer Catalan’s good behavior and his value to his community, and to grant Mr. Catalan’s release.
Why is this important?
On Monday, March 27th, in a clear escalation from its already dehumanizing and violent tactics, ICE detained Wilmer Catalan Ramirez. At the time of his arrest, Wilmer was recuperating from an armed attack that left half of his body paralyzed and requires him to use a prosthetic leg.
When ICE officials arrived at Wilmer’s home they did not identify themselves as ICE, instead calling themselves detectives and pretending to be looking for a suspect named “Rubio”. Wilmer's wife, Celene, asked the agents to leave as her husband was not in any position to see them and asked them to leave as she proceeded to open the door to go inside.
As soon as she began to open the door, agents pushed her and made their way into the home at which point they proceeded to apprehend Wilmer. In this process, agents threw Celene on the ground as she was attempting to protect her ailing husband. Wilmer was also thrown into the ground and handcuffed; this exchange left him with a broken arm which was not tended to for several days following his arrest. Wilmer’s arrest, which took place without a warrant or transparent communication on behalf of ICE, is representative of aTrump era for ICE in which detentions are as violent as ever and continue ICE’s tradition of glaring human rights violations. This case is emblematic of ICE’s push to keep our communities in constant fear, without ever following their supposed protocol and aiming to instill panic and terrorize immigrant families.
Wilmer has fought his case from within detention, but has been subject to abuse within detention since his arrest, including denial of critical medical care. On May Day, immigrant and Black-led groups filed request for information from the City of Chicago, as start of campaign to expose the role of the gang database in criminalizing and deporting community members. The request was filed on the same day that Wilmer Catalan-Ramirez filed a lawsuit naming the City of Chicago and the Chicago Police Department as responsible for sharing incorrect information with ICE that wrongfully identified Mr. Catalan-Ramirez as a gang member.
In May, Wilmer filed a civil rights lawsuit against McHenry County Correctional Facility, Ricardo Wong, ICE’s Chicago Field Office Director, and the City of Chicago for triggering a nightmarish chain of events that left Wilmer imprisoned, in severe physical pain and mental anguish, and fighting his deportation. Since then, however, he has continued to be verbally abused, denied care, and re-injured due to the reckless disregard of detention center staff for his well-being. The situation has escalated to the point where Wilmer is afraid he will die in detention. We must get him out.
Wilmer migrated from Guatemala to the United States in 2006 and was deported that same year as result of an ICE raid that took place in his workplace in 2006. Shortly after being deported, Wilmer returned to the United States and has since been living here. Wilmer is a part of a loving family; his three children US citizens and he is the main provider for his household.
Please sign on to support Wilmer. He is being punished for standing up for his rights and ICE is attempting to place him in expedited proceedings because of his 2006 deportation. We want him free to heal with the care he needs.