Brooklyn Fund Gives Lifeline To Immigrants, Detainees In Pandemic

BROOKLYN, NY — Queens resident Edwin Tineo had just helped his fellow detainees through a hunger strike surrounding conditions at Hudson County Correctional Facility in March, when he learned he'd be coming home.

The father of two, who grew up near Bushwick, had been waiting on his U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement case in the New Jersey jail for about a year when the coronavirus pandemic descended on the prison.

As friends around him fell sick and guards put detainees in near-solitary confinement with little explanation, Tineo was one of the lucky clients that Brooklyn Defender Services was able to free from detainment.

"I came home to a pandemic, but at the time what really mattered to me is I was home with my family," Tineo said at a virtual press conference Thursday. "I was excited — I was happy."

But the struggle for Tineo and his family didn't end when he got home, he said.

Like many immigrants, particularly those formerly detained by ICE, Tineo was left fearful about applying for benefits that had become all the more important during the coronavirus pandemic, like medical insurance.

He ran into hurdles like getting a state ID, opening his first bank account and — even months later and with a new green card — finding work to replace the job he lost when he was detained.

Advocates with Brooklyn Defender Services who helped get Tineo and dozens of others out of jails when the coronavirus reached New York City say his experience is far from uncommon.

"All the problems that face the communities that we serve normally — not having ID, not having access to government benefits — were just compounded by [the coronavirus crisis]," social worker Meg Smithson said.

The compounded problems prompted Brooklyn Defender Services to start a new fundraiser this week, called Todos Together, which will help immigrant families and those who are still detained during the pandemic.

The money will go to immigrant families who need emergency help with groceries, household, hygiene, toiletry needs, baby supplies, utility bills, remote learning needs and medication costs, according to BDS.

And, into commissary accounts of those in immigration detention for things soap, toilet paper, phone calls to their families and food.

BDS has so far freed 75 percent of its more than 100 clients who were in ICE custody by winning cases, as they did for Tineo, or taking legal action to prove the jail conditions were putting detainees lives in danger.

The remaining 25 percent are still facing the dangerous conditions inside, and are being joined by more people as ICE starts making arrests again, advocates said.

"The jails are still not safe places," Attorney Andrea Saenz said "People are still living in those lockdown-like conditions and they’re still not safe. It’s not over inside the jails."

Find out more about Todos Together here.