To the editor:
Alma Sofia Centeno Santiago, 33, is being held in isolation at the Bergen County Jail. Through Trump’s immoral and unconstitutional policies and because our Democratic Bergen County sheriff agreed to sign off on an ICE contract, immigrants only because they have no social security numbers can now be picked up by ICE, ripped away from their families and remain incarcerated and in isolation in our Bergen County Jail.
Alma is three months pregnant and has very serious medical issues, and is right now sitting in isolation in a dingy jail, with no support and little medical care. She has been hospitalized twice for stomach infections and since arrested in April 2019 has been unable to eat the greasy and sub-par food she’s being served in the Bergen County Jail. She has been vomiting and is dehydrated.
Moreover, the jail has been under medical quarantine because of a mumps outbreak, and rightfully so Alma is worried about having a miscarriage if she does not receive proper medical treatment.
Our county is made up of families with Eastern European heritages. These immigrants came with little, didn’t speak the language and worked hard which helped them to have productive U.S. citizen children. At that time there were many biases in the U.S. against immigrants like now, but then the process was more fully supported. Sponsors were able to wait for you at Ellis Island and other ports of entry. There were less bans on the types of people that could come and paperwork did not always magically get lost by the government.
Alma’s story is happening in county jails across the nation. The Bergen County ICE contract allows about $19 million of our tax monies to go into our jail, which supports this immigration horror pushed by our own federal government under Trump.
About nine million of this federal tax dollars sits in the Bergen County pot, and our Democratic Freeholders that maintain our county’s budget cannot tell us what are tax money is being used for.
The purpose of ICE was to keep us safe. I do not feel safer by having an ill, pregnant mother being dehumanized and ripped from her family. Our political leaders are supporting this, and they represent us. Your constituents and residents do not want this, and if policies do not change then we will elect better representatives.