Family, politicians appeal for release of men detained in Hazel Park by ICE

Two Venezuelan males detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement at an Amazon facility in Hazel Park on Feb. 2 stay in custody.

However their kin, with the assist of some Michigan politicians, are calling for his or her launch.

Detroit residents Edwin Vladimir Romero Gutierrez and Angel Junior Rincon-Perez labored as Amazon Flex drivers, in keeping with the discover despatched in a letter to ICE Detroit’s discipline director.

The 2 males are being held on the North Lake Processing Middle in Baldwin, a couple of 90-minute drive north of Grand Rapids.

Gutierrez and Rincon-Perez got here to the U.S. in 2023 and have U.S. work permits and non permanent protected standing, and are legally searching for asylum.

They’ve Michigan driver’s licenses. in keeping with the politicians’ letter, and neither has a legal historical past.

The letter described Rincon-Perez as the first breadwinner for a household with a number of youngsters.

Gutierrez and Rincon-Perez are actively following the immigration course of after fleeing instability in Venezuela, the letter stated. They every have upcoming court docket hearings for his or her asylum claims.

Gutierrez got here to the US after being concerned in Venezuelan protests in opposition to President Nicolás Maduro and his regime. Maduro and his spouse are at present in US custody accused of drug trafficking.

ICE brokers detained Gutierrez as he was on his strategy to begin his shift on the Amazon facility in Hazel Park. Rincon-Perez was taken into custody on his strategy to Amazon to return a bundle he was unable to ship the day earlier than, the letter stated.

The letter contained appeals from relations, translated from Spanish to English:

“I urge you from the underside of my coronary heart to please give Angel the chance to see his household once more as he is an effective father, a great son and a great brother,” wrote Rincon-Perez’s associate, Franyl Huerta. “He’s solely on the lookout for a greater future for our household as that is the inspiration of our dwelling.”

The neighborhood helps the Rincon-Perez household with groceries and transportation. Rincon-Perez wants medicine for hypertension, the letter states.

Gutierrez’s spouse Maria Zambrano stated he’s “a hardworking and quiet man. He has at all times been accountable and really dedicated to his household.”

Zambrano stated he’s the household’s primary breadwinner and helps his mom financially.

“My husband just isn’t a legal. He’s a household man who got here to this nation on the lookout for security and a possibility to work and supply truthfully for his household. His absence has deeply affected us,” Zambrano stated. “We solely ask that his character is taken under consideration and that the affect his detention has on his household is taken under consideration.”

The letter, co-signed by Secretary of State Stephanie Chang and Mary Cavanagh, State Rep. Veronica Paiz and Assemblywoman Gabriela Santiago-Romero of Detroit, emphasised that the lads are following the authorized necessities to acquire asylum within the U.S. and are doing their finest to care for his or her households.

“ICE and different federal brokers proceed to wreak havoc and chaos in our communities by breaking apart households. My coronary heart breaks for the households who not have a main breadwinner,” Chan stated, including that their arrest and elimination from the neighborhood is “mindless and heartbreaking.”

The politicians’ letter additionally referred to as for the elimination of ICE brokers from the world.

As of Wednesday morning, the lads stay on the Baldwin facility. The Oakland Press reached out to the ICE workplace in Detroit for remark and obtained an automatic response with a hyperlink to the database to seek for detainees.