It is the kind of American Dream story many of us were brought up on: A young immigrant arrives in America with little more than hope, a belief in the values the country professes and energy to contribute. He works hard, excels and gives back. But here the story goes wrong. Instead of being allowed to build a productive life in the land he calls home, Eduardo Samaniego has been jailed and threatened with deportation, seemingly in punishment for his strong embrace of the best ideals of our country.
We know that the idealized myth of America was never true. Racism, slavery and genocide are as much a part of U.S. history as the promise represented by the Statue of Liberty or the country’s founding documents. In fact, exclusion was written directly into those documents. To the extent that the promise of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness has broadened over the past two centuries, it is due to the insistent demands of those who have been excluded, as they have challenged the nation to be better. But these challenges are invariably resisted by those whose power is derived from inequality.
Samaniego is an advocate for immigrant rights and immigration reform. He came alone to the U.S. from Mexico a decade ago, at the age of 16. He enrolled in high-school in Georgia where, despite the challenge of learning English, and a period of homelessness caused by anti-immigrant laws, he graduated with honors while also logging hundreds of hours of community service. He was President of the Hispanic Honor Society and of Junior Achievement of Georgia, and the only National Society of High School Scholars gold medal winner in his class, according to media reports.
Yet lacking legal status, Samaniego was initially unable to attend college. He worked and became active with Dreamers advocating for immigration reform and access to education for DACA students. Then, in 2014, Hampshire College awarded him a four-year scholarship and he entered our local community as a student studying constitutional law and education policy. Here he continued his political activism, working with Pioneer Valley Workers Center and, among other things, advocating passage of the Massachusetts Safe Communities Act. Last Spring, Samaniego and 10 others walked 250 miles from New York to Washington D.C. for a national Clean Dream Act.
But in October, back in Georgia, Samaniego was taken into detention by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). He is currently held at the Irwin County Detention Center in Ocilla, Georgia, a facility with a history of human and civil rights violations that was the subject of a damning 2017 report by Project South in conjunction with Penn State Law’s Center for Immigrants’ Rights Clinic, a student project of Mercer Law School, Alterna, Georgia Detention Watch, and the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights. The report describes inadequate medical care, unhygienic food and water, limits on communication and access to legal support, and many other problems and abuses.
Despite having no criminal record, and even though he has ongoing medical needs arising from a 2015 apartment fire in which he sustained burns on 45 percent of his body and required three months in hospital, Samaniego has been denied bond. He has been in solitary confinement for at least two weeks, held in an empty room under 24-hour observation, and forced to eat meals with his hands and sleep on the floor. His targeting appears to be political retaliation for his effective work in defending the human rights of workers and immigrants in this country.
As this column goes to press, Samaniego is facing another court hearing on Thursday, Jan 17. His supporters are calling for his release so he can get medical treatment and for the transfer of his case to Massachusetts. You can add your name to a petition on his behalf at Bit.ly/FreeEduardoNow and donate to help with his legal and medical fees at bit.ly/EduardoEmergencyFund. More information and ways to support him are at Bit.ly/FreeEduardoToolkit, including an address for sending Samaniego letters of support, and guidance on calls to ICE and letters to the Secretary of Homeland Security. Since the situation could change rapidly, check the toolbox or #freeeduardo on Facebook to learn the latest about what is needed.
Supporting Samaniego is essential because his human rights are being violated. It is appropriate, because our nation’s immigration laws are unfair and unreasonable. And it is in our best interest, because our country needs him free, to remind us again of what was supposed to be self-evident: all people are created equal, with certain unalienable rights. I am grateful that there are brave people like Eduardo Samaniego in the country, willing to take risks to push for our laws, policies, and actions to align with this ideal.
Jim Oldham is Executive Director of Equity Trust, Inc., an Amherst-based nonprofit that works nationally for land reform and economic justice. He was an Amherst Town Meeting member from 2002-2018 and he has served on the Community Preservation Act Committee since 2013.
