WASHINGTON — Nobody appears to know what occurred to Vicente Ventura Aguilar.
A witness advised his brother and attorneys that the 44-year-old Mexican immigrant, who doesn’t have lawful immigration standing, was taken into custody by immigration authorities on Oct. 7 in SouthLos Angeles and suffered a medical emergency.
But it surely’s been greater than six weeks since then, and Ventura Aguilar’s household nonetheless hasn’t heard from him.
The Division of Homeland Safety mentioned 73 folks from Mexico had been arrested within the Los Angeles space between Oct. 7 and eight.
“None of them had been Ventura Aguilar,” mentioned Tricia McLaughlin, the assistant Homeland Safety public affairs secretary.
“For the report, unlawful aliens in detention have entry to telephones to contact relations and attorneys,” she added.
McLaughlin didn’t reply questions on what the company did to find out whether or not Ventura Aguilar had ever been in its custody, corresponding to checking for anybody with the identical date of start, variations of his identify, or figuring out detainees who acquired medical consideration close to the California border round Oct. 8.
Lindsay Toczylowski, co-founder of the Immigrant Defenders Legislation Middle who’s representing Ventura Aguilar’s household, mentioned DHS by no means responded to her inquiries about him.
The household of Vicente Ventura Aguilar, 44, says he has been lacking since Oct. 7 when a pal noticed him arrested by federal immigration brokers in Los Angeles. Homeland Safety officers say he was by no means of their custody.
(Household of Vicente Ventura Aguilar)
“There’s just one company that has solutions,” she mentioned. “Their refusal to supply this household with solutions, their refusal to supply his attorneys with solutions, says one thing in regards to the lack of care and the cruelty of the second proper now for DHS.”
His household and attorneys checked with native hospitals and the Mexican consulate with out success. They enlisted assist from the workplace of Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Los Angeles), whose workers referred to as the Los Angeles and San Diego county medical expert’s workplaces. Neither had somebody matching his identify or description.
The Los Angeles Police Division additionally advised Kamlager-Dove’s workplace that he isn’t of their system. His brother, Felipe Aguilar, mentioned the household filed a lacking individual’s report with LAPD on Nov. 7.
“We’re unhappy and nervous,” Felipe Aguilar mentioned. “He’s my brother and we miss him right here at house. He’s an excellent individual. We solely hope to God that he’s alive.”
Felipe Aguilar mentioned his brother, who has lived within the U.S. for round 17 years, left house round 8:15 a.m. on Oct. 7 to catch the bus for an interview for a sanitation job when he bumped into associates on the nook close to a neighborhood liquor retailer. He had his telephone however had left his pockets at house.
A type of associates advised Felipe Aguilar and his attorneys that he and Ventura Aguilar had been detained by immigration brokers after which held at B-18, a short lived holding facility on the federal constructing in downtown Los Angeles.
The pal was deported the following day to Tijuana. He spoke to the household in a telephone name from Mexico.
Detainees at B-18 have restricted entry to telephones and attorneys. Immigrants don’t often flip up within the Immigration and Customs Enforcement on-line locator system till they’ve arrived at a long-term detention facility.
Based on Felipe Aguilar and Toczylowski, the pal mentioned Ventura Aguilar started to shake, went unconscious and fell to the bottom whereas shackled on Oct. 8 at a facility close to the border. The affect prompted his face to bleed.
The pal mentioned that facility workers referred to as for an ambulance and moved the opposite detainees to a unique room. Toczylowski mentioned that was the final time anybody noticed Ventura Aguilar.
She mentioned the fast timeline between when Ventura Aguilar was arrested to when he disappeared is emblematic of what she views as a broad lack of due course of for folks in authorities custody beneath the Trump administration and exhibits that “we don’t know who’s being deported from the US.”
Felipe Aguilar mentioned he referred to as his brother’s cellphone after listening to in regards to the arrests nevertheless it went straight to voicemail.
Felipe Aguilar mentioned that whereas his brother is mostly wholesome, he noticed a heart specialist a pair years in the past about chest ache. He was on prescribed remedy and his situation had improved.
His household and attorneys mentioned Ventura Aguilar might need given immigration brokers a faux identify when he was arrested. Some detained folks provide up a improper identify or alias, and that might clarify why he by no means confirmed up in Homeland Safety information. Toczylowski mentioned federal brokers generally misspell the identify of the individual they’re reserving into custody.
Vicente Ventura Aguilar, who has been lacking since Oct. 7, had lived in the US for 17 years, his household mentioned.
(Household of Vicente Ventura Aguilar)
However she mentioned the company ought to make a major try to seek for him, corresponding to by utilizing biometric information or his picture.
“To me, that’s one other symptom of the chaos of the immigration enforcement system because it’s occurring proper now,” she mentioned of the problems with precisely figuring out detainees. “And it’s what occurs if you find yourself indiscriminately, racially profiling folks and choosing them up off the road and holding them in circumstances which are substandard, after which deporting folks with out due course of. Errors get made. Proper now, what we wish to know is what errors had been made right here, and the place is Vicente now?”
Surveillance footage from a close-by enterprise reviewed by MS NOW exhibits Ventura Aguilar on the sidewalk 5 minutes earlier than masked brokers start making arrests in South Los Angeles. The footage doesn’t present him being arrested, however two witnesses advised the outlet that they noticed brokers handcuff Ventura Aguilar and place him in a van.
In a letter despatched to DHS leaders Friday, Kamlager-Dove requested what steps DHS has taken to find out whether or not anybody matching Ventura Aguilar’s identifiers was detained final month and whether or not the company has documented any medical occasions or hospital transports involving folks taken into custody round Oct. 7-8.
“Given the size of time since Mr. Ventura Aguilar’s disappearance and the credible concern that he could have been misidentified, injured, or in any other case unaccounted for through the enforcement motion, I urgently request that DHS and ICE conduct a right away and complete evaluate” by Nov. 29, Kamlager-Dove wrote in her letter.
Kamlager-Dove mentioned her commonest immigration requests from constituents are for assist with visas and passports.
“By no means in all of the years did I anticipate to get a name about somebody who has fully disappeared off the face of the earth, and likewise by no means did I feel that I’d discover myself not simply calling ICE and Border Patrol however checking hospitals, checking with LAPD and checking morgues to discover a constituent,” she mentioned. “It’s horrifying and it’s fully dystopian.”
She mentioned households throughout Los Angeles deserve solutions and must know whether or not one thing related may occur to them.
“Who else is lacking?” she mentioned.
