Catalina “Xochitl” Santiago had already made it past the security line at the El Paso airport when two border patrol agents called her in for questioning and whisked her away to an immigration detention center.
Nearly a month after her arrest, she and her family still aren’t clear why she is detained. Santiago is a beneficiary of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (Daca) program – which has allowed her to legally live and work in the US.
“They have no legal basis for why they detained her or why they’re holding her or why they’re trying to deport her,” said her spouse, Desiree Miller. And immigration officials have yet to provide her or her family any clear answers, she added.
Since her arrest on 3 August, Santiago’s case has alarmed immigration advocates across the US, as it illustrates the increasing vulnerability of hundreds of thousands of young people who arrived in the US as children and were granted temporary protections from deportation through the Obama-era Daca program.
Although there have been no regulatory changes to the program, the administration has tried to strip 525,000 Daca recipients, also known as Dreamers, of benefits. In July, Tricia McLaughlin, a DHS assistant press secretary, claimed, falsely, that “Daca does not confer any form of legal status in this country” and urged recipients to self-deport.
Earlier this month, Javier Diaz Santana, a deaf and mute Daca recipient was detained during a raid at his work site, and officials confiscated the tools he relied on to communicate. Jose Valdovinos, another Daca recipient, was detained outside a gas station, while in the passenger seat of a vehicle being driven by his wife.
“We hadn’t seen this before,” said José, Santiago’s older brother – who is also a Daca recipient. “It was very fast and very aggressive.”
On Wednesday, Santiago is set to appear at a hearing before an immigration judge – which will determine whether she will be released back home, or remain in detention.
In the weeks since Santiago’s arrest, activists have organized vigils in El Paso, Texas; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Grand Rapids, Michigan; Long Island, Boston; Tempe, Arizona and Seattle to protest the detaining of the 28-year-old immigration rights activist and community organizer.
Meanwhile, immigration officials told Santiago and her lawyers they wanted to deport her because she had entered the US illegally. “It didn’t make sense,” said Miller. Santiago had come to the US with her family when she was just eight years old, and was legally allowed to remain in the US through the Daca program.
The Department of Homeland Security said she was arrested due to charges of “trespassing, possession of narcotics and drug paraphernalia”. But Santiago had not been convicted of any crimes, Miller said – and her record had not prevented her from renewing her Daca status seven times.
“The administration is messaging that they’re deporting criminals and illegal aliens. And like they use all these words to try to take away from the fact that the people who are being detained are human, that they are family members,” Miller said.
Santiago had been on her way to Austin to attend a conference on family and community-run farms when she was arrested. Miller, who works alongside Santiago at the local community organization, had caught an earlier flight to attend the same conference.
Miller was rattled when Santiago sent them a shaky video of two border patrol officers stopping her at the airport, insisting she put her phone away and come with them to answer questions about her employment documents.
Then, for the next several hours, Miller heard nothing. “I was messaging and calling her.” Santiago had been stopped at airports before, so Miller hoped the silence was an indication that she had boarded her flight.
A few hours later, Santiago had managed to call a friend from a detention center. Miller rushed back home.
In the weeks that followed, Santiago told her spouse and family she was unable to sleep because the lights at the detention center were on all night and the guards were loud. She found it difficult to eat the food that was provided and get medical care as needed.
José said he could hear the exhaustion in her voice. “But I know she has a strong spirit,” he said.
Miller said they’ve been unable to rest. “It’s really hard for me to like, sleep and eat and do anything out here comfortably, knowing that she’s not able to sleep in there,” they said. The couple married in January – and since Miller is a US citizen, Santiago had been considering applying for a green card soon.
“It’s like the constant threat that they could come and take someone you love.”
