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May 2025
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judgment are subjected to trans- parent due process. Ultimately, I still don’t know if Juan will be found guilty of some nefarious crime or if he will be exoner- ated and once again released, or perhaps simply disappear. A final question...has my investi- gation been misguided, or has my search taken place in a world of deliberately impenetrable opaqueness? I hope the former is true because a world of con- trived darkness has no place in the promised light of our Con- stitutional republic.
*Respecting the Mexican restaurant’s staff concerns, I have not named the restaurant.
**This true story is not in- tended to be critical of the dedicated officers of ICE. It is a critique of ICE's policy of en- forcement and communication.
THE "STORY"
continued from page 2
not federal.” The chief’s state- ment was true as far as it went, but omitted the subsequent role of ICE. It reinforced my suspi- cion that Juan was struggling with an opaque and sometimes internally contradictory process. Why was Juan now sequestered in an ICE-contracted facility? I surmise that perhaps ICE is ex- ploring for an applicable federal crime excusing his confinement in that facility, and which might justify further punitive measures.
Finally, believing that the re- sponses to my questions could only be answered by Immigra- tion and Customs Enforcement, I tried again (it wasn't the first time) to get some answers from that authority. I called and e-mailed both the Boston and Manchester ICE offices. No per- son ever responded to me. I did
receive instructions to use the “ODLS” (Online Detainee Lo- cator System), which was avail- able at a website. I did so. I filled out the required paperwork but was informed that my entries did not meet certain criteria, specifically, I needed to search by conveying the immigrant’s age and his “A-Number”, nei- ther of which was available to me. Another alternative was to fill out a G-28 Form to be the of- ficial representative or attorney for Juan. However, that would lead to another Kafkaesque sit- uation. Ultimately, the applica- tion would have to be approved by the ICE “Board of Appeals“ after being presented in person! As I worked on the puzzling form, I learned that an attorney representing an immigrant had been arrested. I thought it was prudent to take a different path to trace the facts of Juan’s incar- ceration.
In desperation, I turned to NH State Law, Title VI, “Pro- cedure For Release of Personal Information.” This procedure requires answers to dozens of questions, some of which are unclear. The “procedure” ends with the warning that “anyone violating a provision of this stat- ute will be found ‘guilty’...it is not clear of what. Also, a fee was required to use the database. So much for that avenue!
Conclusion
All persons living in Amer- ica, whether citizens or not, are entitled to due process as spec- ified in the 5th Amendment of our Constitution, a process that should be transparent. How- ever, Juan’s latest journey is one that seems rife with obfuscation. After all my sleuthing, I am still
left with unanswered questions. Is Juan guilty or innocent of what now seems to be construed as a federal crime? Has he re- ceived due process as guaran- teed by the Constitution? (And reiterated this month in the Supreme Court decision in the case of D.J. Trump vs J.G.G. et al.) Finally, is his imprisonment an example of double jeopardy prohibited by the 5th amend- ment?
I DON’T KNOW is my an- swer to these questions. Coinci- dentally, “I Don’t Know” was Bud Abbott’s name for the third baseman in Abbott and Costel- lo’s wordplay sketch. Their dia- logue was hysterical, but there has been nothing funny about this story. As indicated, our Constitution ensures that a per- son’s arrest, confinement, and