Fifty three days in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention is an experience Jose Patino said he will never forget.
Patino, a lifelong Evanston resident, said he was detained by ICE agents while at work last September, was later transported to Chicago’s Broadview facility, and was held for more than two months.
“It’s the same conditions everybody describes,” Patino told the Pioneer Press. “A lack of showers, open toilets…it was very crowded, nowhere to sleep.”
In the months since his November release, Patino has turned to advocacy, joining local community members to oppose the expansion of immigrant detention centers across the country, including one that Chicago-based real estate company Highlands REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust) may be interested in leasing as an ICE facility, according to news reports and the trust’s annual report.
Patino was one of more than a dozen protesters who gathered on March 20 outside Sherman Plaza in Evanston to speak out against the real-estate investment firm, which owns a subsection of the Sherman Plaza building, according to Highlands REIT’s annual report. Protesters say the company plans to lease out a private Colorado prison to ICE to be converted into a future detention center. Highlands acknowledged a desire to lease the facility to the government in the annual report.
The Sherman Plaza high rise houses popular storefronts like Target, Lifetime Fitness and Northwestern Medicine in downtown Evanston.
“Our message to Highlands REIT and any other company looking to do business with ICE is simple. Don’t,” said Rev. Jason Coulter of the First Congregational Church of Evanston.
“Any company, any contract that profits from ICE is an acknowledgement of one’s complicity with ICE’s cruel and corrupt actions. If you profit from them, you are with them,” Coulter said.
“If Highlands REIT decides to say ‘no’ to doing business with ICE, they could help set a moral precedent for corporate leadership at such a crucial moment in our country’s history.”
Representatives from Highlands REIT did not respond to a request for comment on the potential lease of the correctional facility in Hudson, Colorado.
At the protest, Coulter said he was informed of the company’s hopes to lease out the Colorado detention center, known as Big Horn Correctional Facility, to ICE from fellow clergy member Rev. Ben Konecny of First Congregational Church in Greeley, Colorado.
Konecny, who was not present at the Evanston protest, told Coulter that residents in Greeley were concerned about the possibility of Highlands REIT leasing out the now-dormant “Big Horn” prison (formerly Hudson Correctional Facility) in Hudson, Colorado, roughly 30 miles northeast of Denver, to GEO Group, Inc., a large private contractor providing detention services to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
GEO Group’s website lists its ICE immigrant detention centers in Florida, Texas, California, Louisiana, Washington and Georgia and states, “The GEO Group (GEO) operates special-purpose, state-of-the-art residential centers on behalf of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).”
When Konecny learned that Highlands REIT was headquartered in Chicago, and the owner of the retail portion of Sherman Plaza in Evanston, he contacted Coulter.
Konecny conveyed the following message for Coulter to share on his behalf: “Colorado faith and community leaders would like to extend our deepest gratitude to all of you who have gathered in Sherman Plaza. We are humbled and inspired by your willingness to stand in solidarity with us. We, who are resisting the opening of yet another Broadview in our country.”
Members of the Evanston Interfaith Clergy and Leaders, along with workers rights organization Arise Chicago and several other community advocates, rallied to denounce the prospective deal, which they said they see as an exploitation of immigrant communities for the purpose of corporate gain.
Rev. Michael Kirby of Northminster Presbyterian Church said, “What we believe is that the people of Sherman Plaza, the tenants of Sherman Plaza, the customers of Sherman Plaza, had no idea what was happening with a property owned by their landlord…we will not have profiting from pain in Evanston.”
Patino spoke during the protest to articulate what his first-hand experience in an ICE detention center felt like and call on the community to stop the expansion of immigration detention.
“Immigrants are no different than everyday Americans, yet we are targeted by simple factors like the color of our skin, the language we speak and the places we work at,” he said.
“Hardworking, caring, compassionate, honest people end up in these detention centers,” Patino added. “We deserve equal opportunity and the right to live in peace without persecution.”
Arise Chicago, an advocacy group organized to help protect working class immigrants in partnership with local faith communities, coordinated the Sherman Plaza event, inviting clergy members from across Evanston to speak out.
Rev. Michael Nabors of Second Baptist Church in Evanston was the last to speak publicly during the protest.
“We want freedom for everyone. We want justice for everyone. We want equality for everyone,” Nabors said. “While Evanston may not have it all together, all together, Evanston has it all.”
Coulter said a similar protest will be planned for Fountain Square in downtown Evanston on March 29 at 2 p.m. to continue to spread the community’s “opposition” to a potential lease.
