Opening Remarks of Monica Cornejo, PhD
July 21, 2023
My name is Monica Cornejo, PhD, and I work at Cornell University as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication. My research employs qualitative and quantitative methodologies to examine the structural barriers that lead to inequities among various immigrant communities (e.g., undocumented youth, detained immigrants), how immigrants draw on different communication processes (e.g., identity management; advocacy) to challenge those barriers, and how those strategies relate to immigrants’ physical, mental, and social wellbeing (e.g., depression, hypertension, diabetes, anxiety, relational closeness). In addition to expanding on the theoretical understanding of this process, my research aims to document the experiences of various immigrant communities to create interventions and pathways to reduce the myriad of racist barriers immigrant communities — particularly indigenous, mestizo, and Black immigrants — experience in the United States at the arms of a White Supremacy, which is carried through the hands of individuals who work for and support those systems.
Given my research expertise, I pursued a collaboration with a Law professor at Cornell University and the Southeast Immigrant Freedom Initiative (SIFI) to learn more about ways in which I could support their efforts, as well as learn about immigration detention centers for my research area. As part of our collaboration, I was invited to participate — as a Spanish-English translator — in their legal presentations to immigrants held in ICE detention centers in Louisiana. These visits took place in April 2023. During our visitation at the GEO Group-run ICE prison in Jena, Louisiana on April 6th I witnessed instances of deeply rooted racism and xenophobia perpetuated against detained immigrants. Due to this experience and against the recommendation of my colleagues, I hereby release an audio recording taken on the date of the incident. This recording documents a snippet of the dehumanizing conditions, racism and xenophobia perpetuated against Mr. Daniel Cortes (a detained immigrant), Mr. Mich P. Gonzalez (the attorney providing know-your-rights presentations), and myself by ICE and GEO Group staff (and later local law enforcement) at the Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Jena, Louisiana on April 6, 2023.
Deciding whether to release this audio was distressing and difficult. However, after learning about the wrongful death of 42-year-old Ernesto Rocha-Cuadra and the continued subjugation to life-threatening conditions of all others inside, I am releasing this audio to expose the toxic and violently racist environment within the GEO Group-run ICE facility in Jena, Louisiana. Based on my expert observations, I am deeply concerned for the safety and wellbeing of detained immigrants — particularly immigrants of color and immigrants of sexual and gender marginalized identities. The incident that I witnessed exposed the biases and prejudicial attitudes of ICE and GEO personnel against the detained immigrants in their “care” and authority. Additionally, the retaliatory behavior ICE and GEO staff personnel employed against Mr. Gonzalez and myself when inquiring about the health of Mr. Cortes De La Valle and reporting the incidents of medical negligence I witnessed from GEO personnel and medical professionals warrant further investigation by neutral parties to uncover the extent of physical, psychological, and emotional abuse detained immigrants — particularly immigrants of color — endured at the hands of their captors: ICE and GEO personnel.
I am fully aware that I might experience negative consequences as a result of releasing this audio recording; yet, regardless, I release this audio. Unlike the ICE and GEO officers I pleaded with to investigate the April 6th incident, I do not wish to become an accomplice to deplorable, inhumane, violations to human rights at the hands of racist corrupt governmental ICE officials and GEO staff. As you read the below account, have a few things in mind. First, this letter is a culmination of a myriad of emotions — pain, impotence, despair, and numbness. Second, this letter is uncouth. I choose to deviate from my years of academic training and write this piece without grace; my reason for is quite simple — transparency. It is not possible for me to share the incident that occurred on April 6, 2023 (and all that has ensued since) without also acknowledging and documenting the anger, disappointment, and fear I have for the current U.S. immigration detention system. And if you still trust in this system, I warn you to be cautious. Many branches of our governmental institutions — including the immigration detention system — are experiencing heightened tensions between following the voice of its people (who demand justice, humanity, and accountability) and the economic incentives of unscrupulous multibillion dollar corporations and corrupt, power-hungry, public officials who gain power and money from the exploitation of Black and brown immigrants and other marginalized group members (e.g., other people of color, the disabled, women, LGBTQA+).
This tension is at a breaking point and the freedom afforded to all U.S. individuals is being renegotiated. Currently, however, there is a focus on the freedom and liberation of certain marginalized groups (e.g., Black people, trans* people, queer people, women, criminalized people, undocumented immigrants, asylum seekers) living in the United States; because the invisibilized fabric of White Supremacy warms United States’ institutions, the freedom and liberation of marginalized group members is slowly being eradicated. If this continues, the U.S. risks becoming a militarized state that deprives all its, socially constructed, non-dominant (white, male, rich) citizens basic human rights and liberties, which could lead to the erasure of nondominant marginalized human beings. Together, as a community of people who suffer at the hands of multimillion dollar corporations or corrupt politicians wanting to gain money or power, we must act with urgency and challenge the white nationalist, racist, xenophobic, and neo-liberal colonialist ideology that is deeply rooted throughout all U.S. institutions. The freedom and humanity of all U.S. individuals is at risk. This issue is not only relevant to immigrants, detained or otherwise; nor is it only relevant to Black, mestizo, or indigenous people, it is relevant to every single person currently living in the United States — regardless of race, sexual orientation, gender, political affiliation, or any other socially constructed category.
A child of immigrants and Mexican native, my family decided to migrate to the United States seeking improved social and economic opportunities. Having visited the small rural Mexican town in Jalisco that my family fled from, I can attest the following: the person I am today would have not existed in Mexico. It might be surprising to some, but I earned a doctorate degree from the Department of Communication at UC Santa Barbara, one of the most prestigious programs in Communication throughout the United States. Currently, as an Assistant professor at Cornell University — and after living in fear for 22 years being undocumented — I realize that I would not have accumulated these accomplishments in Mexico. Yet, although I contribute to U.S. society, similarly to the 10.5 million undocumented immigrants, U.S. institutions label me an illegal and seek my removal. Yes, that’s right; I drafted this piece as an undocumented immigrant. For those who are thinking: “how is this immigrant working”, I say: we should not need a piece of paper to work because seeking employment and working in order to live is a basic human right. In addition, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) allowed me to work. I was a lucky beneficiary of this program. At the same time, I recognize the exclusionary nature of DACA (it should really be called CACA) that provides no path to permanent status and discriminates against certain undocumented immigrant communities who have been criminalized by class oppression masquerading as justice. Now, as a legal permanent resident (that I obtained after marrying a U.S. citizen, not by “pulling myself from my bootstraps” and earning the highest degree anyone could obtain, a PhD), I use my privilege and speak out to challenge the current oppressive immigration-detention ecosystem thriving in the United States.
For those who want my removal or the removal of other immigrant communities, I would love to say “pinches racista xenophobics”. Instead, I will simply ask: aside from a hateful division and a multimillion dollar profit that private corporations make from the persecution of certain immigrant communities, what is gained from our current immigration system? If your answer deviates from “nothing else is gained”, I invite you to think about the systemic, racist, and white-supremacist structures that dictate which immigrants are deemed human in this country (e.g., white and European-adjacent immigrants vs. immigrants of color). However, if you cannot recognize the ways in which racism and white supremacy have always directed and continue to direct the laws and policies of our country, I officially gift you your “I am a racist” pin. I urge you not to be offended, however; acceptance is the first step to transformation and true liberation. I too, like so many others, had to discover all the ways in which I was socialized to be racist by our systems and institutions. That is how I discovered what I needed to unlearn, how I needed to change. And now these systems must change, too.
My introduction to our racist system began with the migration process, but my participation was further cemented via the socialization process of various U.S. institutions (e.g., educational, employment). My position in the system is clearly categorized as “othered” and subhuman because I did not meet the qualifications of privilege in the United States (e.g., heterosexual, white, cis-gender male). Despite this, I have been critical of our institutions — as is the right of any person who lives in a free society and contributes socially, culturally, and economically to its communities. Yet, I never expected to witness state-sanctioned terrorism against immigrants of color. I knew it existed, but I had not personally witnessed this until April 6, 2023. Change is urgently needed.
The trauma-filled experiences I encountered during my visitation to U.S. immigration detention cages in Winnfield and Jena, Louisiana are carved into my brain — the living conditions of imprisoned immigrants were hopeless and dire; a heavy cloud of racism and discrimination filled the air inside these carceral complexes. What I witnessed inside these detention cages is traumatic for any person, but for me, they are enhanced due to my, then and 22-year-long ascribed, undocumented status. What I observed was enough for me to decide the following: I would rather self-deport to a country that is foreign to me (Mexico) than remain captive in one of these U.S. detention cages. Making this statement and releasing this audio recording is terrifying, and painful, but I am confident in my decision after reflecting on the various levels of racist violence that directed the incidents that took place on April 6th at the GEO Group-run ICE center in Jena.
I speak out now and join the thousands of voices who continue to demand the end of for-profit immigration detention centers and the end of systemic oppression against our communities of color. I, along with the hundreds of thousands of allies and survivors of White Supremacy and xenophobia, also demand accountability and transparency following an independent investigation of Mr. Enesto Rocha Cuadra’s death while in custody at GEO Group-run facility in Jena. WE the people also demand a neutral-and-independent investigation into the torturous treatment of Mr. Daniel Cortes De La Valle at the hands of ICE and GEO officers at the facility as well as staff at the local Jena hospital where he was sexually assaulted. Ultimately the incident that occurred on April 6 and Mr. Rocha Cuadra’s suspicious death uncover and highlight a gap in accountability and transparency within the U.S. Immigration Detention System — we demand change now. #
Read the “Affidavit of Monica Cornejo, PhD Re Incident Inside Immigration Detention on April 6, 2023” for my witness testimony on the negligence I witnessed ICE officers, GEO Staff, and LA Police officers perpetuate and who then used intimidation and gaslighting techniques to minimize that incident.
Read the “Affidavit of Mich Gonzalez, Esq. Re Incident Inside Immigration Detention on April 6, 2023” for his witness testimony on the same incident.
[1] GEO Group (then named Wackenhut Corporation) opened this carceral facility as a juvenile prison in 1999. In early 2000, the private prison company was forced to shut it down after the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) exposed its widespread abuses following a lawsuit brought by the Juvenile Justice Project for Louisiana. Then in 2007, under the Bush administration, the renamed corporation reopened the facility as an ICE detention center under the name LaSalle ICE Processing Center. Recently, GEO Group yet again changed the prison’s name to Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center shortly following their decision to no longer “house females” at the prison. The company’s decision came only weeks after well-documented complaints raised by women and transgender men in the facility’s Falcon Delta dormitory were shared with ICE leadership. However, the decision cost the multi-billion-dollar corporation zero in profit. Rather than safely releasing the women and transgender immigrants to their loved ones waiting at home, GEO Group and ICE mass-transferred them to their other prison in Basile, Louisiana. This occurred in late October 2022. Several of the complainants continue to languish in Basile, another facility with documented abuses. It is important to note that such transfers are notorious for their retaliatory nature and torturous conditions, including being shackled at the ankles and handcuffed to metal link waist-chains during hours-long transportation. It is also important to center and highlight that the people of Louisiana, particularly Black Americans and their extended community, fought hard to decarcerate their state. It is a heartbreaking reality that their valiant efforts were cruelly undermined by the mass conversion of these emptied private prisons into ICE detention centers under the Trump administration beginning in the summer of 2019. Now Louisiana has the second highest number of detained immigrants in the country. The name may be different, but the same abuses exposed by the DOJ in 2000 — namely sexual assaults, prolonged solitary confinement, and excessive use of force — continue to date. Given the importance of this continuity and historical context, I made the intentional decision to refer to the facility as the GEO Group-run ICE prison in Jena, Louisiana throughout my remarks.
