Jorge’s Story

On June 13, 2019, Jorge said goodbye to his mother and two younger brothers and got on a plane to Mexico, leaving Cuba behind. Everyone he loved lived there, but he says he had to do it. “Cubans always want to leave, to go anywhere,” Jorge said. “There is a lot of hunger and need. There is not enough work to take care of your family.”

Jorge landed in the Yucatán. The next day he flew north to Monterrey, where a man took him to a house that offered refuge to Cubans immigrating to the United States. Jorge joined a group of immigrants traveling to the U.S. border.

When Jorge arrived, he approached a U.S. immigration officer and requested asylum.  The officer asked for his passport. Then he told Jorge to wait on the notorious bridge where immigrants seeking asylum are forced to wait, indefinitely, for permission to enter the country.  

He waited for 23 days.

“because he had nothing”

“I slept on the ground every night. There were lots of people there, lots of children, sleeping on the ground. When I first got there, I didn’t have a blanket, a pillow, anything. There was a church group that gave me things like sheets and soap. During the day, it was very hot, and my skin got completely burned. At night, the temperature dropped, and it was cold. When it rained, I got soaked.”

Jorge suffered from constant hunger. Jorge spent his days reading a Bible the church group had given him, waiting in line for the bathrooms, and calling home. 

Jorge tried to help others who were struggling even more. “After I had been there for four or five days, another Cuban guy came. He had no money, no food, no clothes. I gave him ten dollars because he had nothing. I gave him food. We became friends. We still talk on the phone sometimes.”

Detention odyssey begins

Finally, an immigration officer called Jorge and told him to come to his office. This time, the officer gave Jorge food, water, and a bed. But the next day, the officer put Jorge and others in handcuffs and chains and drove them to a detention center in El Valle, Texas. 

“They told me to take off my clothes and put them in a bag,” Jorge said. “They told me to take a shower and then they gave me a uniform to wear and an ID. I was put in a bunker with 600 people.”

This was not what Jorge had expected. “What have I done? Who have I hurt? I haven’t killed anyone, or sold drugs, or anything.”

After a few days in El Valle Detention Center, Jorge was placed in handcuffs and chains. He spent over 24 hours unable to move, traveling by bus and plane to an immigration detention center in Mississippi. After a month there, J. was put in handcuffs and chains and transferred to Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia.  

Jorge would spend nearly two years locked up in SDC.

Odds stacked against him

“It was very cold,” Jorge said. Jorge struggled to communicate with the guards. “If you didn’t speak English, they just ignored you,” Jorge said. To keep up his spirits, he attended religious services offered by a pastor who came to the detention center once a week. “We sang songs, talked, heard testimonies, and prayed,” he said. “I felt better there, more relaxed.”

Jorge had four court hearings, but without an attorney or the ability to speak English, he knew he was at the mercy of the judge. Jorge submitted asylum request forms and newspaper clippings about the situation in his country. 

An intensely optimistic person, Jorge maintained hope, but was aware of the odds against him. “It’s very hard to win a case from inside detention,” he said. “You have a 98% chance of losing. Some people get asylum, others don’t, even with the same evidence. It’s whatever the judge wants.” 

For months, Jorge was told he did not have a case. “The judge said he believed what I was saying about Cuba. But he said I didn’t have enough proof for asylum.”

Commissary funds appreciated

Despite his normally sunny disposition, Jorge admits he sometimes had a hard time at SDC. “The worst days of my life were in detention,” he said. “I really missed my family. I wanted to see them and know how they were.” 

Because calls to Cuba are so expensive, Jorge was at SDC for a while before he was able to call his mother.  Making less than a dollar a day, it took him weeks of working the 3 to 6 a.m. shift in the kitchen to save enough money to call home.

Jorge received financial and emotional support from El Refugio. “They sent me some letters,” he said. “They put money on my commissary and telephone accounts a few times, and they got me a pen pal. They did that for a lot of people there. People would look at their account and see they had some funds and were so glad.”

One morning, Jorge was called to the ICE office at the detention center, where an officer asked him about his sponsor, the person who would be responsible for Jorge if he were released in the United States while his asylum case went through the courts. 

“happy, crazy happy”

Jorge was released the next day. “I was so happy, crazy happy,” Jorge said. “I didn’t tell my mom; I wanted to surprise her.” 

Jorge boarded a shuttle to the bus station in Columbus, where volunteers from a partner organization were waiting to get him on a bus to the airport in Atlanta. Volunteers were there as well. “They gave us food, and helped me buy a ticket to Tampa, where I had a friend waiting,” he said. His friend called Jorge’s mom and gave her the good news. “Of course, she cried!” 

Jorge now lives with friends in Tampa and has been given permission to work. He continues to go to court, hoping to become a legal permanent resident so he can travel back to Cuba to see his family. “It’s been hard for my family,” he said. “I can’t wait to see them.”