I spent a decade in immigration detention - by Sylvester Owino
BY SYLVESTER OWINO, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR — 03/07/18 01:30 PM EST 9 THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY CONTRIBUTORS ARE THEIR OWN AND NOT THE VIEW OF THE HILL
Do you know what it’s like to be imprisoned with no end in sight? I do. I was held in U.S. immigration detention for nearly a decade. And now the Supreme Court has ruled in favor of indefinite detention by deciding that people like me are not entitled to bond hearings for now.
Where do I even begin to explain just how devastating the court’s ruling in Jennings v. Rodriguez is for me and the thousands of immigrants, including legal permanent residents and asylum seekers, who are locked up in this unjust system? I would still be in detention if I hadn’t been granted the opportunity to go before an immigration judge and present my case.
Getting to that moment was difficult, almost unimaginable.
I fled Kenya in 1998 during a time of political unrest in which I was tortured by police. In Kenya I owned a bicycle repair shop where people came to talk about political issues. In 1996, I was arrested and beaten for distributing leaflets on behalf of a women’s rights group, so I left my home for Nairobi, where I enrolled in college. In the fall of 1997, I was again arrested, beaten and threatened for criticizing the Kenyan government. The following year, when I was able to secure a student visa, I came to the United States, which became my home.
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http://thehill.com/opinion/immigration/377162-i-spent-a-decade-in-immigration-detention