Reporting a Rape in Immigration Jail: One Asylum Seeker's Fight for Justice
Rene Lopez, a 24-year-old gender-nonconforming asylum seeker, doesn’t know what justice would like. But there’s one thing she is certain of: She is unsafe and wants to be released from detention after her next hearing on Wednesday.
In a shaky, melancholy voice over a staticky phone line from the Yuba County Jail in northern California, Rene Lopez told Rewire.News she is depressed, scared, and alone.
The gender-nonconforming 24-year-old, who identifies as a gay man and uses she/her pronouns, said she was raped by another detainee this past spring.
Lopez and her attorney have sought justice without success. They have struggled to access basic information from officials at the jail and within U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) who are investigating the case. The responses they have received often conflict with each other. Meanwhile, Lopez remains detained at the Yuba County Jail, an immigrant detention facility about an hour north of Sacramento.
[link:https://rewire.news/article/2019/07/02/reporting-a-rape-in-immigration-jail-one-asylum-seekers-fight-for-justice/|