Over the past four years, my family has made Durango its home. Like many who live here, we moved here for the beautiful countryside and access to open space, good schools for our kids and a steady, safe job.
While my daughter attends pre-school, I work at a local restaurant. My husband works at the Humane Society during the day and at a cleaning company at night. I used to be a reporter and before that a social worker, but my native country is not safe for journalists. After my father was assassinated, I realized I could not safely stay in Colombia.
My uncle is a U.S. citizen, so I visited him on a tourist visa for three months before deciding to stay in the U.S. permanently. I knew that economically, my situation in Colombia would be better, but I also knew that my children and I would be safer here. So I did what any mother would do: I took my family to safety.
But in the past few years, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has started detaining undocumented immigrants who settled in Durango. After one family was taken into detention, many others in our community moved away because of fears of getting caught. Rumors spread that ICE officials would release you if you gave them the names of other undocumented immigrants, but many of us found out the hard way that wasn’t true.
Ultimately, many families who had built strong social networks and are essential to the Durango community, including one of my co-workers, were taken to detention centers. In 2019, I was stopped by ICE and questioned because they accused me of lying about why I came to America. Though I don’t often cry, retelling my story of seeking refuge in the U.S. brought tears to my eyes, and I was lucky enough to be released from ICE detention.
I was even more fortunate to have been able to afford a lawyer for my asylum case with some help from my friends and family, which is why I am so grateful that this year the Colorado Legislature is debating House Bill 21-1194. This legislation would create an Immigration Legal Defense Fund for people like me, who are facing deportation but aren’t lucky enough to be able to afford a lawyer.
Out of every 10 people facing deportation proceedings, only about three are able to retain a lawyer; the remaining seven are left to represent themselves in complicated legal proceedings. Immigration proceedings remain the only civil legal proceedings in the U.S. where you are not guaranteed the right to a lawyer if you can’t afford one. If you don’t have the $5,000 or more to pay for a lawyer, you most likely will remain stuck in detention and eventually be deported, even if you have a valid case for why you should stay in the U.S. My lawyer was able to get me released from detention and win my case, but many of my friends were left in ICE detention centers for months.
For the people stuck in ICE detention centers, paying money for a lawyer becomes a gamble – do they use the little money they have to hire a lawyer and still face the possibility of deportation, or do they save that money for necessities when they are deported? Our legal systems become unjust when people don’t have the same opportunities even when they have the same rights. When we speak of justice, equity should be the baseline. But our current justice system in immigration courts excludes those who cannot afford adequate representation.
No one should feel alone when trying to navigate through complicated legal proceedings. We need Colorado legislators to pass HB 21-1194 to establish a statewide Immigration Legal Defense Fund, so people from Durango to Yuma can have an advocate for their interests in immigration court. We need to ensure that justice and equity are provided to all immigrants, not just the ones who can afford it.
Carolina Diaz is a refugee from Colombia and has been living in Durango for four years. She is currently serving as an organizing fellow for the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition. Contact her at carolina@coloradoimmigrant.org.
