Hickenlooper: “The Trump administration turned Fernando and his children’s dream into an American tragedy.”
WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senator John Hickenlooper released the following statement following Compañeros: Four Corners Immigrant Resource Center’s announcement that Fernando Jaramillo-Solano and his two minor children, Jana, age 12, and Kewin, age 15, agreed to return to Colombia. Fernando and his two children have been in ICE detention, separated from his wife and their mother, since October 27th.
“The Trump administration turned Fernando and his children’s dream into an American tragedy.
“They forced a father and his 15- and 12-year-old kids to make an impossible choice: leave their wife and mother behind and return to a country where they don’t feel safe; or remain indefinitely isolated in detention, separated from her.
“They didn’t care that they had been accepted into the asylum process and had no criminal history. They didn’t care that Denver’s third-ranking ICE official admitted that their arrest was a mistake.
“Our office worked day in and day out demanding answers from ICE, advocating for this family, and even spoke directly to Sec. Noem to demand they be released. They refused.
“Our fight is not over. We will continue to demand transparency from DHS regarding allegations of violence, and about what they did to this family.
“Two innocent children will carry this trauma for the rest of their lives.”
On October 27th, Fernando and his two children were arrested by ICE in Durango while Fernando was driving them to school. The children’s mother wasn’t notified of their arrest, and was unable to make contact with her son for several hours. When she finally spoke with her son, he described that he and his father experienced physical abuse while in ICE custody. Fernando’s daughter, Jana, also reported physical abuse while in ICE detention. Fernando and his children are currently being held in an ICE detention center in Texas.
Gregory Davies, a senior ICE official in Denver, testified that this was a case of mistaken identity and the family was never the intended target. Despite these findings, Fernando and his children remain in detention.Senator Hickenlooper’s office has been in close communication with the family’s legal advocates, including Compañeros: Four Corners Immigrant Resource Center and the family’s lawyer in Texas, since their arrest. In October, Hickenlooper released a statement condemning the arrest and a video calling for the family’s immediate release.
On November 6th, after the ICE field office failed to respond to the Senator’s questions, Hickenlooper spoke over the phone with Secretary Noem, demanding that the entire family be released from ICE custody and specifically that the children be turned over to a trusted legal representative and then reunited with their mother.
Hickenlooper has consistently pressed ICE to follow the laws, including due process and humane treatment of detainees. In October, Hickenlooper visited the ICE detention center in Aurora to perform routine oversight and push for more transparency from ICE. Hickenlooper introduced the Immigration Enforcement Identification Act to increase transparency, accountability, and safety in immigration law enforcement. This bill prohibits law enforcement officers from obscuring their faces and requires that they clearly display their agency, name, and a unique identifier while conducting immigration enforcement functions. Last month, Hickenlooper joined 22 of his Senate colleagues to call out the Trump administration’s recent efforts to arrest noncriminal immigrants at their immigration court hearings and deport them without adequate due process. In April, Hickenlooper joined 65 other members of Congress to urge Attorney General Pam Bondi to address the impact of the Executive Office for Immigration Review’s (EOIR) alarming decision to fire key judges as the immigration system faces a staggering backlog of cases.
Hickenlooper’s office and team of constituent advocates stand ready to help family members and detainees navigate the immigration system and address communication and process issues with ICE. Get in contact with our office at hickenlooper.senate.gov.
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