The past few days have been stressful, heartbreaking and very overwhelming. This update will be long so please stay for the entirety. 

Uriel is still being held at a Maryland facility. He reports that they have him sleeping on the floor. He says that he has been trying to help those around him figure out how to contact their families. Our sadness is profound. Uriel has a history of back and leg pain and hypertension. We are trying to figure out how to get him his medicine at the very least. We do have an immigration lawyer and we are pushing for a bond hearing and praying that he can be released on bond and come home. 

The reality is that ICE as an agency is completely broken. Every phone call my sister receives is a $50 charge. Every filing of paperwork is $150 or more. The bond itself is typically between $1,500 to $5,000. Plus lawyer fees for representation. It’s too much for any person to handle. Nobody tells you this. We think we know what’s going on but in truth it’s much worse than we imagined. At any point in time, Uriel can be transferred to an out of state facility. Within the span of hours he can be as far as Florida and we would have no way of knowing until they update the detainee portal at their leisure. 

Unfortunately, the need is far greater than we anticipated. It appears that this process could take possibly 3 months just to get in front of an immigration judge. For those reasons, we are asking friends, family and allies to continue to share this fundraiser. Share it with organizations you are a part of. Share it with anybody you know and feel comfortable with. Continue to raise awareness. We are also raising the fundraiser request due to the agency consistently asking for more and more money. The support means everything. 

We are going to be updating the support fundraiser to include a “lend a hand” section. This might look like assisting with grocery pick up, tagging along for the boys’ appointments (if we know you personally), visiting to help be a body double so that we can organize our thoughts. My sister and I have adhd and it’s been overstimulating for our nervous systems to say the least. Due to each of the boys having autism, it’s difficult to accept certain support because it becomes overwhelming and scary for the boys to be around people they don’t know well. So please keep an eye out on the support registry for lending your time. Additionally, we have gotten many requests for meals. The boys have specific foods that they eat or else they won’t eat. This makes planning for meals very difficult. If you would like to help with meals, there is a gift card option on the registry. You can also sign up for a meal slot and we will be in contact for dinners specifically for my sister so that it’s one less thing to worry about. 

Lastly, the outpouring of love and offerings to help has been incredible. We couldn’t be more thankful for our community. We are fielding a lot of phone calls. We ask that you do not show up unannounced and that you do not call unannounced. We need to keep my sister’s phone open for the lawyer and for Uriel’s phone calls as they come at random. If you have our contact information, we ask that you text us and we will get back to you when we have the capacity because there’s so much we are trying to do in order to help Uriel. We love you all and hope our friends and family will understand. 

Uriel is a wonderful father, spouse, son, brother and friend. His helping of others detained with him is a testament to who he is as a person. We won’t stop fighting for his safety and for his release. Thank you for partnering with us. Hold steady in your prayers and faith. Hope is a powerful thing to have. We will not let them take that from us. 

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.