PHOENIX — An interfaith group of clergy members from around metro Phoenix is calling on the Trump administration to release seven people with serious medical conditions from detention.
The faith leaders gathered outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office in Phoenix on Thursday to push for their release.
The Rev. Sarah Oglesby-Dunegan of Valley Unitarian Universalist Congregation said it’s inhumane to continue to detain people who need medical attention when the federal government has the option of releasing them on humanitarian parole.
“The realities challenge the narrative that detainees are the ‘worst of the worst’ criminals,” she said. “These are mothers, grandmothers and beloved family members.”
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Sonia Almarez, whose partner, Arbella “Yari” Rodríguez Márquez has been in custody for 14 months, said the detention has been devastating.
“This is just inhumane for everybody,” she said. “They're not just hurting the person in the detention center. They're hurting a lot more people out here. We just want to have a life. That’s it.”
Families report serious declines in health
Almarez first talked with ABC15 about her partner’s case in July. Rodríguez Márquez, who had legal residency and no criminal record, was stopped at the border after a trip to Mexico, Almarez said.
More than nine months later, Rodríguez Márquez still has not received treatment for leukemia, and her health is deteriorating.
“Now she depends on a walker to walk,” she said. “She can't walk on her own anymore. "And [she is] depending on other people to do everything for her – to help her go in the shower, to help her dress, to do everything.”
She said she’s just asking for Rodríguez Márquez’s release so she can get her treatment.
“We just want her to be healthy,” she said. “Give her a chance to be healthy, to continue to fight her case. Do not destroy her anymore. Don't kill her.”
Clergy members spoke about the seven people they are requesting be released, saying they deserve compassion and dignity.
The family of Maria Cristina Tapia Cornejo reports that the 72-year-old grandmother no longer knows where she is, said the Rev. Kelley Dick of Saguaro Christian Church.
“Because Jesus said that how we treat the most vulnerable among us is how we treat Christ, we cannot remain silent while a 72-year-old grandmother loses her mind behind bars,” she said.
Tapia Cornejo’s granddaughter, Rosa Lopez, told ABC15 she’s worried about the decline in her grandmother’s health.
“She has been waking up confused, not knowing where she is going, which is a decline that I have not seen,” she said. “And she was never like that before she got taken.”
Lopez said her grandmother, who is deaf in one ear with partial hearing in the other, has trouble hearing the guards.
“She has been yelled at by the guards because she cannot hear that well,” she said. “They have yelled at her multiple times, screamed in her face.”
Tapia Cornejo has always been there for her 18 grandchildren, Lopez said. She’s attended every graduation – but now will miss seeing Lopez’s sister and cousins graduate, Lopez said.
“It’s been really hard on everyone,” she said, fighting tears. “It’s all we’re asking for, is for grandma to come home.”
Faith leaders ask for 7 to be released
The clergy members tried to deliver a letter to the ICE field office, but no one from the facility would come out to accept it.
In the letter, the clergy members requested humanitarian parole for:
Maria Cristina Tapia Cornejo, a 72-year-old grandmother of 18 who is deaf in one ear and has limited hearing in the other. In her 10 months of custody, she has developed signs of dementia.
Marivel Otilia Lopez-Garcia, a 58-year-old woman who has a heart condition, high blood pressure, diabetes, sleep apnea, arthritis, and other medical issues.
Arbella “Yari” Rodríguez Márquez, a Phoenix woman with leukemia who has also been diagnosed with lymphedema and rheumatoid arthritis.
Ruslan Makhmudov, a Russian with the connective tissue disorder Marfan syndrome who, in his two years of detention, has had a heart attack and surgery for an aortic aneurysm.
Isabel Ramirez Ramos, a 54-year-old mother of two who had a work visa, diabetes, high blood pressure, and asthma.
Lazaro Campos Izquierdo, who has ALS and has lost the use of the right side of his body since being detained earlier this year.
Ana Silvia Granados Sanchez, whose family is asking for humanitarian parole.
“Pray for us, for them, for our country, that we might do better, that we might be the Good Samaritan in this story,” Oglesby-Dunegan said.
