CLEVELAND, Ohio — Cleveland Immigration Court Judge Richard Drucker declined to consider arguments Dec. 18 that he should grant bond to two brothers who were transferred from Athens County custody to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement earlier this year.
Victor Laverde Laguna and Gregory Javier Laverde Laguna, asylum seekers from Venezuela, will therefore remain in ICE custody for the foreseeable future.
Victor Laverde Laguna and his son, Julio Laverde Belandria, told the Independent in a Dec. 18 interview that the brothers sought asylum in the United States after the Venezuelan government began targeting Victor Laverde Laguna for his statements critical of President Nicolás Maduro.
The brothers had been living in the United States for about a year before they were arrested in a sting operation conducted by multiple law enforcement agencies in Athens County. The operation targeted an alleged extortion scheme.
Victor Laverde Laguna and Gregory Laverde Laguna have maintained that they did not know their work picking up and delivering packages had anything to do with a criminal enterprise.
Neither brother speaks English, and Gregory Laverde Laguna has Down syndrome.
Their local criminal cases were ultimately dismissed with prejudice, meaning the charges cannot be brought again by the state. In court orders, Athens County Court of Common Pleas Court Judge Patrick Lang wrote, “in regard to these charges, Victor Laguna remains an innocent man” and “Gregory Laguna remains an innocent man.”
Nevertheless, the brothers remain in custody at the Northeast Ohio Correctional Center, per ICE records.
Liliana Vasquez, the brothers’ immigration attorney, characterized the immigration court system, which operates under the direction of the Trump Administration, as a “guise for a justice system.”
“As a judge, you’re an impartial adjudicator, an interpreter of the law, right?” Vasquez said. “That is not the case in immigration court. It’s a guise.”
Drucker, the judge in the brothers’ case, told Vasquez he would deny her motion to grant the brothers’ bond before he heard anything from her on Dec. 18.
“You’re not gonna like my decision today,” he said at the beginning of the day’s proceedings. “We don’t have jurisdiction to grant bond, still.”
Vasquez told the Independent the judge’s lack of consideration for her request to grant bond stems from the Trump Administration’s reinterpretation of decades-old immigration law, challenged by hundreds of mainly successful federal court cases. Critics say the Trump Administration’s reinterpretation of the law denies immigrants the right to due process.
“It’s just very disappointing,” Vasquez said of Drucker’s Thursday decision. “I did have arguments. I prepared a bond motion with the actual cases where bond has been granted. … And it just seems that none of that was taken into consideration.”
That has been typical of Vasquez’s recent experiences in immigration court, she said.
“This has been routine,” Vasquez said. “The fact that us attorneys expend work and effort to putting forth these arguments and submit documentation for the court to just brush us off is not new. It’s been happening consistently.”
Vasquez has the opportunity to appeal the judge’s decision within the immigration court system. However, she said her priority will likely be to submit a petition for habeas corpus to federal court, which operates independently of the executive branch. Through a petition for habeas corpus, the brothers would seek a court determination that their detention is unlawful.
Vasquez said the federal court has “been doing its job in that it has been upholding the law the way it should be. Unfortunately, it does take a little bit more time, and it costs money.”
Julio Laverde Belandria, Victor Laverde Laguna’s son, is paying for the brothers’ legal representation, which Vasquez is offering at a discounted rate, the lawyer told the Independent.
Meanwhile, the brothers are facing harsh conditions while detained, Victor Laverde Laguna said.
He said the brothers have experienced “violations of human rights” from their initial arrest in Athens County through the present.
The Independent has requested written reports from the arrest, though the reports were not immediately fulfilled.
Victor Laverde Laguna told the Independent in an interview that in addition to injuries both of them experienced during their initial arrests, Gregory Laverde Laguna has suffered emotional distress and repeated threats of violence. The situation was at its worst while the brothers were held at the Butler County Correctional Complex, Victor Laverde Laguna told the Independent.
“Throughout this time, I was thinking, ‘How has no one noticed? How is it possible that my brother can be detained with individuals that are this violent, that are this aggressive? Where is the justice? Why is nothing being done?’” Victor Laverde Laguna said. (Statements by both Victor Laverde Laguna and his son, Julio Laverde Laguna, were spoken in Spanish and translated to English by Vasquez.)
Victor Laverde Laguna said he went on a hunger strike for three days while incarcerated in Butler County, “hoping to get my brother released.” This was unsuccessful.
Victor Laverde Laguna said he is “perplexed at how so many agents can operate with so much force towards an individual with Down syndrome.”
The situation has been difficult for Victor Laverde Laguna, too.
“I have felt very hopeless with my hands tied because there is nothing that I can do,” he said.
Laverde Belandria said the stakes of his father’s and uncle’s immigration cases are “very high.”
“Victor had actively spoken out against the government of Nicolas Máduro. He had denounced his policies, denounced his deterioration of human rights and civil rights for all citizens of Venezuela, and because of that, Victor was persecuted, threatened, harassed by the government of Nicolas Máduro,” Laverde Belandria said.
“Giving up is not an option, because they would be facing certain death,” he added.
Impact of local arrest
The brothers may not have ended up in their current situation had they not been transferred into ICE custody while their local criminal cases remained pending, Vasquez told the Independent.
She said the move to transfer the brothers was “not typical.”
“Usually they just place an ICE holder on them, wherever they are being held,” Vasquez told the Independent. “When there’s criminal charges, they’ll be held out in the custody of the state or whatever state agency is pursuing the charges.”
“In this situation, ICE physically went and then took them into custody prior to the criminal case being resolved,” Vasquez said. “And so, that is what I feel is a little unusual.”
Vasquez suggested local decision-making led to the transfer.
The Athens County Prosecutor’s Office told the Independent in an email, “The office had no communication with I.C.E. during the pendency of the case.”
The office added that any speculation that ACPO cooperated with ICE was “not accurate.”
ICE submitted immigration detainers for the brothers to the Southeast Ohio Regional Jail Sept. 24, according to records obtained by the Independent.
SEORJ Warden Josh Vanbibber forwarded the detainers to Athens County Prosecutor Keller Blackburn and Athens County Sheriff Rodney Smith Oct. 28, and asked the two how they would like to proceed.
No further emails were obtained by the Independent’s request. Smith has not returned the Independent’s requests for comment on the subject.
Local officials handed the brothers over to ICE Oct. 29.
The prosecutor’s office, which declined in a court hearing to exonerate the brothers, said in its statement that it moved to dismiss the brothers’ cases so that the local cases were not a “barrier to federal action.”
Regardless of how exactly the brothers ended up in ICE custody, had law enforcement followed the process Vasquez says is more typical in her experience, “It could have very well been that ICE never took them into custody,” Vasquez said.
“I personally have seen situations where there is an ICE holder on the individual, and then the charges get dismissed, and then ICE does not pick them up,” Vasquez said.
“My brother should have never been incarcerated, and he should have never been treated with the violence that he was from day one,” Victor Laverde Laguna said.
Because the brothers were transferred to ICE, “now we have to move forward with the immigration court,” Vasquez said.
Drucker scheduled the brothers for hearings in their immigration cases for March 9. Vasquez said if the brothers are successful in their petition for habeas corpus before the hearings, the hearings will be postponed.
Let us know what's happening in your neck of the woods!
Get in touch and share a story!
