Humans of ICE

The first thing I noticed about S_ was his smile. It was slight, but suggested a quiet kindness and keen sense of humor. He didn’t know who we were, but he seemed genuinely happy to see us as we walked into visitation.

It was mid-January and he had been locked up in the Broome County Jail for the past 3 months, sharing a detention block with strangers and guards while we celebrated Thanksgiving and counted down as the New Year’s ball dropped. S__ is 19 years old. His birthday is coming up though and by the time you read this, he’ll have spent his 20th behind bars. But that’s ok because Sheriff Akshar will have profited $152 for housing him that day. That’s theper diem he receives from the federal government for every ICE detainee in his jail, which he keeps fully stocked.

S__ moved to the US when was 9 years old. He went to school in Henrietta, NY and moved to Syracuse to study Automotive Technology at Onondaga Community College. He learned enough there to realize that he really doesn’t like automotive technology and was weighing his other options. He really likes doing barbering and might pursue that in the future. This was what was going on in his life when he was detained by a group of ICE agents in his neighborhood. They came around the block and kidnapped him, assuming he was one of the Burmese folks they were out looking for. He immediately opted to self deport, deciding that he preferred to go back to Thailand, where he would find his mother. He didn’t realize how long it would take. 

ICE kept his personal belongings. When we asked how we could help him, he said that he was very concerned about his phone. He would need it to call his mother when he arrived in Thailand. It also had his money on it, barring the $30 he had when he was detained. The jail issued him two used orange jumpsuits, which they wash once per week. He has to manually scrub his own underwear. He had a paltry commissary budget, now spent, which was used for any form of stimulation, including $0.03 per minute of radio, which was preferable to the $0.05 per minute for news. He now passes the time with the other ICE detainees by playing card games or chess but very few of them share a language. Occasionally, an ICE agent will show up to have someone sign paperwork. Whenever they’re asked questions, all they say is that they aren’t their case workers. He doesn’t know if he even has a case worker. 

S___ is hopeful that he will be sent to Thailand soon. He wants to leave this behind him, reunite with his mother, and go back to school. Thailand has a large tourism industry and he hopes that knowing English will help him get a good job.

S_’s story from interview on 1/22/2026

Collected by Chris Harasta

This illustration was generated by AI, but we actually want to hire artists from immigrant backgrounds to illustrate these narratives. Please see our “Call to Artists” to learn how you can submit art.