Pablo’s Story
Pablo grew up in Riverside, California as part of a tight-knit family. He is a brother to four sisters and one younger brother, as well as a father to his 10-year-old daughter, Desybel. Family has always been central to Pablo’s life, and he remained connected and close to his family and friends during the nine years he was incarcerated. Throughout his time in prison, Pablo worked to better himself and fell in love with welding while taking vocational classes. He also grew to love talking with friends about their problems and hoped to pursue a career in counseling once released.
In 2021, Pablo was released from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and immediately arrested and detained by ICE on his date of freedom. He remembers watching the cars go by on the freeway while being transported to the ICE field office, thinking that he had served his time, and should be free and back with his family.
Instead, Pablo spent four months at the Otay Mesa Verde Detention Center before being relocated to IRDF. But when he arrived, the facility was full, and the only remaining beds were in solitary confinement. For ten months, Pablo was held in a disciplinary segregation cell, which he described as one of the worst experiences of his life and “way more stressful” than prison. Dust blew out of the ventilation systems and stuck on the wall, mold and rust covered the shower and then was painted over instead of being removed, and the water tasted so strange that he believed it to be contaminated by the pesticides used in the fields nearby.
Pablo submitted more than 100 grievances during his time at IRDF, despite initially being discouraged from doing so. He remembers an officer at IRDF telling him “Just so you know the judges…don’t like when you file grievances” and another lieutenant told him to “stop f****** with my officers…you can file a grievance and request to ICE all you want but you’re not gonna win.” Undeterred, Pablo asserted his rights and continued to file grievances for himself and others for issues including poor living conditions, disrespectful treatment, discrimination by officers, and abusive use of solitary confinement. Eventually, Pablo suspected that he was purposefully left in solitary confinement to prevent him from teaching others to file grievances.
“You bring something up and they find a way to go around it, even if you are right, they are not going to admit it, they are trying to protect the facility,” Pablo shared. “Being confined to a small living environment is hard. All we have to do throughout the day that doesn’t cost money is the little rec yard, but I wish we had more to keep our minds busy….I continue to submit grievances to bring these cruelties to light. To shed light on the reality we are living.”
Pablo laments all the family time missed during the nine years he’s been incarcerated. He thinks of his daughter for motivation and hopes that he can one day be a part of her life again.
