“They make money for each of us being here every day. It seems like they just keep people here as long as they can just to make money.”
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, has been much in the news during this soon-to-be-closed 2025, masked agents patrolling American towns and cities, tossing men, women and children into unmarked vans and hauling them off to detention centers.
President Donald J. Trump, of course, was swept back into office at the start of the year after campaigning on a pledge to find “the worst of the worst” foreigners in this country and toss them right out.
Shocking, I suppose, that it took the administration so many months to find a surfer.
But let us learn the tale of Hagop Chririnian, from Lebanon, who was swept up by ICE while waiting to for a little San O paddle. According to reports, Chirinian and his pals arrived to the beach before sunrise, a classic dawn patrol move, on August 24 and set up a tent. As it turned out, they had accidentally strayed about 100 yards into Camp Pendleton, the neighboring Marine base, military police scurrying right over.
“The military police pulled up in their Jeep with their lights on and told us we are on a military base,” Chirinian told the local KPBS news. “They issued us trespassing tickets.”
They then allegedly asked if every surfer in the group was a U.S. citizen. Chirinian said he was not, and the MPs called ICE.
When ICE arrived, Chirinian attempted to explain that he’d spent the last 20 years going to regular ICE check-ins, that they know where he lives and know where he works and even though it was all registered, he was carted off to a for-profit detention center in the very bleak Otay Mesa, just south of San Diego where he has been languishing ever since.
“ICE did not talk to me for the first two months,” Chirinian declared. “Nobody came and said a word to me.”
His longtime girlfriend shared that he has still not been scheduled for a hearing, Chirinian surmising a financial chicanery to blame. “To me, it’s all about money,” he said. “They make money for each of us being here every day. It seems like they just keep people here as long as they can just to make money.”
Though he has been in the country 50 years, he lost his permanent resident status in 2005 after receiving a felony drug conviction, classic surfer business. ICE attempted to deport him to Lebanon, back then, but the Lebanese government couldn’t find any paperwork for him and so he was placed in a program that allowed him to stay and work in the U.S.
Until, at least, those tattletaling military polices got involved.
Now, his girlfriend fears that he will be deported to a third country.
A bleak new year dawning for many.