‘We are better than this’: Local family fears immigrant detained at Moshannon will be deported
More than seven weeks have passed since Jesus Teran, a 35-year-old church member of St. Oscar Romero Parish and asylum seeker, was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement outside the agency’s Pittsburgh field house.
Since his July 8 arrest, Teran, a Venezuelan immigrant, has been detained at Moshannon Valley Processing Center, a privately owned federal immigration detention center in Philipsburg, Clearfield County.
Earlier this month, Teran’s attorney filed a court order for his release from detention, but a new ICE policy – implemented on the day the father of two was picked up – prevents judges from granting bond to anyone held in detention who entered the United States without documentation, regardless of how long they’ve lived here.
That means Teran will not be able to leave ICE custody while he fights deportation proceedings in court.
“This is a dangerous shift away from due process and individualized assessments. People are being held indefinitely, and it goes so unbelievably against everything this country stands for,” said Linda Hamilton, an immigration attorney and adjunct professor at University of Pittsburgh School of Law.
Teran’s attorney has applied for a credible fear interview, where an asylum officer will determine if there is a reasonable possibility that Teran will suffer persecution if he returns to his home country.
A credible fear hearing gives people a chance to present their story and seek protection under U.S. asylum laws, rather than being deported.
Generally, if a migrant fails to pass a credible fear screening, the individual is immediately deported. But if a person receives a favorable decision, an asylum claim will be heard before an immigration judge.
No date has been set for Teran’s interview.
Teran’s wife, Liseth Carvajal, said immigration lawyers have told her that even if Teran wins his credible fear hearing, he can still be deported.
“I feel very bad, and very sad, I am worried about the future of Jesus and my family,” said Carvajal, who also fears Teran will be deported to a third country to which he has no connection.
The Trump administration is expanding efforts to secure agreements with third-world countries to accept undocumented immigrants, with Uganda and Rwanda agreeing earlier this month to accept deported asylum seekers.
“The worst part is, we don’t even know which (country) he’d be sent to. Imagine if it was Africa,” a continent he’s never been to, said Carvajal.
Teran came to the U.S. in 2021 to escape Venezuela’s brutal dictatorship and economic collapse. A civil engineer, he was working as a carpenter and was checking in regularly with ICE before he was detained. He and his wife have a 14-year-old daughter and a 5-year-old son.
The family attends church every Sunday at St. Oscar Romero Parish’s Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal Church in Meadow Lands, and played a large role in installing a community garden at St. Patrick Church in Canonsburg.
Carvajal said Teran has considered self-deporting, something the Trump administration – which has set a goal of one million deportations a year – is encouraging immigrants to do.
“But that would kill all our hopes of him being able to stay,” she said. “But it’s worse if ICE decides to send him wherever they want. I don’t know what’s worse,” said Carvajal.
The Catholic church community continues to rally around Teran’s family, providing aid and organizing a GoFundMe campaign. Nearly two dozen letters of support, including from religious and labor leaders, have been sent to authorities on Teran’s behalf.
Chris McAneny, director of housing for the nonprofit Wellness Collective, which partnered with St. Oscar Romero to install the community garden, is frustrated that immigrants like Teran – a well-respected family man with no criminal record, who works and pays taxes – are being arrested and held in detention centers as the idea of who is considered a “criminal” has expanded to include most undocumented people.
“This is awful. He could be home with his family and working and paying taxes while his case is going through. He was doing things the right way. He’s not a flight risk – he’s here on asylum and his family is here, his kids are going to school, and he was working with the carpenter’s union. Now, we’re spending tax dollars to a for-profit prison group to detain him indefinitely,” said McAneny. “There is no compassion in this process.”
On Aug. 24, hundreds of protestors gathered near the Moshannon facility, owned by the for-profit Geo Group. The facility, which receives about $3.4 million per month from ICE, has faced numerous allegations of civil and human rights violations.
“Immigration detention is a cruel and unnecessary part of our broken immigration system,” said Megan Guidi, a member of Pittsburgh Women for Democracy, who attended the protest. “Immigration detention serves two purposes: to create fear and division in our communities, and to line the pockets of for-profit prison operators like GEO Group and Core Civic who are incentivized to keep this system in place.”
The following day, U.S. Rep. Summer Lee, who is the ranking Democrat in the U.S. House Oversight subcommittee on federal law enforcement, including ICE, tried to visit the facility, but she was denied access.
Erenia Karamcheti, a friend of Teran’s family and a social worker at St. Oscar Romero, said Teran told her the detainees try to encourage each other and keep their spirits up, but she is worried that Teran is losing hope.
“It is a lot of stress. You can lose your hope over there because you don’t know what’s going to happen,” said Karamcheti. “He says he is getting tired. At this point, I don’t know what to expect. But we keep praying for him and hoping that he can be released as soon as possible. The family is still coming to church. They’re still watering the garden after Sunday Mass.”
Forcing people who have fled danger to await the outcome of their court proceedings while locked away in detention centers is a violation of their human rights, she believes.
The Rev. Jay Donahue, senior parochial vicar at St. Oscar Romero Parish, has led efforts to free Teran and has visited him at Moshannon.
He is advocating for the humane treatment of immigrants and reform of the immigration system.
“I am praying this week that overlooking the dignity of a human being like Jesus Teran stops,” Donahue, who was on a retreat last week, said in a text message. “Border control, arresting the felons, and growing our amazing country can be done with respect for the dignity of all. We are better than this.”