Sofia Arias: Could you tell us more about how you decided to become an organizer?
Janice Hoseine: For the past two years, my husband has been fighting his deportation. I started off thinking that I could do it by myself. I reached out to a friend of mine who told me that I should contact the New Sanctuary Coalition. Her friend was also facing deportation, and the New Sanctuary Coalition was able to stop his deportation.
So I figured this is where I needed to go. I met with the executive director, Ravi, and we spoke about my husband’s situation, and how I wanted him home and didn’t feel that he should be in detention. We spoke about the strategies, and how the New Sanctuary Coalition could build support around me so that I wouldn’t have to be doing the fight by myself.
My husband was in detention from March 2, 2015, to September 9, 2016. We had two attorneys who tried to get him released, and they couldn’t get him out. With organizing and building the support system, I was able to get him home on September 9, 2016.
He was “on order of supervision” for about six months, and he had a check-in on March 9, 2017, when he was detained again. Because I was already involved in the New Sanctuary Coalition, I didn’t give up. It was tough, but at the same time, I knew that I had that support. I was able to get him home on April 7.
So your husband was detained under the Obama administration. What was it like to fight for your husband’s release then?
Immigration wasn’t as publicized as it is now under the Trump administration. So for me to find out what was going on with my husband, why he was detained, why he was facing deportation — I had to Google search. And that’s when I found out about Operation Cross Check.
I just had to go digging to find out information. I reached out to the media — just explaining my story, asking for help. I kind of got rejected because my husband has a criminal conviction from 2007, and I didn’t get as much help as I did when he was taken under the Trump…