"I don't want to die, I want to live ... Life is beautiful."

by Dave Bennion · 2009-01-28 21:10:00 UTC
Topics:

Take five minutes and watch one of these videos that Breakthrough produced to give Ali and Juana the chance to talk about what happened to them in government custody.

Or go crazy and watch them both!

Ali

Ali, a Pakistani-born, HIV+ gay man, living in New York City for 30 years with a green card; after serving a brief term in jail for a minor crime, he was immediately turned over to immigration authorities and spent more than a year in detention where he witnessed the worst kind of physical abuse and medical mistreatment, including constantly fighting to get his HIV medication which he needed to survive and often being given the wrong medications or doses.

I got a really good vibe from Ali.  I would have a hard time staying so positive after what he has been through.

Juana

Juana Villegas from Mexico, was nine months pregnant when she was stopped for careless driving, for which she was later found innocent.

Because of an agreement between local police and federal immigration authorities, she was detained in jail where she was shackled. Juana remained shackled in transit to the hospital and while giving birth. She was not allowed to use a breast pump or nurse her newborn child.

Dave Bennion
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