NYC Cabbie Facing Deportation Amid 'Torture' In Jail: Supporters

NEW YORK, NY — Saving his dog could get Edisson Barros torn from his family. The New York City taxi driver of 23 years was arrested in May after an altercation with a driver who almost ran over his pet, said his daughter, Paola Barros.

The interaction with the criminal system put Barros, a native of Ecuador, on the radar of Immigration and Customs Enforcement — whose agents snapped him up in a Queens courthouse last month, his supporters say.

Now just a week away from deportation, Barros' supporters say he's stuck in a New Jersey jail where he faces conditions tantamount to torture.

"If my dad leaves it’s going to destroy our family," said Paola Barros, 21, the older of Barros' two daughters.

An ICE spokeswoman said the agency "remains committed to providing a safe and secure environment for all those in its custody."

The NYPD arrested Barros, who lives in Maspeth, Queens, for "public disorder" on May 5 after the dispute with the driver, said Carlos Jesus Calzadilla-Palacio, a spokesman for the family. His fingerprints were subsequently put into a database that put him in the "crosshairs of ICE," Calzadilla-Palacio said.

ICE issued a request that same day that the NYPD keep him detained, but he was released anyway, said ICE spokeswoman Rachael Yong Yow.

About two months later, on July 16, Barros appeared in court for a second time on the low-level charge. But ICE agents arrested him right outside the courtroom and took him off to Hudson County Correctional Facility in New Jersey, according to his supporters. He's set to be deported Aug. 10.

Barros' arrest is one of many that's occurred at New York City courts under the Trump administration, according to immigrant-rights advocates.

Barros was locked up alongside Pablo Villavicencio, the Ecuadorian pizza deliveryman whom a judge freed from jail last week following his ICE arrest at a Brooklyn Army base.

Paola Barros said her father hasn't gotten proper medical attention in the jail for signs of diabetes, which runs in his family, or glasses to address his loss of vision. Barros and others have also been forced to take scalding hot showers and sit in freezing air conditioning, she and Calzadilla-Palacio said.

"He needs to be released immediately because they’re torturing him," Calzadilla-Palacio said.

Barros first came to the United States in 1994 and later obtained a work permit, Calzadilla-Palacio said. He fathered his two daughters before a family emergency forced him to travel back to Ecuador in 2003, Calzadilla-Palacio said.

But Yong Yow, the ICE spokeswoman, said Barros was "previously removed" and is now subject to deportation under a final order of removal from 2003.

Barros was blocked from entering the U.S. when he tried to return from Ecuador but found another way to get back to his family, Calzadilla-Palacio said.

Barros' deportation would mean his wife and two daughters would lose the family's breadwinner and force his younger daughter, Eileen, to drop out of Baruch College, Paola Barros said. She's started a GoFundMe campaign aiming to raise $100,000 to support the family.

"There’s an empty space in the house," Paola Barros said. "Every time we open the door it’s sad to not see my dad walk up the stairs and come in."

Young Progressives of America, an activist group Calzadilla-Palacio leads as president, plans to rally outside the New Jersey jail Saturday to push for Barros' freedom.

Yong Yow said ICE cannot comment on specific detainees' medical files without a signed privacy waiver and did not give information specific to the Hudson County jail. But she said ICE "takes very seriously the health, safety and welfare of those in our care," she said.

Each detainee gets a physical exam within two weeks and those who need follow-up treatment will get as many appointments as needed, including care from outside medical providers if necessary, Yong Yow said.

(Lead image: Edisson Barros is pictured with his younger daughter, Eileen. Photo courtesy of Paola Barros/GoFundMe)