A San Francisco drag queen has been released by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), after being detained for three months, and granted asylum.
Hilary Rivers was released on 20 September after being arrested by ICE agents outside an immigration court on 26 June, a day after competing at the annual Miss and Mr Safe Latino pageant.
The drag queen spoke to El Tecolote and 48 Hills about the violence she endured while in detention, and about her fight for freedom.
“A few days before my court date, friends warned me not to appear because people were being picked up,” Rivers, who was born in El Salvador and raised in Guatemala, said. “But I wanted to do things right. I knew if I didn’t show up, I could get an automatic deportation order. So, I went to court with my lawyer.”
She recalled ICE agents asking her name but she and her lawyer remained silent.
“They grabbed me, pushed me against the wall and shackled me. My lawyer tried to intervene but they pushed him aside. They put my hands and feet in chains. I’ve never been arrested before, it was terrifying.”
‘We were freezing’
Rivers spent three months at the Golden State Annex detention centre, in McFarland, more than 250 miles from San Francisco. “Staff didn’t protect” her and there were no safeguards against harassment or sexual violence, she claimed. She recalled once waking up to someone touching her.
She and other detainees “had to stand for hours because there was no space to sit, no air, and we were freezing”.
After finally being released, she returned home to San Francisco and has been granted asylum in the US. But she quickly realised the ordeal wasn’t over because she’d lost everything, from housing to documents. She is now determined to improve her situation and advocate for others.
“We have to fight for our dreams,” Rivers said. “I paid a high price but nothing is impossible. Don’t let them break you. Don’t sign things you don’t understand, know your rights. We all have the same worth, no matter where we’re from.”
A GoFundMe campaign has been set up to help Rivers re-establish her life.
ICE is reportedly getting $76.5 billion (£58.2 billion) from congress to help meet Trump’s immigration demands, and the administration has launched a recruitment drive to fill 10,000 news jobs over the next four years. There have been more than 115,000 applications, according to Homeland Security.
In September, TikToker Eric Duran thanked his followers for their support as he battled to free his boyfriend from ICE detention.
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