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Meet Beatrice Kiarie: Ohio Mother of Four Stuck In Jail Over “Paperwork Mistake”

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Yesterday, when AV’s Executive Director Frank Sharry wrote about the President’s meeting on immigration, he noted that “there is real pain in immigrant communities due to unrelenting enforcement-only policies.” There are so many heartbreaking stories — and they keep coming.

We just learned about the case of Beatrice Kiarie:

An Eastlake mother of three has spent the last 11 days in the Bedford Heights city jail because of what her family and friends say is a “paperwork mistake” by the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

Beatrice Kiarie, 38, was taken into custody April 8 because her family says she missed a meeting with immigration officials.

The family says the notice about the meeting was mailed to the wrong address.

“She’s been going every time, as required,” Kiarie’s husband George said from the family’s Eastlake home, about her regular appointments with immigration. “So I believe she should at least have been told what is going on before being detained.”

And, there’s this:

The family’s pastor, who has been visiting Beatrice in jail, says immigration officials have acknowledged their error, but said that it could take three months to fix.

Three months to fix their own mistake? That’s beyond absurd. And there’s no telling whether the government will deport her in the mean time.  The only thing we do know is that Beatrice remains in jail, away from her children. This is another example of the real pain in immigrant communities due to the administration’s unrelenting enforcement-only policies.

Watch Beatrice’s heartbreaking story below: