Roosevelt family seeks answers after Manuel Hernández Zelada, 27, is arrested by ICE and disappears

One Friday last month, Manuel Hernández Zelada went to a deli in Roosevelt to buy food. The El Salvador native never came back home. Arrested by immigration agents, he disappeared into what one advocate calls ICE’s "black hole."

Hernández Zelada’s family said it hasn’t heard from him, has no idea where he is and is worried the 27-year-old day laborer is not getting the medications he needs for mental health issues. He was hospitalized twice earlier this year in the psychiatric unit at Nassau University Medical Center, relatives said. He was arrested by ICE Nov. 14.

"What worries me the most is not knowing about my son, where he is, what situation he is in," his father, who did not want his name used because he fears getting detained by immigration agents, said in Spanish. "He is not well psychologically."

Hernández Zelada is among a growing number of immigrants who are disappearing into U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s detention system and being denied access to lawyers, their families and in some cases proper medical treatment amid the Trump administration’s escalating deportation campaign, according to immigration advocates and attorneys.

Patrick Young, an immigration law professor at Hofstra Law School, said he has never seen anything like it in the 40 years he’s been in the field. He said the denial of access and communication is a violation of basic constitutional protections and is unprecedented in U.S. history.

"What we've been hearing really in the last 10 months has been people are essentially being 'disappeared,' " he said. "I won't say that the majority, but a fairly large number of people are not accounted for to their families or to their lawyers."

Before the crackdown, "I've never heard of people disappearing for four weeks. They shouldn’t be held incommunicado. It's a shocking thing."

Responding to a Newsday inquiry, ICE did not provide information on Hernández Zelada's whereabouts. The agency has previously stated that detainees are given "opportunities to communicate with their family members and lawyers in accordance with strictly enforced national detention standards."

ICE regulations and a court order issued last fall say that detainees should be allowed at least one phone call within 24 hours of arrest, and an additional call for each subsequent 12-hour period of detention.

President Donald Trump has been waging what he says will be the biggest mass deportation campaign in U.S. history, focusing on dangerous criminals here illegally. Advocates contend many people with no criminal record and even some with legal status are getting swept up. 

Hernández Zelada had no criminal record, according to local authorities and a database check.

Nadia Marin-Molina, an attorney who is also co-executive director of the National Day Laborers Organizing Network, said she has been helping Hernández Zelada’s relatives try to find him more than a month after his disappearance.

The online "ICE detention tracker" says Hernandez Zelada is in CBP custody, referring to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, but doesn’t say where. Marin-Molina said that when she contacted CBP, she was told they don’t detain immigrants for long periods — only ICE does. That agency has not responded to her.

"It’s shameful to think that in the United States we have a system where people can just disappear and there’s no response, there’s no accountability for human beings that are taken into custody," Marin-Molina said. "At the very least we need to be able to find him and his family needs to know where he is. It really is a black hole."

Young said holding migrants who suffer from mental health issues incommunicado is especially problematic because they often don’t verbalize their needs. Without their medication, it can lead to depression or even suicide, he said.

Hernández Zelada came to the United States about five years ago, fleeing gangs trying to force him to join them, his father said. He last saw his son Nov. 14 when he got up around 4:30 a.m. to go to work and his son woke up to say goodbye, he said.

Later that day, Hernández Zelada went to the deli with a man who lives in another room in the same house in Roosevelt, the father said. The two never made it to the deli, the other man's wife told Newsday. They were arrested on the street by ICE a few blocks from their house. She received one brief call from her husband that night about 10 p.m., and hasn't heard from him since, she said. She didn't want her name used because she fears being detained by ICE.

Hernández Zelada's father said that in the room he shared, he hasn’t touched his son’s belongings, including a Bible and a collection of baseball caps.

Hernández Zelada is not the only immigrant on Long Island who vanished into ICE’s detention system. In September, Jonathan Interiano, 30, was arrested by ICE agents outside a convenience store in Huntington. His family had no idea where he was for weeks and never heard from him while he was in ICE custody, said William Coreas, his stepbrother.

They finally received a call from Interiano more than a month after his arrest — he had been deported to Mexico, Coreas said.

"Even though he’s not a U.S. citizen, I feel like everybody who lives here in the U.S. has rights, undocumented or documented," Coreas said. "His rights were violated. I feel like the family’s rights were violated without being provided any information. It’s ridiculous."