马丁·索托是一名秘鲁籍男子。他在臭名昭著的营利性移民拘留所德莱尼霍尔内组织绝食与劳工罢工后遭到单独监禁。周二晚间，他戴着脚踝监控器从新泽西州的伊丽莎白拘留中心获释。
Martin Soto, a Peruvian man thrown into solitary confinement after organizing a hunger and labor strike inside the notorious for-profit ICE detention facility Delaney Hall, was released from New Jersey’s Elizabeth Detention Center with an ankle monitor Tuesday night.
索托于2024年从秘鲁来到美国，当时正在申请政治庇护。今年2月，他在为两个年幼的孩子购买尿布时被联邦执法人员拘留。尽管没有任何犯罪记录，他仍被移民及海关执法局关押了整整八个月，期间还多次遭到单独监禁。他的妻子加布里埃拉称，这一切都是因为丈夫积极组织维权活动而遭到的报复。
Soto came to the United States from Peru in 2024 and was pursuing asylum. He was detained by federal agents in February while buying diapers for his two young children. Though he has no criminal record, he spent eight consecutive months in ICE detention, including several months in solitary confinement—retribution, his wife Gabriela said, for his role as an organizer.
5月份，当马丁在拘留所内努力改善条件时，加布里埃拉则在德莱尼霍尔外组织了一系列抗议活动。5月22日，包括马丁在内的300多名被拘留者宣布在该营利性拘留所内发起为期两周的绝食与劳工罢工，要求获得自由与正当法律程序，同时要求与州长会面并停止强迫他们自愿遣返的措施。随着关于该设施内食物难以下咽、狱警暴力横行以及医疗条件恶劣的报道不断出现，新泽西州政府遂提起诉讼要求关闭德莱尼霍尔。而美国国土安全部却坚称这场绝食罢工根本从未发生。
Gabriela Soto organized a series of protests outside Delaney Hall in May, as her husband worked to improve conditions inside. On May 22, a group of over 300 detained immigrants, including Martin, announced a two-week hunger and labor strike inside the for-profit detention facility, demanding freedom and due process, as well as a meeting with the governor and an end to coercive pressure to self-deport. The state of New Jersey sued to close Delaney Hall as reports of inedible food, violent guards, and inadequate medical care continued to emerge from the facility. The Department of Homeland Security, meanwhile, claimed the hunger strike never happened.
5月底，马丁·索托被转移至附近的伊丽莎白拘留中心，并在那里又被关押了四个月。9月初，加布里埃拉·索托对记者伊丽莎白·韦尔-格林伯格说道：“当局不希望他与其他人接触，因为他们担心他会在拘留所内再次发起绝食或罢工。因此，他们让他完全与外界隔绝。”8月起，索托开始申请U类签证——这种签证专门“授予某些犯罪的受害者……且这些受害者需协助执法调查”。
By the end of May, Martin Soto was transferred to the nearby Elizabeth Detention Center, where he was held for another four months. “They don’t want him associating with more people because they’re afraid that he might start another hunger and labor strike inside a facility,” Gabriela Soto told journalist Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg in early September. “So they keep him away from life in general.”In August, Soto began pursuing a U-Visa, a specialized visa “reserved for victims of certain crimes…who are aiding law enforcement investigations.”
9月，加布里埃拉·索托给新泽西州总检察长达文波特寄去一封亲笔信，请求其在马丁的U类签证申请文件上签字；与此同时，她的办公室正在调查德莱尼霍尔拘留所内针对索托及其他囚犯的涉嫌人权侵犯行为。
In September, Gabriela Soto sent a handwritten letter to New Jersey Attorney General Davenport asking Davenport to sign Martin’s U-Visa certification as her office investigates alleged human rights abuses against Soto and others inside Delaney Hall.
“我知道我的努力以及马丁的勇敢让此案备受关注，因此您对此案的裁决也处于公众视野之中，”加布里埃拉在信中写道，“但我恳请您考虑为我们出具相关证明文件，以便我们能继续为正义而斗争。”据独立记者凯文·奥尔特加-罗哈斯透露，该签证认证申请已于本周获批。当地社区广播电台Radio Jornalera NJ率先报道了索托于10月6日获释的消息。
“I know that my advocacy, Martin’s bravery, has placed this case in the spotlight & therefore your decisions in this are under that same spotlight,” Gabriela wrote. “But I ask you to please consider providing us with this documentation so we can continue our fight.”That visa certification was approved this week, according to independent journalist Kevin Ortega-Rojas. Soto’s October 6 release was first reported by Radio Jornalera NJ, a local community radio station.
周二晚间，包括新泽西州众议员罗布·梅嫩德斯和阿纳利利亚·梅希亚在内的多位新泽西州民主党人士，与索托一家及约二十名支持者一同聚集在伊丽莎白拘留中心门口。
New Jersey Democrats, including Representatives Rob Menendez (D-NJ) and Analilia Mejía (D-NJ), joined the Soto family and about two dozen supporters at the gates of the Elizabeth Detention Center Tuesday night.
在Radio Jornalera NJ当晚发布的视频中，加布里埃拉泪流满面地奔向马丁，两人紧紧相拥。
In a video posted that evening by Radio Jornalera, Gabriela runs, sobbing, into Martin’s arms.