When ICE ripped me from my home they told my wife and I as I was stuffing several cigarette packs in my sweater pockets before being hand cuffed that it would be at least 7-10 days before anyone would even see me about my case, and then they removed my cigarette packs and said I wouldn't need those. Crap! Wasn't planning on quitting that day. At that moment I had a sinking feeling that this wasn't going to be an easy trip downtown and put on a plane. I surrendered peacefully and complied. Was processed, finger printed and shipped out hours later to the Otay Messa prison near the Tijuana  border. Cuffed like a serial killer across the chest and feet the van load of detainees shuffled in and processed again. The first night was a brutal awakening. Spent most of it in the intake tank with nothing but 2 small thin blankets and slept on the cold cement floor with several others scrambling for floor space. Then around 5am we were stripped down and assigned our colored prison clothing and escorted to our PODS and then to our cells. For the first 3 weeks I was in POD C - K cell 115 upper bunk. I hated the upper bunk for several reasons and weeks later spent most of a day in medical to request a "Crono" (lower bunk). Because of my age and back problems I had moved to cell 106 lower bunk where I spent the next 3 weeks. My first celly (Cell mate) was Jamaican and he arrived shortly before me....waiting to be deported as well. He had already been incarcerated for several weeks before being shipped to this prison. So he had some knowledge and experience and showed me the ropes of prison etiquette like how to tie my sheet to make my bed and the use of the toilet only a few feet away and reminded me to constantly flush while taking a crap so to not stink up the cell. Quick note...the stainless steel toilet was very cold and incredibly loud when flushing and also very powerful...could suck down a blanket. When we had the opportunity to leave the cell we'd take turns and leave the cell to offer a bit of privacy. Although never are you ever out of sight of the tower guards either watching you through the glass plates of your cell door or listening in on the intercom or the public phone which they state all calls are recorded. So privacy was a luxury we never had. It was a humiliating experience, but without choices you adapt.

DETAINEES are not Prisoners, but are treated the same as serious offenders.

I couldn't help noticing moments in there on the first night how friggin' cold it was. Much colder than outside the POD in the hallways. Every cell has AC vents and most detainees have found ways to block the out vents with peaces of toilette paper stuffed in the individual holes or sheets of paper tacked over the vent using antiperspirant or whatever worked. Mind you if you were caught blocking the vents you'd end up in the hole. The hole I'm told is pretty much the same as the current cells 6'x12', but has 3 steel bunks that you share with 2 other inmates and locked up 23 hours of each day. Not a place you'd want to experience! I witnessed several detainees sent to the hole for minor issues, one of them being speaking out for ours rights like complaining about freezing us with the AC. But I quickly learned that almost every issue revolved around selling you something from the commissary. Once a week prisoners can order things from the commissary such as a sweat shirt for $12 if you're cold. Don't like the slippers they assign you made in China? NP...they sell Reebok running shoes for $47. If you don't like the fluoridated water, np...they sell bottled water and so on. If you didn't come in with any money, you better know someone on the outside to send you some or you're sh*t out of luck. I ordered my sweatshirt on second week along with other basic necessities like bottled water, pencils, pens, stamps, paper and a few treats like Pepsi, chocolate and some candies to cover up the after taste of the food if you can call it that. The food was sooo bad it took me a week to stop gagging with every bite. Anyway, I had just missed ordering day, so I froze the first week. Luckily I had a bit of money unlike many in there way too long and exhausted their outside sources and lost everything...house, business, property. I met some in there still waiting to be deported after several years. In some cases some detainees are not deportable because their country won't accept them back in. So they sit and wait, for what I'm not sure. I heard that ICE can't hold people for more than 90 days and yet I met several that had been in there for years. One guy I was friends with has been in the same POD for 5 years...since July 2005 he told me. Of course every case is unique and I was one of the lucky ones without any charges, and deporting back to Canada certainly wasn't as life threatening as deporting to Honduras for example or Thailand. I was the only Canadian in my POD of 70 men from all over the world. My nick name was Canada. Others were Panama, Swiss, China, etc. The most common detainee was either Mexican or Somalian. Others included immigrating from Indonesia, Africa, Russia, South America. Even met a family of Romanian Gypsies that had been separated in different PODS simply because they wanted asylum from persecution from their own country. Why they'd separate a father from his 2 sons in different PODS boggles me. Of course woman were segregated in their own building...never saw them unless visiting medical. Was just sad to hear so many heart wrenching stories of families being torn apart. Guys being deported and separated from their wives and kids and in some cases grand kids simply because they were not born in America, but spent their whole lives in the US knowing nothing or very little of their original country and culture or even the language. I met one guy in there "Alex", immigrated to the US when he was 4 years old...now he was 54 and had grand kids naturally born in the US and now being deported because of a minor charge....in some case as minor as neglecting to pay parking tickets. I've heard the same story several times, they got picked up for minor offenses...they through them in jail to do a few months of time and upon release picked up by ICE to go back to prison to await deportation. So in essence they do double time. But from ICE's perspective this is good business as they get paid anywhere from $150 to $350 per prisoner per day...and more if they're in the hole...not sure why. Rarely is there a vacancy. Empty bunks get filled Within a day or two, and the hole is always full from what I heard.

CCA guards are always eager to flex their authority. It's like they got this good cop bad cop game going on. ICE officers bring you in and they are relatively ok guys...didn't have any real problems with them or their attitudes. But then they hand you over to CCA (Corrections Corporations of America) till they come back to take you out for deportation. Most of the CCA guards were power tripping, the smaller the guard the more aggressive they were with a chip on their shoulder so it seemed. Between wanting to punch some out and feeling sorry for them it was apparent to me that some really hated their jobs and took it out on the Detainees. In our PODS it was the guards you feared and not other inmates like they often depict in the movies. Unlike common prison, we didn't have high Archy structures within Detainees. But one thing is for sure, you didn't mess with the tranies or the gays and we had about 12 or so in our pod. These "guys" looking like woman with breast implants and long hair complicated things. They could do whatever they wanted and often bossed others around under the protection of their status...if you didn't get along you were labeled a racist and threatened either by someone protecting them cuz their getting some or CCA would throw you in the hole or move you to a different pod. It was ridiculous! But have to take it serious or face consequences. I personally didn't encounter any problems...so long as they kept their distance and respected me as I did them.

Note...When I was cuffed in the back of an unmarked car initially transported to the downtown jail... the ICE officer speaking to headquarters on his CB said "I have an OTM". So I asked...what's an "OTM"?  Other Than Mexican he replied. Huh? Why would they have a code specifically for Mexicans or for everyone other than?

More of my story coming soon...