MONDAY
December 29, 2014 • $1.00
WORST RECORD IN 10 YEARS After 13-9 loss to Vikings, Hub Arkush says Marc Trestman has to go / B1 NWHerald.com
THE ONLY DAILY NEWSPAPER PUBLISHED IN McHENRY COUNTY
NORTHWEST HERALD SPECIAL SERIES COVERAGE
LIFE OF A DETAINEE Immigration detention center filled with heartbreak, fear, despair By CHELSEA McDOUGALL cmcdougall@shawmedia.com Note to readers: This is the second in a three-part series examining McHenry County’s longtime jail bed rental program with two federal government agencies. Some county officials question whether the program should expire toward the end of 2015. WOODSTOCK – Rosa looks across the table with big, brown, hopeful eyes. “Do you think I have a chance?” the woman asked as she sat in the library of the McHenry County Jail, wearing an orange jumpsuit and an immediately noticeable desperate demeanor. Rosa is asking National Immigrant Justice Center attorney Claudia Valenzuela about the status of her immigration proceedings. Valenzuela didn’t know and could answer only in generalities. Valenzuela is not handling Rosa’s immigration case. Besides, at that point, it was anyone’s guess. Valenzuela is a legal advocate with the Chicago-based National Immigrant Justice Center and filed a complaint on Rosa’s behalf after Rosa alleged she was sexually and physically assaulted while in custody in the McHenry County Jail. Rosa is not the woman’s real name.
Coming Tuesday A closer look at the jail contract with the federal government.
The Northwest Herald agreed to grant her anonymity as the alleged victim of a sex crime. Rosa is a Mexican-born 30-year-old and had been detained at the McHenry County Jail for seven months as she awaited immigration proceedings in Chicago. The NIJC provided Rosa with an attorney who handled her immigration case pro bono. It’s April at the time of this meeting, and Rosa hasn’t seen her two young daughters, her sister, or her mother since she was taken into detention in December 2013. Her mother and sister also entered the country illegally, and Rosa feared they would draw the attention of immigration officials if they visited. In an interview with the Northwest Herald, Rosa spoke of life in immigration detention. The heartbreaking phone calls with her two daughters. Her mother’s battle with a grave illness, as she still cares for the girls. Her sister’s grueling work schedule to support the family financially and to put money
into Rosa’s commissary account. (Her 23-year-old sister worked from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at one McDonald’s, then 6 to midnight at another location – day after day.) Every day, Rosa thought about life in Mexico. A life she barely remembered. She left the country at 15 years old. “Every single detainee was getting deported,” she said. “Every time I was looking at them, I would see myself and think, ‘When am I going to be next?’ … I [am] so scared to go back to my country because I have nothing there. All my family is here. I don’t have a house there. If they deport me, I have no money. I don’t have a house. I [have] nowhere to go. “For me to leave my daughters,” she said, but trails off. The Northwest Herald interviewed Rosa in the library of the jail. Valenzuela also was present. Meetings with other inmates typically are done via computer screen or the phone. ICE granted the reporter a face-to-face sit down with Rosa. A corrections officer waited outside the closed library door throughout the duration of the interview, but not once entered the room, even when the interview went well beyond the allotted time.
See DETAINEE, page A6
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Support for joint enterprise zone grows Harvard D-50, Woodstock D-200 encourage action By JOSEPH BUSTOS jbustos@shawmedia.com An enterprise zone application to the state from Harvard and Woodstock now has support from local school districts as well. Woodstock District 200 and Harvard District 50 have given their support for the cities’ application for a joint enterprise zone. The Harvard and Woodstock city councils approved a joint application for an enterprise zone to help spur economic development earlier this month. As an added incentive for businesses to locate in town, District 50 decided to offer property tax abatements for new commercial growth. School districts traditionally are the largest portion of a property tax bill. If there is new commercial growth within the enterprise zone, District 50 plans to abate property taxes on the improvements made to buildings or properties. After an improvement is made on a property, the taxes on the value of the improvement would be abated for the full amount the first four years, District 50 spokesman Bill Clow said. The abatement would then drop to 50 percent for two years and then to 25 percent for two years. That is the same abatement schedule planned by Harvard. “We recognize there is a benefit to the community to have economic development, to have growth,” Clow said. “Ultimately, we feel it’s a positive. Sometimes you have to do some things to make positive things happen in the long run. “We’re willing to work with the city to help spur on economic development,” Clow added. Clow added the district is looking into whether the state
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We recognize there is a benefit to the community to have economic development, to have growth. ... Sometimes you have to do some things to make positive things happen in the long run.” Bill Clow District 50 spokesman on Harvard and Woodstock’s enterprise zone application to the state
See SUPPORT, page A7
Search expands for missing passenger jet By TRISNADI MARJAN and MARGIE MASON The Associated Press SURABAYA, Indonesia – Search planes and ships from several countries on Monday were scouring Indonesian waters over which an AirAsia jet carrying 162 people disappeared, and more than a day into the region’s latest aviation mystery, officials doubted there could be anything but a tragic ending. AirAsia Flight 8501 vanished Sunday in airspace thick with storm clouds on its way from Surabaya, Indonesia, to Singapore. The search expand-
ed Monday, but has yet to find any trace of the Airbus A320. “Based on the coordinates that we know, the evaluation would be that any estimated crash position is in the sea, and that the hypothesis is the plane is at the bottom of the sea,” Indonesia search and rescue chief Henry Bambang Soelistyo said at a news conference. First Adm. Sigit Setiayana, the Naval Aviation Center commander at the Surabaya air force base, said 12 navy ships, five planes, three helicopters and a number of warships were taking part in the search, along with ships and
planes from Singapore and Malaysia. The Australian Air Force also sent a search plane. Searchers had to cope with heavy rain Sunday, but Setiayana said Monday that visibility was good. “God willing, we can find it soon,” he told The Associated Press. The plane’s disappearance and suspected crash caps an astonishingly tragic year for air travel in Southeast Asia. The Malaysia-based carrier’s loss comes on top of the still-unexplained disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 in March and the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in July over Ukraine.
At the Surabaya airport, passengers’ relatives pored over the plane’s manifest, crying and embracing. Nias Adityas, a housewife from Surabaya, was overcome with grief when she found the name of her husband, Nanang Priowidodo, on the list. The 43-year-old tour agent had been taking a family of four on a trip to Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia’s Lombok island. “He just told me, ‘Praise God, this new year brings a lot of good fortune,’” Adityas recalled, while weeping.
See SEARCH, page A6
AP photo
Relatives of the passengers of AirAsia flight Flight 8501 comfort each other Sunday at Juanda International Airport in Surabaya, Indonesia. The AirAsia plane with 161 people on board lost contact with ground control Sunday while flying over the Java Sea after taking off from a provincial city in Indonesia for Singapore, and search and rescue operations were underway.
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Prairie Ridge alumna attends UN’s climate change event / A3
Marian Central alumna is back in the college hoops game as a coach / B2
U.S., NATO mark end of 13-year war in Afghanistan / A7
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