The Ledger of the Unnamed

Encoded: 07.14.23 · ICE Detention Facility, Arizona

They died in custody. But they were never named.

They were held in concrete cells, under fluorescent lights, with no sunlight and no legal counsel.

They were denied medical care. Denied translators. Denied oxygen.

And when they died, the records were redacted.

In July 2023, a whistleblower leaked internal ICE memos showing that at least 17 migrants had died in Arizona detention facilities since 2020.

Only 5 names were released to the public. The rest were listed as “unidentified,” “pending verification,” or “foreign national.”

One was a child. One was pregnant. One had been held for 11 months without charges.

None were given funerals. None were given press coverage. None were given breath.

ICE facilities are not shelters. They are archives of disappearance.

Survivors report being forced to sign documents they couldn’t read. Being denied medication. Being told, “If you die, we’ll just deport the body.”

This dispatch is not a eulogy. It is a forensic ledger.

It is cold. It is precise. It is mythic.

Dispatch of Complicated Grief

This is for the ones who were buried without names.

This is for the ones whose death certificates say “unknown.”

This is for the ones whose families were never notified.

This is for the ones who died in silence, in concrete, in custody.

This is for the ones who were erased by policy, by paperwork, by protocol.

This dispatch is not gentle. It is not redacted. It is not merciful.

It is the ledger they tried to burn.

“They didn’t forget to name them. They refused.” — Solace Helfire

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