For two decades, Alberto Gonzalez Raza, also known around Hudson County as “Kiko el Lechero” (Kiko the Milkman) to his customers, was a prominent local businessman.
He owned and operated The Milk Company, with local retail stores “Los Lecheritos,” and a delivery service.
But since a 2006 investigation related to an incident involving his son led to Gonzalez’s own arrest for an outstanding warrant for “failure to appear,” Gonzalez has been ensnared in the penal system of a government that once welcomed him decades ago.
Though he served the nine months he was sentenced to, Gonzalez, a Cuban refugee, wound up being detained for a total of nearly two years while his immigration status was questioned only to be released with no conclusion or charges.
He suffered two heart attacks and a stroke while in custody, and lost his business in the process.
“I hope that this case opens up some of our politicians’ eyes, and they realize that having a for-profit prison is like having a fox watching the hen house.” – Julio Morejon
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Bizarre incident leads to arrest
Gonzalez said he first became aware of the outstanding warrant for his arrest after what even investigators at the time called a “bizarre” incident in 2006, during which a stranger shot at Gonzalez’s son through a North Bergen motel window and then killed himself.
According to Gonzalez, it was the investigation into that incident, which included checks into family members, that brought his warrant to light and led federal marshals to arrest him.
The warrant was related to a federal case in which he was implicated in an alleged scheme that involved faxing credit references across state lines. Gonzalez, who was never charged with the crime, was picked up on the warrant for failure to appear and sent to California to face the court.
The other charges were dropped, a $100 fine was paid, and Gonzalez was sentenced to serve nine months for the charge of failure to appear.
One bizarre incident leads to another
When Gonzalez arrived in the California prison he was assigned to, he wrote a letter to the warden requesting to be transferred to a facility in New Jersey where he and his family lived.
Gonzalez said the request was ignored and a case worker advised him to ask again 60 days before the date of his release.
He did, but instead of receiving a response to his transfer request, Gonzalez received a surprising response regarding his immigration status.
Although no “red flags” regarding his citizenship were brought up when local detectives did their investigation, when U.S. Marshalls got involved to arrest him, or when he was transferred to California, seven days before he was to be released from prison, his immigration status came into question by a Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) warden.
Gonzalez had a drivers’ license, a social security card, paid taxes, and ran a business legally in the United States, but instead of being released, he was transferred to another facility owned by the same company in Arizona specifically for immigrant detainees and was held without any charges against him until his immigration status could be figured out.
The gray area of refugees
Over forty years earlier, in 1962, Gonzalez had arrived in Miami along with his mother and two brothers. They were admitted into the country as Cuban refugees under the “Pedro Pan Program,” in which thousands of Cuban children were allowed to enter the United States under “indefinite voluntary departure.”
Many Cubans maintained their alien status because they thought they’d be going back to Cuba within a few months when the regime changed.
But that never happened.
In a way, Cuban refugees like Gonzalez almost have a “non-status” – they were allowed in the country legally but they weren’t given visas. While the next step would be to get a resident card, there wasn’t much follow up on that process after they settled into the country.
Gonzalez, who still had a father, brothers, and nephews on the island, said he never applied for citizenship because felt the way many Cubans still feel to this day.
“I had one leg in Cuba, one leg in the United States,” he said.
Fighting the system
According to attorney Julio Morejon who is representing Gonzalez in the case against CCA, instead of having his immigration status figured out, Gonzalez became part of an indefinite “paper pushing” process.
Morejon said that as a “squeaky wheel” in the prison since his sentence began in California, Gonzalez received unfair treatment – including the extended stay at a maximum security facility.
To make matters worse, Morejon alleged, it was done for profit.
“He did not come here illegally, he was welcomed into this country,” said Morejon. “We contend that it was really retaliatory; this big for-profit organization saw it as a way to detain him longer.”
The 66-year-old Gonzalez said his treatment in the prison, which included stints in solitary confinement and denial of medical care, was so poor that he even asked to be deported, which a judge refused to do.
Instead, with the help of other inmates, Gonzalez became a sort of “jailhouse lawyer” and eventually prepped his own Habeas Corpus petition which led to his release in May 2008.
Upon his release, a case worker dropped him off at a bus stop in Arizona where Gonzalez purchased a bus ticket with money from his savings account and finally returned home to New Jersey.
No charges were ever filed and Gonzalez was released without any demands or directions on what should be done about his immigrant status; he came out the same way he went into detainment – though he has since begun the process to receive his resident card on his own.
“I think what happened to him was he got caught up in this whole post 9/11 anti-immigrant [sentiment] that exists in this country, especially out west,” said Morejon.
While their lawsuit is aimed specifically at one corporation, Morejon and Gonzalez both hope that the case will have implications for the private jail system in the country at large.
“I hope that this case opens up some of our politicians’ eyes,” said Morejon. “And they realize that having a for-profit prison is like having a fox watching the hen house.”
Both Gonzalez and CCA have other lawsuits pending
During his additional detention regarding his immigration status, Gonzalez also lost his multi-million dollar business.
When he returned home from prison, Gonzalez found that his Union City-based business and related assets had been sold without his consent.
In October 2008, a suit was brought against Gonzalez’s son and stepson (who were supposed to be looking after the business while he was incarcerated), as well as 15 other parties, including former landlords and two large dairy companies, Tuscan Dairy Farms and Beyer Farms.
That lawsuit is still pending.
CCA meanwhile has a series of lawsuits pending against them nationwide, including several medical negligence and false imprisonment claims as well as wrongful death and constitutional rights.
Several hundred more lawsuits against CCA have already been settled over the past two decades.
Representatives for CCA could not be reached for comment prior to press time.
Lana Rose Diaz can be reached at ldiaz@hudsonreporter.com.