Imagine spending four months in jail for accidentally surfing the wrong beach. That’s precisely what happened to surfer Hagop Chirinian when he unintentionally crossed the border of Camp Pendleton in San Diego County and was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
On Sunday, August 24 of last year, Chirinian went to the beach with friends and staked out a spot at dawn. As they waited for more friends, military police arrived, informed them that they were about 100 yards over the border of Camp Pendleton, and issued trespassing tickets (news outlet KPBS did not specify if this was the northern or southern border of the military base).
When the police asked the group if they were all citizens, Chirinian told the truth and said he was not. He arrived in the U.S. from Lebanon in 1975 when he was five years old. The military police called ICE.
Chirinian had two non-violent drug-related convictions from the 1990s, and was supposed to be deported to Lebanon. However, Lebanon, having no record of Chirinian, refused to accept him and he was released with a work permit under the condition that he check in with ICE on a predetermined schedule, which he did. Chirinian said the agents didn’t care, and they took him to a detention center in Otay Mesa in San Diego County.
He stayed there until a federal judge ordered his release a few days after Christmas, saying ICE broke its own rules by not giving someone with his immigration status a formal hearing or written notice.
Chirinian described the conditions in the center as “depressing.”
“It’s hard to get sun,” he said. “The only outside you see is maybe about a 50-foot-by-50-foot square area and the sun doesn’t even get to the ground — especially in the wintertime.”
When he was released, he had his work permit revoked, upending his life. Even so, Chirinian is grateful to be living in the U.S.
“Overall it’s the best place to live,” he said. “I wouldn’t want to be living anywhere else.”
Now Chirinian is required to wear an ankle monitor indefinitely and has to attend two ICE check-ins each month. Surely, he’s careful where he looks for waves these days.
