I have been asked so many times about our greatly loved and missed friend, Audrius Kazenas, who he is, what sort of man he is, how he wound up locked up in immigration detention for what is now nearly two years . . . tell you what; it’s Halloween, 2010; and on Halloween 2008 I found out this man who has become as much a member of my family as anyone born or married into it was in deep trouble and resolved to help him through it no matter where that might lead. Seems like today is the day to tell his story:
Audrius Kazenas is from Eastern Europe where he served as an officer in the military. He has seen a great deal of war and combat, at first with the Soviet military (all men from Eastern Europe were required to serve with the Soviets during the dark years of their occupation by that country) and then for his own country through the violent struggles to throw the Soviets out. He has fought the Taliban in Afghanistan when they were still just warlords. He has stood strong to push the Soviets back and bring about an end to the Cold War. Physically he is a giant of a man with a long, sure stride, booming voice and a warm, mischievous smile. He is my friend, my brother; a man who would put his very life on the line for another without hesitation – and who has done exactly that many times. Those who know him know he has a huge and generous heart and it is because he is such a man that he now sits in a prison cell under ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) detention while that agency that supposedly protects we-the-people does everything within its power to deport him back to Eastern Europe to what would likely be his torture and death – against the wishes of a large number of citizens who value him and want him to remain. His strong sense of duty and that big heart, combined with the actions of some federal agents too willing to be bent to the hidden agendas of people of questionable character may yet do to him what no enemy in combat could.
Audrius is a hero many times over, has actually done what most of us only read or watch movies about. There are a number of men and a few women who walk in our midst that fit such a description and, as we have found with Audrius, you usually never know you are with one unless you become close friends. Even then, you are not likely to be told all that this person has experienced. They will tell war stories, but what they tell is only a small fraction of what they have actually seen and endured. Audrius’ friends here never knew the depths of Audrius Kazenas, but we knew he was exceptional, a good friend who could be counted on in any emergency. He fit in so well to our small, Northern New Hampshire community none of us had any idea what his life had been or the actions and risks he had taken so that everyday people could continue to sleep safe and warm in their beds at night. We’d all been the recipients of his help at one point or another. He has a way of just showing up when needed, a “knight in shining armor” who knows just what to do, but we only knew what he did for us personally. It was only after ICE took Audrius from us, as people began calling me to find out what had happened to him, that I learned the extent of what Audrius had done in our community – found out how very many people he had helped out, how many felt a great debt of gratitude toward him (see: http://untamed-itch.blogspot.com/2010/10/proof-of-pudding-is-in-eatin.html ). He didn’t share that, was not one to brag. I don’t believe that he even knew the things he did were out of the ordinary and worthy of mention. He was just being Audrius.
In the end, “being Audrius” is what proved his undoing. He came to this country because he believed the woman and children he loved – his wife, newborn baby and stepson – were in extreme need. He was working on coming here legally, but that was proving to be far more difficult than he had anticipated. While he was attempting to cut through the bureaucratic red tape to join his family here his wife was telling him how hard life was for her in the United States, how she needed him desperately, how she had picked up the children from the sitter and found the sitter and the children both smelling of booze, and how they were all about to be thrown out of their apartment. It was decided, he would put his safety aside and come here right away to be the husband and father that his family needed. His wife assured him that once he was here they would sort out his legal status, but when he did come that . . . that last part was never done.
Audrius’ friends and neighbors had no idea that he was living in this country illegally. I knew. His wife had confided this to me one day while visiting at my home and later when I was speaking with her and Audrius, she explained why she had felt she had to smuggle him into this country, how she had sent him a plane ticket to Canada, gone across the border to meet him and give him a map and then met him back on the United States side. Couples have their stories, their romantic tales of how they met, how their separate lives became one. This was Audrius and his wife’s story and she seemed relieved to finally be able to tell it. I could see why; it was compelling and very romantic – a man who would risk everything for the love of a woman.
Their marriage ran hot and cold. Some days they were happy, other days when I’d drop by I would find Audrius hustling to finish some task while his wife sat at the kitchen table angry that her husband was so lazy, that he had not done the work she had told him to do while she was gone. I will not labor what became of that relationship; Audrius’ has said enough about that on his own blog for now and he was the one who had to live it. In time I drifted away just as every one of their other local friends had done in the past and for the same reasons – a combination of being embarrassed witnessing Audrius being abused and humiliated by his wife and having my friendship taken advantage of by that same wife on a monetary level. Eventually I sat down and compared notes with their former friends to see if perhaps what I’d experienced in that household was just me, or if this was a pattern. I approached a police officer who, along with his wife, had been friendly with that family before us. Audrius’ wife had said that relationship had dissolved because the officer had “come on to her” and then the officer’s wife had accused her of trying to steal her husband. Audrius had said nothing, had neither supported nor disagreed with his wife’s version of events. Over time I noticed that Audrius was usually silent when his wife would tell us such stories and so I decided to check. Sitting in our local police station, I heard a story that closely matched what my husband and I had encountered and I found myself wondering what she might be now saying about my own family. Speaking with other now scarce visitors to that household I found those stories were equally similar except in one detail – they all wondered why Audrius stayed. I did not wonder. I knew he had no choice. He had come here illegally and if he were to leave that relationship he would likely never see his children again. He loved those children, had been their primary caretaker for most of their life. For them that man would endure anything, but in Audrius’ case there was another threat, a terrible, sinister threat that he and his wife spoke of in my presence only once.
Spouses caught in a marriage to an American citizen have at times been known to take off to their former country with the children in tow when that relationship does not work out for them, leaving the American struggling to regain contact with those children. Audrius is not the sort of man to abuse his children by separating them from a parent they love, but in his case he could not have done so even if he were because by then he had found out that his life would be in terrible danger if he were ever to return to Eastern Europe. He was trapped.
Conditions in Eastern Europe are not the lovely success story of freedom prevailing once the Soviets were kicked out that we would like to imagine. Such things are never so simple. It takes many years for a country so oppressed to come to grips with its past and develop a strong and stable system of government. Some never do succeed. The country from which Audrius came has had a particularly tough time on that front. After the initial battles to remove Soviet rule Audrius was working undercover investigating corruption and gang activity. His father, meanwhile, was a major and effective dissident against any who would choose to rule the country through anything short of a just and free society. Audrius was a bold and brave young man, full of pride and certain of his abilities – a bit too certain. A night of drinking with a gang member being investigated went terribly wrong. Audrius took this man and his companions to a hotel room for more drinking where the man informed him that his help was needed to commit a robbery. Audrius attempted to leave and was attacked by this man. Audrius was hurt and badly bloodied in the ensuing fight. His attacker died.
Audrius’ first duty was to protect the investigation and that was what he did, which resulted in him being charged, tried and convicted for involuntary manslaughter. This charge appears to be “murder” in initial translation because all deaths at the hands of another in his language are called “murder,” even ones involving self-defense. The meaning gets lost in translation unless the statutes under which the person was tried are included. A person uninitiated in the language could easily misunderstand. However, a person familiar with that language who continues to call what Audrius was convicted of “murder” is someone who intends to deliberately mislead. In Audrius’ case the relevant statute indicates that he knew his actions could cause death but that was not the outcome he desired or intended. The documents that were finally obtained from Eastern Europe state every witness agreed that Audrius was attacked and struck back while attempting to extricate himself from the situation. That particular detail appears to be the only fact that was agreed upon in these documents. Beyond that the documents do not add up as to times, dates or even locations. Even a casual reading reveals numerous discrepancies whereby if one statement is true, another can not possibly be true as well as whole pages that are missing. A more thorough examination would indicate that something is very wrong. When Audrius was tried for this incident his lawyer was not allowed in the courtroom and he was sentenced to prison. He served his time while continuing to keep his silence. During that time he was taped naked to a chair and had live electrical wires applied to his arms till he passed out. He was revived and the process was repeated again and again. Much more was done to this man, but it serves no purpose to elaborate on it here. I am sorry if friends reading this find it distressing, he protected us all from this part of his past and I admit it is hard to read if you know him. I found out for the first time myself when I had to type up his statement to the International Criminal Court. The thought of this being done to him made me sick and I found it difficult typing through the tears that would not stop flowing. In that country, at that time, a number of people in positions of authority were doing quite well for themselves financially via the extra “gifts” and opportunities their position afforded them. Others, like Audrius, scraped by on their salary and a determination to do the right thing; the latter was a problem for the former. The problem that was Audrius was intended to be handled in that prison, but despite the odds, Audrius survived. Upon his release he was reinstated as an officer in the military and until he left that country to join his family here he was training coalition troops. He remained an officer and (as much as possible) a gentlemen, true to his country, to his duty and to those who served with him right up to the time he left. One of the men who served beside Audrius, spoke to me of what happened so long ago. He confirmed that Audrius did kill the man who attacked him because, in his words because, “that was the only way to defend friends and himself. Otherwise he would be killed.”
This should not have been an impediment to Audrius being allowed to live with his family here in the United States. We are fully aware in this country that sometimes the battle for freedom results in death, of our own men, our allies and of the enemy. At the prep school I attended in the 60s I was taught French by a man who was here on political asylum for trying to kill the bloody dictator, Papa Doc Duvalier, of Haiti. He did not try to kill him in self defense during an attack upon his person, as Audrius had done. He and his men stormed the building and tried to murder the leader of Haiti in cold blood. This country understood and gave him asylum. He lived out his remaining years in Northern New Hampshire peacefully (and colorfully) teaching teenage girls to speak French until the day he returned to Haiti where he was quickly shot to death.
In Audrius’ case such sanity has not prevailed. Soon after he arrived in the United States a warrant for his arrest was issued by his country with Interpol. It was not clear what he was wanted for, just that he was wanted. His father attempted to find out why this had been done and was told Audrius wasn’t really wanted and that if he knew what was good for him he would not return. Audrius got the message. He knew then if he were to return to his country, what had happened to him in that prison would likely be repeated, if he lived long enough to make it to the prison. There was no longer any way for him to safely leave here. The threat of deportation now held the potential for torture and death as well as never seeing his beloved children again. Unfortunately the worst happened as was written in Audrius’ latest blog post. He was picked up by immigration and his actions as a soldier in the fight for freedom are now seen as a reason to send him back to the very thugs who would see him dead so that they can finish him off. In the meantime they are used as sufficient reason to continue holding him in prison indefinitely for no crime. The fact that he has been detained has at least forced his country of origin to state why they have listed him as wanted with Interpol. It is because he is suspected of passing a fraudulent document. Their claim is that they have been seeking this man for nine years for suspicion of committing a misdemeanor for which the statute of limitations is three years. Considering the condition of the documents that were passed by that country to our own in regards to Audrius, this claim of being suspected of passing a fraudulent document would be laughable, were it not such a clear indication that it is being used to hide a far less lawful agenda.
There are rumors in our town that Audrius’ wife and her lover turned him in to get rid of him. There is no proof of that, but when he was initially picked up by ICE the deportation officer from the local NH DHS/ICE office that has regular dealings with the prison where Audrius’ wife and her boyfriend work (as a nurse and a prison guard respectfully) stated in his report that he had many documents from Eastern Europe regarding Audrius Kazenas. When Audrius’ friends and neighbors collected enough money to pay for a lawyer so that Audrius was able to have his case heard instead of being immediately deported it turned out that none of the documents listed had actually been obtained. How did this deportation officer know which documents to list when he had done none of the investigation that he claimed? When Audrius was picked up initially one of our local officers who knew the conditions Audrius had been living under told an official at immigration that there was need for further investigation as well as who they should look into. He was assured that would be done, but instead our officer received a call from someone claiming to be from DHS regarding the letter he had written to the court in support of Audrius, questioning his right to write it.
I have collected multiple incidents and statements of this type over the last two years. I have recorded a number of incidents of legal papers and proceedings that contradict each other so radically it is impossible for both to be true. The impression, when seen as a whole, is that it was the intention and expectation of a few individuals that Audrius should be quietly shipped off to his country of origin, never to be seen or heard from again. It appears that these people expected Audrius, a man who had lived in this country for eight and a half years unable to work, not allowed to own anything, would be helpless to defend himself, and he might well have been if he had been a different man. What was left out of that equation was the character of Audrius Kazenas and that character has so far been his salvation despite multiple efforts to use our immigration system to get rid of him. We-the-people do not have the power and resources of a federal agency such as ICE and coming up against that agency has caused some of us, myself especially, a great deal of hardship and suffering, but perhaps the system is not completely ethically bankrupt. So far our efforts have been enough to keep Audrius from being removed. The evidence presented has twice convince an immigration judge that Adrius has valid reason to remain here under the Convention Against Torture. It has not been enough to prevent ICE from continuing to hold this man in a prison, doing hard time for the crime of loving his children and loving and trusting his wife. Whether or not Audrius will be returned home to us where he is loved and greatly missed has yet to be seen. How much of what I have uncovered over two years of investigating will have to be made public has also yet to be seen.
If another Thanksgiving comes with him still in a cell we will be into our third year of this torture. It is agreed by him and those closest to him that he can not and should not be made to endure much more. Even I do not know how this story will end at this point as there has been a degree of aggression directed my way causing me to remove much of the evidence I have uncovered from my direct control and/or possession. I expected that the truth would prevail at some point, that those who sought to remove Audrius from the picture would see that their own interests would be put in jeopardy if they were to succeed at that now, but it seems that we are not dealing with a sentient entity so much as an irrational and vengeful monster bent on annihilating a perceived threat despite all indication that there is no threat except within its own actions. What I have written here is just a tiny portion of this story, what others have asked to know over and over. Who knows, perhaps those working within ICE who now hold his future in their hands will decide that those of us who have witnessed the circumstances of his life and feel he should stay might actually know something. Audrius may be granted his freedom, he may be returned to us so that we can enjoy the coming holidays together, leaving him able to live his remaining years out in peace. Or perhaps not; perhaps instead this insanity will continue and his story will wind up being read by others or watched in the movies after all. We shall see . . .
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