Iryna Gorb, a Ukrainian immigrant who was violently arrested by ICE at SFO in July and held for seven weeks, is selling drawings she made in detention to raise money for women she met there who are still fighting to get out.
Gorb recently displayed more than two dozen drawings at an art show on Nob Hill, in her first exhibition about her time at California City Immigration Processing Center, as the Chronicle reports. Titled “Don’t Forget About Us,” the show depicts the women she met inside, along with details of daily life at the facility, including pay phones, food trays, tablet checkouts, and dingy showers.
Gorb, who immigrated from Ukraine over a decade ago, was violently arrested by federal immigration agents at SFO in July, as SFist reported at the time. She was taken to California City, in the Mojave Desert, where other detainees helped her adjust to life inside. After seven weeks, she was reportedly released on an $8,000 bond, but her immigration case is ongoing.
According to the Chronicle, Gorb has continued supporting women who remain detained since her release, sending money to their commissary accounts and phone cards while raising funds to help cover legal costs and bonds.
Her artwork has also reportedly become a way to share the experiences of people who remain inside. One woman who was detained in the same facility, and whose cell block was next to Gorb’s, shared several of the drawings on social media, describing them as a powerful record of life in confinement and the connections detainees formed with one another.
The woman said Gorb had offered her advice that changed how she approached detention: “The only thing we can control is our mind.” She said the words helped her feel calmer during her stay in a place she described as “built to break your soul.”
Gorb plans to take the exhibition to other locations around the Bay Area over the coming months, per the Chronicle. In announcing the show, she asked people who wanted to mark her September birthday with a gift to contribute to the fundraiser for the women she calls “her girls.”
Donations are intended to help detainees pay for phone access, commissary items, legal consultations, and other immigration expenses.
Previously: Ukrainian Woman Forcibly Arrested By ICE at SFO Released After Seven Weeks In Detention
