The story of Serkan Bingol’s detention and his family’s search for a new home has spread across the Berkshires. On today’s episode, we’ll speak with Berkshire Eagle reporter Mitchell Chapman about this family's story of separation.
Read the full transcript below:
Lucas Willard: This is WAMC’s Northeast Notebook. I’m Lucas Willard. Days after a devastating fire displaced several people at an apartment building in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, one of the tenants was arrested by ICE.
Mitchell Chapman: He went to Walmart to get a bottle for their baby and he came out and there were four or five ICE agents...
Lucas Willard: The man arrested is a new father. His partner, Tugba, and baby daughter are now attempting to pick up the pieces after they lost their home and dad is being held in ICE custody.
Mitchell Chapman: She said he has a court day, right? In 2029. And ICE did seem to confirm this too, but they're like, "Yeah, that was a decision made under the Biden administration," so it's very unclear what they mean by that.
Lucas Willard: On today’s episode, we’ll speak with the reporter behind this story of family separation. Mitchell Chapman is the night news editor for the Berkshire Eagle. He got the call about the fire at 211 Springside Avenue in Pittsfield on Friday, October 9th.
Mitchell Chapman: And what was unusual about this, is this fire burned for about four hours, right? And we learned later that that’s because there was weak waterflow.
Lucas Willard: After the fire was extinguished, Mitchell visited the scene on Sunday, October 11th. He learned that three of the affected residents were not home at the time of the fire– Tugba Merino and Serkan Bingol, and their nearly five-month-old daughter, Ela. Their dog was rescued by firefighters.
Mitchell Chapman: And you know, I learned about her there from the landlord, right? I knew she wasn't home, and then it was the next week that I saw this GoFundMe circulating, right?
Lucas Willard: The GoFundMe that Mitchell is referring to was launched days after the fire. The fundraiser explains what it calls a heartbreaking situation made even harder. Two days after the fire, Serkan Bingol, a Turkish national, was arrested by ICE.
Mitchell Chapman: Monday, he's working in Albany, New York, and that's when he gets picked up.
Lucas Willard: As Mitchell explains, Serkan was working as a rideshare driver at the time of his arrest.
Mitchell Chapman: He went to Walmart to get a bottle for their baby, and he came out, and there were like four or five ICE agents, and he was arrested there.
Lucas Willard: An ICE spokesperson told Mitchell, Bingol “entered the U.S. at an unknown location and on an unknown date.” He was arrested by border patrol in California in November 2023 and was released. ICE said, in its statement to Mitchell, he was given an appearance notice “as a result of the Biden administration's border policies.” He had an immigration court date set for 2029 and was working with a valid work permit when he was arrested in October.
Mitchell Chapman: He believes it's because of a discrepancy in an address, right? They didn't update their address. They updated their mailing address, but it's unclear if they did that with the immigration authorities.
Lucas Willard: Bingol’s lawyer told Mitchell his client was being held because he didn’t report his new address. The family had only moved to their Pittsfield apartment on September 1st, and had changed their mailing address, but did not update their drivers licenses. In most cases, ICE requires non-citizens to report their address change within 10 days. But Mitchell says ICE did not tell him why Bingol was detained.
Mitchell Chapman: They didn't give me a reason why. I followed up. Have not got a response from ICE. They said that it's targeted, and that's the extent of which they talked to me. They did confirm on Monday that he was still in Batavia in their holding facility there. And Tugba basically believes that ICE is using this as pretext to hold him. You know it's kind of like... if you have full confidence in why you arrested his person, why not say exactly why your arrested him? That's the thing that puzzles me. If he messed up on paperwork, you think you have a case to support him. Okay, put that on the record, right? It's just puzzles me their approach at this point. You know, I understand there's also been a change administration at ICE. But yeah, I don't get it. I really don't get it.
Lucas Willard: The story of Serkan Bingol’s detention and his family’s search for a new home has spread across the Berkshires. The online fundraiser for the family has collected more than $15,000. Mitchell Chapman says the story has brought the national conversation around immigration and justice to a small corner of western Massachusetts.
Mitchell Chapman: I'm a member of the community, right? I live here. You know, I'm not like some person putting this together from halfway across the country, you know? And it's like… these are unfortunately events that are part of the community, and one thing that you do see afterwards is the community does come together. So, it's like I don't think you can tell the story of the Berkshires without telling stories like this.
Lucas Willard: With a lot of unanswered questions, Mitchell says he will continue to follow the case. And there’s another reason why Mitchell feels it’s an important story to tell – even if it is somewhat personally challenging.
Mitchell Chapman: I have to be completely honest. Anybody who sees my work will know this, that I was adopted, and I myself was actually separated from my family. So, like…you want to keep professionalism at all times, right? But it does help when you understand what it was is like, you know, to go through something like that. And yeah, I mean, it's horrible, but you got to keep that professionalism there, right?
Lucas Willard: Mitchell has continued to think about the circumstances surrounding Serkan Bingol's arrest and the October 9th fire since he first wrote his story.
Mitchell Chapman: First of all, let's talk about just fires in general. You're talking to people on the worst day of their lives, right? And then you add this on top, and it's like…even though I have experienced family separation before, and I know a little bit about it more than your average person, right? I can't imagine what it's like to go through those two things at once. Rebuilding your life from the fire, and the funds from the GoFundMe are, you know, they have to do double duty, to kind of help them get a new place and replace possessions, but also to help get Serkan out of ICE custody. And plus, you have this five-month-old child who is very young, and she doesn't have the support of the father right now because he's in ICE custody, you know. And it's just extraordinarily horrible circumstances to be in. When somebody in your community that is related to somebody you may know, and a lot of people did know Tugba because, again, she worked as a preschool teacher here for like 10 years, so there's a lot of families that know her, right? Then, a lot of those things start to hit home, and it helps humanize a lot of these you know conflicts, I guess, and news developments. So, this was a very difficult story, and it is a very difficult story, you know. And you know, I think the challenge as a reporter is - we hear all sides out right, maintain professionalism, and try not to get too overwhelmed by the stakes of it, right? But it's like...the same reasons that make this difficult, it's also what makes stories like this important.
Lucas Willard: Northeast Notebook is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio. Our editor is Diane DeVore. Original music by Eduardo Rivera. You can subscribe to Northeast Notebook on your favorite podcast app. We'd also appreciate it if you left a review. It helps other find the show. This episode was produced by me, Lucas Willard. Thanks for listening.
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