Juan Garcia Mosqueda of Chamber Gallery, a legal resident, issued an open letter detailing his experience Juan Garcia Mosqueda, founder of New York art and design gallery Chamber and a decade-long legal permanent resident of the U.S., was detained last Friday at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City and was sent back to his native Argentina, ahead of his gallery?s new show?Domestic Appeal, Part III?which opens tonight.
In an open letter titled The Visible Wall released by Mosqueda on Tuesday, he called the experience ?dehumanizing and degrading,? and detailed his 36-hours-long detainment, questioning, and return to Buenos Aires.
The reaction from the design community was swift and impassioned. Posting Mosqueda?s open letter on Tuesday, Sight Unseen wrote: ?We are strongly against this administration?s unfair and un-American targeting of immigrants?and not just those who are important design gallerists, but all those who seek to make a better life here.? Designers, journalists, and other supporters took to Twitter to rally behind Mosqueda and decry his alleged treatment.

Tragically this can happen to anyone today...legal immigrant's like Juan Garcia Mosqueda is what made America great, but not anymore" https://t.co/vKikZZJ2ab? Yves Behar (@yvesbehar) March 1, 2017

Wow - what a way to treat Juan Garcia Mosqueda, a grad of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago @saic_news, and a NYC resident. https://t.co/1iGTSQIa4L? Kris Olds (@GlobalHig...