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Immigrants face detentions, few rights
2009-03-15
America's detention system for immigrants has mushroomed in the last decade, a costly building boom that was supposed to sweep up criminals and ensure that undocumented immigrants were quickly shown the door. Muzi.com News 10089194-1 (muzi.com)Instead, an Associated Press computer analysis of every person being held on a recent Sunday night shows that most did not have a criminal record and many were not about to leave the country -- voluntarily or via deportation. Muzi.com News 10089194-2 (muzi.com) An official Immigration and Customs Enforcement database, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, showed a U.S. detainee population of exactly 32,000 on the evening of Jan. 25. Muzi.com News 10089194-3 (muzi.com) The data show that 18,690 immigrants had no criminal conviction, not even for illegal entry or low-level crimes like trespassing. More than 400 of those with no criminal record had been incarcerated for at least a year. A dozen had been held for three years or more; one man from China had been locked up for more than five years. Muzi.com News 10089194-4 (muzi.com) Nearly 10,000 had been in custody longer than 31 days -- the average detention stay that ICE cites as evidence of its effective detention management. Muzi.com News 10089194-5 (muzi.com) Especially tough bail conditions are exacerbated by disregard or bending of the rules regarding how long immigrants can be detained. Muzi.com News 10089194-6 (muzi.com) Based on a 2001 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court, ICE has about six months to deport or release immigrants after their case is decided. But immigration lawyers say that deadline is routinely missed. In the system snapshot provided to the AP, 950 people were in that category. Muzi.com News 10089194-7 (muzi.com) The detainee buildup began in the mid 1990s, long before the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Since 2003, though, Congress has doubled to $1.7 billion the amount dedicated to imprisoning immigrants, as furor over "criminal aliens" intertwined with post-9/11 fears and anti-immigrant political rhetoric. Muzi.com News 10089194-8 (muzi.com) But the dragnet has come to include not only terrorism suspects and cop killers, but an honors student who was raised in Orlando, Fla.; a convenience store clerk who begged to go back to Canada; and a Pentecostal minister who was forcibly drugged by ICE agents after he asked to contact his wife, according to court records. Muzi.com News 10089194-9 (muzi.com) Immigration lawyers note that substantial numbers of detainees, from 177 countries in the data provided, are not illegal immigrants at all. Many of the longest-term non-criminal detainees are asylum seekers fighting to stay here because they fear being killed in their home country. Others are longtime residents who may be eligible to stay under other criteria, or whose applications for permanent residency were lost or mishandled, the lawyers say. Muzi.com News 10089194-10 (muzi.com) Still other long-term detainees include people who can't be deported because their home country won't accept them or people who seemingly have been forgotten in the behemoth system, where 58 percent have no lawyers or anyone else advocating on their behalf. Muzi.com News 10089194-11 (muzi.com) ___ Muzi.com News 10089194-12 (muzi.com) ICE says detention is the best way to guarantee that immigrants attend court hearings and leave the country when ordered. Muzi.com News 10089194-13 (muzi.com) "It's ensuring compliance, and if you look at the stats, for folks who are in detention, the stats are pretty darn high," said ICE spokeswoman Cori Bassett. Muzi.com News 10089194-14 (muzi.com) By comparison though, most criminal suspects, even sometimes those accused of heinous offenses, are entitled to bail. Muzi.com News 10089194-15 (muzi.com) For detainees, ICE agents make an initial determination whether someone is eligible for bond. Federal law says most criminals, some asylum seekers, arriving immigrants who have problems with their documentation and those recently ordered removed from the country must remain in detention. Muzi.com News 10089194-16 (muzi.com) "We're immigrants, and it makes it seem like it's worse than a criminal," said Sarjina Emy, a 20-year-old former honors student who spent nearly two years in a Florida lockup because her parents' asylum claim was denied when she was a child. "I always thought America does so much for justice. I really thought you get a fair trial. You actually go to court. (U.S. authorities) know what they are doing. Now, I figured out that it only works for criminal citizens." Muzi.com News 10089194-17 (muzi.com) Some advocates and lawyers complain that ICE often stretches the definition of non-bondable categories to keep immigrants in custody. Immigrants can appeal adverse determinations, but while their claim works through the court system, they remain jailed. Muzi.com News 10089194-18 (muzi.com) For example, Zoubir Bouchikhi, an Algerian imam who has lived legally in the United States for 11 years, said by phone from a Houston detention center that he was placed in custody early this year and classified as "an arriving alien," making him ineligible for bail. A homeowner with several U.S.-born children, Bouchikhi said he last entered the United States in 2006, on a legal visa. Muzi.com News 10089194-19 (muzi.com) The use of detention to ensure immigrants show up for immigration court comes at a high cost compared to alternatives like electronic ankle monitoring, which can track people for considerably less money per day. Muzi.com News 10089194-20 (muzi.com) Based on the amount budgeted for this fiscal year, U.S. taxpayers will pay about $141 a night -- the equivalent of a decent hotel room -- for each immigrant detained, even though paroling them on ankle monitors -- at a budgeted average daily cost of $13 -- has an almost perfect compliance rate, according to ICE's own stats. Muzi.com News 10089194-21 (muzi.com) Critics argue that since the immigration court system lacks the constitutional protections granted accused murderers and rapists, taxpayers are grossly overspending for a system that is inhumane and unfair. Muzi.com News 10089194-22 (muzi.com) "This is not an economically rational way of ensuring people show up, and it doesn't further justice," said Judy Rabinovitz of the American Civil Liberties Union's Immigrants Rights Project. Muzi.com News 10089194-23 (muzi.com) ___ Muzi.com News 10089194-24 (muzi.com) For years, ICE and its predecessor, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, had the power to detain immigrants. With little bed space or public clamor to lock people up, though, millions of foreigners quietly went about life in the United States. Muzi.com News 10089194-25 (muzi.com) In 1996, Congress passed a pair of laws requiring that immigrants who committed crimes be locked up for deportation, beginning a dramatic run-up in incarcerations. So-called "criminal aliens" -- immigrants convicted of a crime, including some misdemeanors like low-level drug crimes -- became mandatory detainees even if their original crime brought no prison time. Muzi.com News 10089194-26 (muzi.com) A system that housed 6,785 immigrants in 1994 now holds nearly five times that amount in 260 facilities across the country, most under contract with local governments or private companies. For this fiscal year, ICE has enough money budgeted for 33,400 people on any given night. Muzi.com News 10089194-27 (muzi.com) Groups that advocate limits on immigration see no problem with the growing use of incarceration, which they say is a deterrent. Muzi.com News 10089194-28 (muzi.com) "Just because you haven't committed a crime doesn't mean that you shouldn't be held in detention until you can be deported," said Ira Mehlman, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform. Even though not every illegal immigrant can be held, "if you bust a certain amount, it sends a message." Muzi.com News 10089194-29 (muzi.com) The message hasn't resonated with Emy, who was raised in Orlando, Fla., but spent 20 months in a detention center even though she had no criminal record. She traded her Baby Phat clothes for a gray uniform and window-shopping at the mall for a law library behind razor wire. Muzi.com News 10089194-30 (muzi.com) Her only crime? Her parents, who feared her father's political affiliations endangered the family, brought her and two brothers to the United States from Bangladesh in September 2003 -- when she was 5, according to court documents. Muzi.com News 10089194-31 (muzi.com) She doesn't speak Bangla and never imagined a future without college. No one in her family realized her father's work certificate from the Labor Department didn't equate to legal immigration status. Muzi.com News 10089194-32 (muzi.com) Family members were rounded up in July 2007, treated as fugitives on a dated but active deportation order. Muzi.com News 10089194-33 (muzi.com) Her parents were deported first. Emy languished in custody while continuing her fight to stay. Muzi.com News 10089194-34 (muzi.com) But because the asylum application had been filed on behalf of the entire family, only the parents got a hearing. Emy never saw a judge, according to Emy and her attorney. Muzi.com News 10089194-35 (muzi.com) "Justice is not being served," she said from a prison pay phone. Muzi.com News 10089194-36 (muzi.com) In January, a federal appeals court denied her petition to stay in the U.S. Fearing she'd celebrate another birthday behind bars, Emy agreed to be deported and left the country Feb. 18. Muzi.com News 10089194-37 (muzi.com) Immigration law "is the only United States law where we punish the children for the actions of their parents," said Emy's attorney, Petia Vimitrova Knowles. Muzi.com News 10089194-38 (muzi.com) ___ Muzi.com News 10089194-39 (muzi.com)
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