On March 18, 2009,
President Barack
Obama said the
United States is a
nation of immigrants
but the country must
have control over
its borders.
Speaking at a town
hall meeting in in
Costa Mesa, southern
California, Obama
said immigration is
a high emotional
issue that cannot be
dealt with in
pieces. He says he
wants to work with
leaders in Congress
and in Mexico to
come up with a
comprehensive plan.
Obama says it's
important for
longtime
undocumented
immigrants to have a
path to citizenship
so they can join
unions and get
protection from
employers who
exploit them. He
says those
undocumented
immigrants could
earn U.S.
citizenship if they
pay a fine and learn
English.
Obama says residents
who have put down
roots should be able
to come out of
hiding.
To come out of
hiding to be
arrested by
Napolitano's ICE?
Evidently,
Napolitano did not
receive the Obama
memo: immigration is
a high emotion issue
that cannot be dealt
with in pieces. What
is needed is
Comprehensive
Immigration Reform
legislation.
Jailed Without
Justice: ICE
Immigration
Detention in the USA
On March 25, 2009,
Amnesty
International issued
a report exposing
the human rights
scandal immigration
has become.
"Tens of thousands
of people languish
in immigration
detention facilities
every year without
receiving a hearing
to determine whether
their detention is
warranted," said the
report, titled "Jailed
Without Justice:
Immigration
Detention in the USA."
The report reveals
the human rights
violations
associated with the
dramatic increase in
the use of detention
as an immigration
enforcement
mechanism.
The number of people
in detention has
increased
exponentially in the
last 10 years ― to
about 300,000
annually, the report
says.
On any given day,
there were more than
30,000 people in
custody in 2008, and
the number is bound
to go up in 2009,
the report says.
Confined in prison
facilities,
detainees are held
under civil
immigration laws,
under which they are
neither accused nor
convicted of a
crime. Conditions
are often deplorable
and detainees are
routinely denied due
process the report
said.
With no right to
counsel, they are
often subject to
mandatory detention
without the right to
judicial review, and
face challenges in
their use of habeas
corpus.
With the release of
the report, Amnesty
International
launched a campaign
to protect the human
rights of
immigrants.
"Immigrants,
especially
Hispanics, have
become the boogey
man, the new
whipping boy," said
Rosa Clemente,
Amnesty's campaign
director for human
rights. "Right now,
we are focusing on
the report, but the
campaign will deal
with immigration
reform, immigrant
rights, all the
issues around
immigrants."
Clemente said
Amnesty had drafted
a letter to Homeland
Security Secretary
Janet Napolitano
about the abuses in
detention centers.
"This cannot wait.
This is a situation
that should be taken
care of
immediately," she
said.
It's the second
major human rights
report in a week to
indict the nation's
immigration
detention system.
The system is
attracting increased
attention in part
because the number
of people in
detention has grown
exponentially in
recent years and in
part because of
dozens of in-custody
deaths and a lawsuit
over the treatment
of children.
Those detained
include the
documented and the
undocumented, asylum
seekers, trafficking
victims, children
and even U.S.
citizens
people like
37-year-old Hector
Veloz, a resident of
Los Angeles.
"My case was so
ironic," said Veloz.
"I am a U.S.
citizen, but was
held for 13 months
and placed on
deportation
procedure. Because
the prison is in
Arizona and my
family lives in
California, I didn't
see my son Geronimo
even once in those
13 months."
Veloz's father is a
U.S. citizen, a
Vietnam vet who was
awarded a Purple
Heart. His mother is
an immigrant from
Mexico. The couple
met in the U.S., but
when his father was
shipped out to the
war, his expectant
mother returned to
Mexico for support,
where Veloz was
born.
She came back to the
U.S. with the
4-month-old Hector
and he grew up in
California living at
home with both
parents.
Hector Veloz was
detained by
Immigration and
Customs Enforcement
after serving a
six-month-jail
sentence for
receiving stolen
property. Released
on parole, Veloz was
picked up by ICE the
day of his release
and flown straight
to the Eloy
Detention Center in
Arizona, where he
remained from June
2007 to July 2008.
The detention center
is one of several
operated by the
profitable
Corrections
Corporation of
America, the largest
private corrections
company in the U.S.
"I showed them my
birth certificate
and that of my
father, my parents'
marriage
certificate. But
they wanted more
proof and kept
processing me for
deportation, even if
none of my
documentation was
ever contested,"
said Veloz.
ICE said Veloz had
entered the country
illegally. Veloz
appealed and finally
was released.
"It was a terrible
prison," he said.
The Amnesty
International
report, "Jailed
Without Justice:
Immigration
Detention in the USA,"
noted a variety of
concerns over due
process and the
conditions of
detention:
People in
immigration custody
don't have the same
guarantees as
criminal detainees
to challenge their
detention before a
court, make a phone
call or obtain legal
representation.
Detainees
can be transferred
from one facility to
another, sometimes
in another state,
with no notice given
to their families or
attorneys.
Two-thirds
of people in federal
immigration custody
are housed in state
or county detention
facilities, usually
alongside criminal
detainees, even
though violations of
immigration law are
considered
administrative, not
criminal, and asylum
seekers have
committed no
violation.
Immigrants
are subject to
excessive use of
restraints such as
handcuffs, waist
chains and leg
restraints.
"In the criminal
justice system,
anyone arrested is
assumed innocent,
but in the
immigration system,
they're put in
detention, and then
it's the
individual's burden
to prove they
shouldn't be
detained," said
Sarnata Reynolds, an
author of the
report. "That's why
you'll see long
periods of
detention, because
it's an incredibly
high burden."
"Absent
congressional
authorization, you
cannot use
immigration laws to
lock up a citizen,"
she said. "And this
is not unusual.
People have
legitimate claims to
citizenship, and
they inform ICE, yet
there's no formal
procedure to figure
out what to do with
these folks. These
cases are violation
of the immigrants'
constitutional right
to due process."
Both the Amnesty
report and a study
released last week
by Human Rights
Watch faulted ICE
for failing to
provide adequate
medical and mental
health treatment to
detainees. Human
Rights Watch, which
focused on women's
access to health
care, emphasized
problems with
prenatal care and
care for survivors
of sexual violence.
Since 2003, 90
people have died in
immigration custody,
according to Schriro
of Homeland
Security.
Immigration
authorities last
year pointed out the
death rate in
immigration
detention is a small
fraction of that in
other U.S. jails and
prisons.
A 2007 lawsuit over
the treatment of
children in
immigration custody
led to improvements
in the conditions at
a private Texas
prison where
families are held.
The ICE raids
continue
Homeland
Security
Secretary Janet
Napolitano did
not even know
anything about
the first ICE
raid.
The Obama administration is demanding answers from local immigration-enforcement agents who raided an engine plant in Bellingham, arrested 28 illegal immigrant workers and began the process to deport them.The work-site raid at Yamato Engine Specialists by agents of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on February 24 was the first since President Obama took office.
The ICE raids not only continue across the United States but they are being accelerated.
Is Mexico a failed state?
