Author Archives: monica

Artesia FOIA Lawsuit

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 21, 2014

CONTACT
Adela de la Torre, 213-400-7822, [email protected]
Wendy Feliz, American Immigration Council, 202-507-7524, [email protected]
Inga Sarda-Sorensen, American Civil Liberties Union, 212-549-2666, [email protected]

Immigrant Rights Advocates Sue in Effort to Reveal Policies and Procedures at Artesia Family Detention Facility

LOS ANGELES — Immigrant rights advocates today filed Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) litigation to compel the release of documents regarding the federal government’s use of the expedited removal process against families with children, including those detained at the government’s family detention center in Artesia, New Mexico.

To date, the government has not publicly released critical information about the policies and procedures governing its operations at the Artesia facility, despite the potentially life-threatening consequences for the women and children detained there. It is particularly urgent that the government make these policies and procedures publicly known, given that it has opened another family detention center in Texas and has announced plans to open a massive 2,400-bed family detention facility, also in Texas.

The American Immigration Council, National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild, the American Civil Liberties Union and co-counsel, the National Immigration Law Center and Jenner & Block, LLP, brought this litigation after the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) failed to respond in a timely manner to their FOIA request.

In June, DHS opened a remote, makeshift detention facility in Artesia to detain women and children who are fleeing violence in Central America. On August 22, the same groups, in coalition with others, filedlitigation challenging the validity of the expedited removal process in Artesia. With this new FOIA suit, the groups are trying to shed light on a broad range of new government policies regarding the detention and deportation of families amidst a stunning increase in family detention under the Obama administration.

“Over the past several months, the Obama administration has overseen a dramatic increase in its practice of locking up mothers and children, with very little public explanation of this change in policies,” said Melissa Keaney, staff attorney for the National Immigration Law Center. “Before they open the biggest family detention facility yet, federal officials should explain why they’ve decided to place toddlers and their mothers behind barbed wire and then whisk them back to the dangerous situations they fled.”

“Lawyers representing clients in Artesia report that the processes are anything but fair and fall far short of the government’s obligations to provide due process,” said Melissa Crow, legal director of the American Immigration Council. “Compounding these injustices is DHS’s refusal to provide basic information about the policies and procedures that apply in these cases.”

“The American people have a right to know the truth about what is happening at Artesia,” said Cecillia Wang, director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project. “We already know that the government is turning its back on the life-threatening risks these mothers and children will face if they are returned to Central America. But the government is still keeping its new processes for detaining and deporting these families a secret. This lawless lack of transparency will cost lives. It’s time for the government to come clean.”

“With the administration poised to expand expedited removal processing in more detention centers, it is difficult to understand the rationale behind the government’s decision to refuse our requests for more information about its own procedures,” said Paromita Shah, associate director of the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild. “This lack of transparency sends a strong signal to the world that the U.S. government is abandoning its obligations to provide detained families with children a meaningful opportunity to present their claims.”

The complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. A copy is available athttp://nilc.org/document.html?id=1152.

More information about Artesia-related litigation is available atwww.nilc.org/artesialawsuit.html.

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Haitian Family Reunification Announcement

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 17, 2014

CONTACT
Adela de la Torre, [email protected], 213-400-7822

Administration Announcement to Speed Haitian Family Reunification a Good First Step

Obama must do more to end years-long backlog for Haitian families still reeling from devastating earthquake

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration announced today that some Haitian family members stuck in the 12 year visa processing backlog would be able to join their families in the United States two years before their current approved entry date. This move could benefit several thousand Haitians who, in the aftermath of one of the world’s deadliest earthquakes, have faced increasingly dire situations while waiting to be reunited with their families. Below is a statement from Marielena Hincapié, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center:

“Today’s announcement rightly recognizes that the United States can and should do more to ensure that Haitian families aren’t being forced to wait endlessly to be reunited with their loved ones. This is an important first step toward the policy solution Haitian-American and immigrants’ rights advocates have long called for: a robust Haitian family reunification parole program that ends the family reunification wait for up to 160,000 Haitians.

“Such a program has been used effectively in our recent past: Cuban entrants have benefitted from a similar program since 2007. Furthermore, doing the right thing for Haiti and Haitian families enjoys bipartisan support and has been recommended by more than 100 members of Congress.

“Nearly five years after the devastating earthquake in Port-au-Prince, today’s announcement is welcome news. This victory comes after years of hard work and inspiring advocacy by the Haitian community in the United States, and their incredible work will change the lives of the thousands of people impacted by this policy change. President Obama should build upon this welcome news by delivering on his promise to enact bold administrative relief that would help keep Haitian immigrant families — and all immigrant families — together.”

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Alabama “Scarlet Letter” Case Settled

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 10, 2014

CONTACT
Adela de la Torre, National Immigration Law Center (NILC), 213-400-7822, [email protected]
Rebecca Sturtevant, Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), 802-598-6445,[email protected]
Inga Sarda-Sorensen, American Civil Liberties Union, 212-549-2666, [email protected]

Civil Rights Coalition Victorious in Challenge to Alabama’s Anti-Immigrant “Scarlet Letter” Law

Agreement blocks final provisions of anti-immigrant law, HB 56, challenged in courts

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Alabama will not publish a list of purportedly “unlawfully present” immigrants, according to an agreement announced today by civil rights groups that had sued to block publication on the grounds that it would violate individuals’ due process rights and exceed the state’s authority.

The agreement is pending final approval by the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama Northern Division. If approved, it will block the final provision of Alabama’s anti-immigrant law that has been challenged in court. The law, commonly known as HB 56, has been largely eviscerated by legal challenges from the groups, which include the National Immigration Law Center (NILC), the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), the American Civil Liberties Union, and the American Civil Liberties Union of Alabama Foundation.

“This is yet another victory for Alabama’s immigrant community,” said Sam Brooke, SPLC staff attorney. “Blocking this final vestige of HB 56 is another nail in the coffin for Alabama’s misguided attempt to bully and intimidate immigrants. But even with this victory, meaningful immigration reform is still critically needed. We call on Congress to fix our nation’s broken immigration system, rather than blocking reform under the empty promise that it will be addressed ‘next year.’”

The law provided no notice to people that their name and information would be posted online. It also failed to provide any means for people to remove their names or change their information if the listing was inaccurate or if their immigration status changed – even if they became citizens.

This approach to immigration status is particularly problematic because, through the federal immigration system and immigration court, an individual’s immigration and citizenship status is fluid in nature and can change over time. The law did not accommodate this fluid nature in any way.

The agreement will require the state to institute a policy that bars the publication of any list naming people allegedly “unlawfully present” in Alabama. The agreement also requires that any immigration information collected by the state through the Administrative Office of the Courts be kept strictly confidential.

The groups filed the February 2013 lawsuit on behalf of four Latino immigrants arrested for fishing without a license – a misdemeanor offense. Under HB 56, their names, along with the names of other individuals the state deemed “unlawfully present,” would have been included on a list to be published on a public website. The provision was commonly referred to as the “Scarlet Letter” law.

“Alabama has finally recognized that shaming immigrants isn’t just morally repugnant, it’s constitutionally risky,” said Nora Preciado, staff attorney of the National Immigration Law Center. “We’re pleased the state decided to finally close this ugly chapter in its legal history.”

The law required the posting of private information that the federal government has declared confidential and not subject to public disclosure. A person’s name could be added to the list even if they were unlawfully arrested or their case was later dismissed.

“This Scarlet Letter database made a mockery of the presumption of innocence and our basic civil liberties. It was a no-brainer that this mean-spirited and unconstitutional law could not stand,” said Cecillia Wang, director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project.

In October 2013, the coalition reached an agreement with Alabama that permanently blocked other key provisions of its anti-immigrant law. The defense of this unconstitutional law has cost the state hundreds of thousands of dollars just to pay the winning plaintiffs’ attorneys’ fees. The overall defense will likely cost millions of taxpayer dollars.

Attorneys on the case include Kristi L. Graunke and Samuel Brooke for the SPLC; Linton Joaquin, Karen C. Tumlin and Nora A. Preciado for the NILC; Justin B. Cox, Cecillia D. Wang, and Omar C. Jadwat for the American Civil Liberties Union; and Randall Marshall, legal director, and Freddy Rubio, cooperating attorney, for the American Civil Liberties Union of Alabama Foundation.

A copy of the joint motion to dismiss is available atwww.nilc.org/document.html?id=1148. The settlement agreement is available at www.nilc.org/document.html?id=1149.

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Families Losing Health Coverage

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 30, 2014

CONTACT
Adela de la Torre, 213-400-7822, [email protected]

As Families Lose Health Coverage, Groups File Complaints and Attempt to Find Out Why

National Immigration Law Center and others fear eligible families were unaware of immigration or citizenship data inconsistencies in their applications

LOS ANGELES — After months of missteps and technological glitches, eligible immigrant families may lose their health insurance coverage tomorrow, advocates say, and they don’t know why.

Attorneys with the National Immigration Law Center and the law firm Holland & Knight joined advocates in Pennsylvania and Illinois to fileadministrative complaints contending that recent notices of termination of insurance were sent only in English or Spanish, violating the antidiscrimination provisions of the Affordable Care Act. The National Immigration Law Center and Holland & Knight also filed a Freedom of Information Act request to learn more about the 115,000 people who bought health coverage but earlier this month were notified that they had not provided sufficient proof of their immigration or citizenship status and that therefore their coverage would be terminated on September 30.

Many of these immigrant families have fought verification challenges for months, submitting paperwork proving their eligibility several times. Furthermore, the health care termination notices were sent only in English or Spanish, which leaves immigrant families from Europe, Asia, and parts of Africa particularly vulnerable to losing health coverage they need.

“The language you speak, the money in your pocket, or your zip code shouldn’t determine whether or not you have access to affordable health care,” said Marielena Hincapié, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center. “Unfortunately, these factors will result in a loss of coverage for immigrant families who don’t speak English or Spanish and did not receive meaningful notice from the federal government. We will continue to fight to ensure that these people aren’t living one accident or illness away from bankruptcy.”

The Freedom of Information Act request seeks information about how the 115,000 termination notices were sent, open rates for termination notices sent electronically, and information about whether those notified of health coverage termination had previously indicated that they prefer to receive information in a language other than English or Spanish.

“Part of what makes this problem so discouraging to consumers is that it was completely preventable: had the Marketplace communicated with consumers in a language they understand, many of the families would have been able to realize the urgency of these notices and respond promptly,” said Thoai Nguyen, CEO of Southeast Asian Mutual Assistance Associations Coalition, which assisted Asian immigrants with their health insurance applications. “It is very important for the Marketplace to collect better data on the preferred languages of consumers and commit to translating notices and announcements in their primary languages or coordinate with community-based organizations to assist with consumers whose English proficiency is limited.”

Health and Human Services officials have struggled for months to verify the immigration or citizenship status for many who bought insurance under Obamacare. In August, the department sent notices to more than 300,000 families informing them that they needed to resubmit information verifying their eligibility to purchase health insurance through the federal Marketplace. According to advocates, many of these individuals had already submitted paperwork several times, causing growing frustration for health care applicants.

“We don’t know what happened to the immigration documents we helped customers to file over several months, and many of our clients fear that their information was simply misplaced,” said Luvia Quiñones, health policy director at the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, which filed the administrative complaint in Illinois. “For months, we felt like we were simply sending these documents into a bureaucratic black hole.”

Still, according to health officials, the vast majority of applicants who submitted paperwork before the September 5 deadline proved to be eligible to buy health insurance. Advocates believe that many of the remaining 115,000 who did not respond to governmental requests for additional paperwork are also eligible for Obamacare, but they may have been unaware of a need to file additional information to keep their coverage because either they had already submitted information in the past or they got notices only in a language they could not understand.

The Freedom of Information Act request and administrative complaints are available at www.nilc.org/healthcarelitig.html.

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ICE to Open New Family Detention Center

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 23, 2014

CONTACT
Adela de la Torre, NILC, 213-400-7822, [email protected]

Plans To Open Massive Family Detention Facility Show Anything But Compassion

National Immigration Law Center decries expansion of family detention in Texas

WASHINGTON — Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) authorities announced today that they intend to open a 2,400 bed immigrant detention facility designed to lock up mothers and their children. This facility would represent a dramatic increase in family detention as well as a reversal of the Obama administration’s earlier policies to avoid detaining children and families.

Below is a statement from Marielena Hincapié, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center. Hincapié visited the Artesia, NM, family detention facility in July 2014, where she interviewed women who had been detained with their children for several weeks. The Artesia detention facility was created earlier this year to house women and children fleeing violence in Central America.

“No child should be locked up behind barbed wire. No parent should have to live the nightmare of spending time with her daughter in ICE detention. Sadly, this practice will become more common for mothers and children fleeing violence in Central America, now that the government has announced it will dramatically increase the number of families they intend to put behind bars.

“Today’s news is merely the latest disappointing announcement from an administration that has promised to uphold basic rights, only to trample upon them when it is politically expedient to do so. As we have seen in the Artesia detention center, the physical and psychological damage children incur when they are jailed in this fashion is impossible to overstate. The scars will be long-lasting. To subject a greater number of children and their parents to similar detention standards and practices is, simply put, unconscionable and extremely costly.

“We will continue to advocate for due process rights of detained Central American women and children in our communities, with Congress, and, if necessary, in the court room.”

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Obama Delays Action on Immigration

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 6, 2014

CONTACT
Adela de la Torre, NILC, 213-400-7822, [email protected]

President Puts Politics of Fear Over Sound Policy

Decision to delay executive action on immigration will tear more families apart, hurt the economy

WASHINGTON — Several major media outlets have reported that President Obama will delay making any decisions about changing immigration policy until after the November 2014 elections. This is a stark reversal from the June 30 promise he made in the Rose Garden, when he stated that, once he’d reviewed recommendations from the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice at the end of the summer, he would “adopt those recommendations without further delay.”

This decision, though not unexpected, was widely discouraged by advocates, who sent a letter to the president signed by more than 180 Latino and Asian American groups, along with labor, faith, and immigrants’ rights organizations, to encourage him to act without delay. Below is a statement from Marielena Hincapié, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center:

“Today, President Obama let the politics of fear get in the way of standing up for justice and fairness. It is ironic that at a moment when immigrant, Latino, and Asian American communities have shown their strength — at the ballot box, at the workplace, and in their communities — the president has chosen to stand instead with politicians and others who would prefer a short-term political gain instead of doing what is right and what will have the greatest long-term benefits.

“The president’s decision to delay any action will only allow our dysfunctional immigration system to continue to devastate families, communities, and our economy. The Obama administration now shares blame for this devastation: The president has noted that his staff have already provided recommendations that could prevent further separation of families and remove the threat of deportation, leaving the choice entirely up to him.

“Although immigration reform voters and the communities they represent are deeply disappointed today, we will not back down. We will continue to fight for policies and laws that allow all aspiring Americans, regardless of economic status, to live fully and freely in this country. We hope President Obama’s disappointing detour from the path to justice is short, and that he joins us on this fight soon. While many immigrants will find it hard to believe that the president will indeed follow through on executive action before the end of the year, the National Immigration Law Center remains steadfast in advocating for administrative reforms that we know will be life-changing for immigrant families and communities, and good for our country.”

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Obamacare September 5 Deadline

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 5, 2014

CONTACT
Adela de la Torre, 213-400-7822, [email protected]

Hundreds of Thousands Risk Losing Health Coverage

Advocates say immigrants were not properly informed of need for additional verification

WASHINGTON — More than 200,000 families must submit additional information to the government by the end of the day today to verify their immigration or citizenship status. Failure to do so could cut off the coverage they purchased on federal health insurance exchanges.

This new deadline is the latest in a series of governmental gaffes over the online application system, identity verification, language access, and enrollment hurdles, and advocates are calling upon the government to keep families from losing coverage while people update their information. Below is a statement from Jenny Rejeske, health policy analyst for the National Immigration Law Center:

“Immigrant families overcame many logistical and technological challenges to enroll themselves and their families in affordable health coverage through the federal exchanges. Their actions are good for everyone: when more people have access to health coverage, everybody’s health improves.

“But some logistical and technological problems have not yet been fixed, and the federal government has failed to provide adequate notice to people who speak languages other than English or Spanish. Too many people have complied with the requests to submit more information but still are told there are problems. And too many are still unaware of what they need to do to avoid losing their health insurance because of the government’s failure to communicate with them in a language they can understand.

“That’s why it’s so befuddling that the government has threatened to stop coverage for so many people when it hasn’t fully fixed its own systems. These actions are irresponsible and harmful, and detract from the central promise of Obamacare.

“Immigrant families who received a notice to submit additional information should know that it’s not too late to send in their information. We urge the administration to work with families and advocates to collect the information they need without cutting people out of coverage. However, the government shouldn’t impose such draconian measures upon people who overcame challenge after challenge to enroll, and whom the government’s system is still failing.”

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Immigration Law Professors’ Letter to Obama

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 3, 2014

CONTACT
Adela de la Torre, NILC, 213-400-7822, [email protected]
Wendy Feliz, American Immigration Council, 202-507-7524, [email protected]

136 Leading Experts on Immigration Law Agree: President Has Legal Authority to Expand Relief to Immigrants

WASHINGTON — U.S. law professors sent a letter today to the White House stating that President Obama has wide legal authority to make needed changes to immigration enforcement policy. The president is considering how to use his authority to mitigate the damage caused by our dysfunctional immigration system and protect certain individuals from deportation.

The letter was written by Stephen H. Legomsky, John S. Lehmann University Professor at Washington University School of Law and former U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Chief Counsel; Hiroshi Motomura, Susan Westerberg Prager Professor at UCLA School of Law; and Shoba Sivaprasad Wadhia, Samuel Weiss Faculty Scholar at Penn State Law. It was signed by professors from 32 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.

“As part of the administration’s legal team that ironed out the details of DACA, I can personally attest that we took pains to make sure the program meticulously satisfied every conceivable legal requirement,” said Legomsky. “In this letter, 136 law professors who specialize in immigration reach the same conclusion and explain why similar programs would be equally lawful.” (DACA is the acronym for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, the program the president initiated in June 2012.)

In their letter, the law professors point out that “The administration has the legal authority to use prosecutorial discretion as a tool for managing resources and protecting individuals residing in and contributing to the United States in meaningful ways.” The letter goes on to explain that presidents from both parties have used prosecutorial discretion to prevent specific, and often large, groups of immigrants from being deported.

“Our letter confirms that the administration has specific legal authority to use prosecutorial discretion as a tool for protecting an individual or group from deportation,” said Wadhia. “This legal authority served as foundation for prosecutorial discretion policy across several administrations. Historically, this policy has been premised on the twin policy goals of managing limited resources and shielding people with compelling situations from removal.”

This is the second major letter about prosecutorial discretion that law professors have sent to President Obama. The first letter, sent in 2012, outlined the legal argument for expanded administrative relief, which later became the blueprint for the president’s DACA program. That program allows qualifying noncitizens who came to the United States as children to apply for relief from deportation and work authorization.

“This letter reflects a clear, broad, and informed consensus on two key points,” said Motomura. “First, the president has the legal authority, exercising his discretion as the nation’s top immigration prosecutor, to establish enforcement priorities.  Second, the president’s lawful discretion includes the authority to set up an orderly system, modeled on DACA, for granting temporary relief from deportation.”

The National Immigration Law Center and the American Immigration Council helped to distribute the letter that was sent today. Recently, the Council also released a report by Professor Motomura, “The President’s Discretion, Immigration Enforcement, and the Rule of Law,” which provides further legal and historical background on this issue.

A copy of the letter is available atpennstatelaw.psu.edu/lawprofessorletter and atwww.nilc.org/document.html?id=1133.

To learn more about how President Obama can restore order to our dysfunctional immigration system, visit NILC’s Administrative Relief & Prosecutorial Discretion webpage.

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September 5 Deadline for Obamacare

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Aug. 27, 2014

CONTACT
Gebe Martinez, [email protected], 703-731-9505, or
Kelsey Crow, [email protected], 832-326-0990

HASHTAGS: #BySept5, #5DeSept

Sept. 5 Deadline Nears for Latino and AAPI Immigrant Communities Needing to Verify Obamacare Eligibility

Links to informational materials are available below.

WASHINGTON — Latino and AAPI immigrants who bought health insurance through Obamacare must comply with the government’s request for more information about their citizenship or immigration status by September 5, and not get frustrated if they are having trouble submitting the information, health care and immigrants’ advocates said Wednesday.

Only a few days remain before the September 5 deadline for individuals who have been asked for additional documents to respond to notices. Failure to submit the requested information on time could mean a loss of health coverage through the Marketplace after September 30, advocates warned during a telephonic press briefing.

“Don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today,” said Marielena Hincapié, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center (NILC). “The request for more information does not mean that these individuals are not eligible. There are many reasons for why this happened, including technical glitches and language barriers that were beyond the control of the applicants.”

More than 300,000 individuals in 36 states have received notices from the federal Marketplace. Consumers in Florida and Texas received the most notifications. Other states include: AL, AK, AZ, AR, DE, GA, IL, IN, IA, KS, LA, ME, MI, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NJ, NC, ND, OH, OK, PA, SC, SD, TN, UT, VA, WV, WI and WY. States that run their own marketplaces may also be following the federal deadlines, or may have slightly different final deadlines and procedures. Of the 300,000, about 57,000 notices were sent to Spanish-speakers.

In many cases, families are just now realizing they have to respond, often because they received the initial three-page notice in English, did not understand the importance of the notices, or believe they are in compliance because they submitted the documents with the help of assisters when they originally enrolled in the health care program.

Elizabeth Colvin, director of Insure Central Texas (www.insurecentraltexas.org), a program of Foundation Communities, cited the case of a 57-year-old man in Texas who was born in the U.S. and has never had a passport. His driver’s license may be used in combination with another document, such as a birth certificate, which he lost years ago in a flood, and now he has to wait several days to receive a new certificate from the state. In another case, Colvin’s center helped a Spanish-speaker upload documents and qualify during the initial enrollment period, only to recently realize — after seeing the letter in Spanish — that the documents are being requested again.

“Even if customers are frustrated, it’s important for them to pay attention and respond so that they don’t lose their coverage,” Colvin said, adding that it is difficult to know when documents are successfully uploaded on the online system. “We haven’t been able to get confirmations for people, and that’s unsettling. We would like to find a way to reassure them.”

“Since the notices are in English, people do not know what they say or that they are important. They put them aside or throw them away,” added Amy Jones, Health and Social Services Director, Southeast Asian Mutual Assistance Associations Coalition, Inc. (SEAMAAC) in Philadelphia, PA.

“At SEAMAAC, we are calling everyone we helped enroll to let them know to look for these letters in the mail, and to bring their documents in if they need help submitting or resubmitting,” Jones said. “We created a letter and translated it into Chinese, Vietnamese, and Nepali to send to families about these notices that we have not been able to reach by phone. We also created a flyer to get word out to the general community to understand the urgency of looking in their mail for these notices. This flyer was translated into Chinese, Vietnamese, Nepali, Indonesian, Karen-Burmese and Chin-Burmese.”

Advocates said they continue to press the Obama administration and, specifically, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, to eliminate the language barriers and system glitches that create difficulties for clients attempting to comply with the rules.

“It became clear during the first open enrollment period that navigators and assisters were essential in helping Action for Health Justice provide access to health care information and enrollment assistance for more than 540,000 Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders,” said Priscilla Huang, senior director of impact, Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum (APIAHF), a member organization of Action for Health Justice. “Along with many other groups, we continue to work with DHHS to address enrollment challenges, specifically increasing sufficient in-language notices regarding personal data and health care coverage.”

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U.S. Sued Over Unjust Deportation Process

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 22, 2014

CONTACT
Adela de la Torre, National Immigration Law Center, 213-400-7822, [email protected]
Inga Sarda-Sorensen, American Civil Liberties Union, 212-549-2666, [email protected]
Wendy Feliz, American Immigration Council, 202-507-7524, [email protected]
Paromita Shah, National Immigration Project/NLG, 202-271-2286, [email protected]

Groups Sue U.S. Government Over Life-Threatening Deportation Process Used Against Mothers and Children Escaping Extreme Violence in Central America

WASHINGTON — The National Immigration Law Center, American Civil Liberties Union, American Immigration Council, and National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild today sued the federal government to challenge its policies denying a fair deportation process to mothers and children who have fled extreme violence, death threats, rape, and persecution in Central America and come to the United States seeking safety.

The groups filed the case on behalf of mothers and children locked up at an isolated detention center in Artesia, New Mexico, which is hours from the nearest major metropolitan area. The complaint charges the Obama administration with enacting a new strong-arm policy to ensure rapid deportations by holding these mothers and their children to a nearly insurmountable and erroneous standard to prove their asylum claims, and by placing countless hurdles in front of them.

“These mothers and their children have sought refuge in the United States after fleeing for their lives from threats of death and violence in their home countries,” said Cecillia Wang, director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project. “U.S. law guarantees them a fair opportunity to seek asylum. Yet, the government’s policy violates that basic law and core American values — we do not send people who are seeking asylum back into harm’s way. We should not sacrifice fairness for speed in life-or-death situations.”

According to the complaint, the Obama administration is violating long-established constitutional and statutory law by enacting policies that have:

• Categorically prejudged asylum cases with a “detain and deport” policy, regardless of individual circumstances.

• Drastically restricted communication with the outside world for the women and children held at the remote detention center, including communication with attorneys. If women got to make phone calls at all, they were cut off after three minutes when consulting with their attorneys. This makes it impossible to prepare for a hearing or get legal help.

• Given virtually no notice to detainees of critically important interviews used to determine the outcome of asylum requests. Mothers have no time to prepare, are rushed through their interviews, are cut off by officials throughout the process, and are forced to answer traumatic questions, including detailing instances of rape, while their children are listening.

• Led to the intimidation and coercion of the women and children by immigration officers, including being screamed at for wanting to see a lawyer.

“Fast-tracking the deportations of women and children from immigration detention is an assault on due process. There is no way that justice can be served when so many people are being rushed through the system without any real opportunity to assert claims for relief. What we are seeing in Artesia is nothing less than a sham process that values expediency over justice,” said Melissa Crow, legal director of the American Immigration Council.

The plaintiffs include:

• A Honduran mother who fled repeated death threats in her home country to seek asylum in the United States with her two young children. The children’s father was killed by a violent gang that then sent the mother and her children continuous death threats. When she went to the police, they told her that they could not do anything to help her. It is common knowledge where she lived that the police are afraid of the gang and will do nothing to stop it.

• A mother who fled El Salvador with her two children because of threats by the gang that controls the area where they lived. The gang stalked her 12-year-old child every time he left the house and threatened kidnapping. She fears that if the family returns to El Salvador, the gang will kill her son. Some police officers are known to be corrupt and influenced by gangs. The mother says she knows of people who have been killed by gang members after reporting them to police.

• A mother who fled El Salvador with her 10-month old son after rival gangs threatened to kill her and her baby. One gang tried to force the mother to become an informant on the activities of another gang and, when she refused, told her she had 48 hours to leave or be killed.

“The women and children detained in Artesia have endured brutal murders of loved ones, rapes, death threats, and similar atrocities that no mother or child ever should have to endure, and our government is herding them through the asylum process like cattle,” said Trina Realmuto, an attorney at the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild. “The deportation-mill in Artesia lacks even the most basic protections, like notice and the opportunity to be heard, that form the cornerstone of due process in this country.”

The lawsuit, M.S.P.C. v. Johnson, was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Co-counsel in this case include the law firms of Jenner & Block, and Van Der Hout, Brigagliano & Nightingale, LLP; and the ACLU of New Mexico, ACLU of San Diego & Imperial Counties, and ACLU of the Nation’s Capital.

“Any mother will do whatever it takes to make sure her children are safe from harm’s way,” said Karen Tumlin, managing attorney at the National Immigration Law Center. “Our plaintiffs are no different: they have fled their homes to protect their children, only to find that the U.S. deportation system is intent upon placing them back in the dangerous situations they left. We are filing this lawsuit today to ensure that each mother is able to have her fair day in court and that we are not sending children and their mothers back to violence or their deaths.”

The complaint is available at www.nilc.org/document.html?id=1129.

Written declarations submitted by witnesses to injustice at the Artesia, New Mexico, immigration detention facility are available atwww.nilc.org/artesiadecs.html.

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