It can fix things. It can destroy things, like the feeling of safety, or of humanity. Migrant women seeking asylum are reporting that they have been bound and gagged. This has happened before, during and after their journey, and as the border restrictions grow tighter, the risks of human smuggling increase.
Month: February 2019
11,500 migrant children incarcerated. Here’s a look at their lives in a for-profit detention center.
Separated families file suit for damages
Separated families are filing claims for damages against the US Government, for intentional infliction of emotional distress. Plaintiffs are seeking $3M damages each.
Urgent call for remote legal representation (Need not be an immigration attorney, Spanish speaker)
We received this message from our friends at Al Otro Lado. Response is needed by Friday:
Urgent Call for Remote Attorneys! Are you able to provide remote representation for individuals seeking parole from ICE Detention?
We are seeking representation for 20+ or more families and would like to have these attorneys identified by Friday if possible.
Attorneys do NOT need to be specialists in immigration law, but should have experience fighting for clients in hostile environments, including criminal defense, parole, bail, domestic violence survivor advocacy, and other setting. You do not need to speak Spanish. This would be representation ONLY before CBP and ICE and not EOIR (although you could consider taking the full case if you would like to!).
If you are another legal worker-including a legal assistant or law student—please also get in touch.
We would provide you with templates, detailed guidance, and access to technical assistance throughout this process. Please email me at probono@alotrolado.org if you are available.
ICE accused of intentional destruction of detainee’s legal files, documentation
Asylum seekers coming to the border often come with important paperwork needed to make their case: birth, death and marriage certificates, government issued ID, photographs of torture and death. There have long been complaints and allegations that CBP and/or ICE regularly lose (“lose”) these documents when people are in detention. This weekend a California immigration lawyer reported her detainee client observed the willful destruction of legal files. This is, as some have noted, a violation of the Federal Records Act. It also makes it vastly more difficult to make a successful asylum claim. Some organizations (Al Otro Lado among them) offer to scan documents and put them “in the cloud” for just this reason.
Left ICE detention today livid. Client observed guards pouring water on legal docs and ripping up folders. Evidence can be life or death for an ICE detainee. When she filed a grievance, she was mocked. We are caging people based on birthplace & killing their spirits. For profit.
— McKibben Law (@LawKristina) February 9, 2019
Lawyers and others working on the border face harassment from US, Mexican authorities
You may have heard that lawyers Nora Phillips and Erika Pinheiro and two journalists recently had their passports flagged and were denied entry into Mexico, because of their work with asylum seekers. This article documents how much more widespread the interference with this work is, and at whose direction it is happening.
https://theintercept.com/2019/02/08/us-mexico-border-journalists-harassment/
Lawyers seen as heroes by refugee kids
Here’s a heartwarming reminder of why we do the work we do:
S/t I’ve noticed after many years working with newcomer youth: many resettled refugee kids want do be doctors when they grow up. Many Central Amer kids say they want to be lawyers. Young people model their dreams after the ppl they see as heroes – the ppl they need & have needed
— Lauren Markham (@LaurenMarkham_) February 7, 2019
An “ask” to call your members of Congress today
Federal Budget negotiations are underway in Washington DC. In case you missed it on the OWLS listserve, we are being asked by the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law to call our members of Congress (and other congressional leaders) to ask that money not be allocated for the imprisonment and torture of children. This needs to be done immediately – this week, if possible.
Here is the text of the email:
Dear advocates for detained immigrant children,
. . . Organizations and individuals appalled by the Administration’s skyrocketing detention of immigrant children and efforts to terminate their rights to humane treatment and prompt release under the Flores settlement, can help by promptly telephoning and emailing the Congressional negotiators. The memo below explains the issues. Telephone messages and emails will help to insure that the budget negotiators do not agree in the next few days to severely curtail the rights of immigrant children. As the memo explains, we have three core asks: a spending bill should prohibit funds being used to (1) forcibly separate children from their parents, (2) terminate the Flores settlement, or (3) deny asylum to any child who possesses a valid claim under U.S. law and the United Nations Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees.
Thanks.
Peter Schey
Contacts (We should not be limited to contacting our own representatives on federal budget negotiations – the states are listed as an FYI only – but many of the websites say only emails from constituents will receive a response, so you may wish to call rather than emailing).
Sen. Ron Wyden (503) 326-7525
Sen. Jeff Merkley (503) 414-3300
Rep. Greg Walden (202) 225-6730
Rep. Kurt Schrader (202) 225-5711
Rep. Earl Blumenauer (202) 225-4811
Rep. Peter DeFazio (202) 225-6416
Rep. Susan Bonamici (503) 208-1228
Sen. Dick Durbin (Illinois): 202.224.2152
https://www.durbin.senate.gov/contact/email
Sen. Richard Shelby (Alabama): (202) 224-5744 https://www.shelby.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/e-mail-senator-shelby-landing
Sen. Patrick Leahy (Vermont): (202) 224-4242
https://www.leahy.senate.gov/contact
Sen. Jon Tester (Montana): (202) 224-2644
https://www.tester.senate.gov/?p=email_senator
Rep. Nita Lowey (New York): (202) 225-6506
https://lowey.house.gov/contact/email
Rep. Barbara Lee (California): (202) 225-2661
https://lee.house.gov/contact/email-me
Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (California): (202) 225-1766
https://roybal-allard.house.gov/contact/
Rep. Henry Cuellar (Texas): (202) 225-1640
https://cuellar.house.gov/contact/sendmeanemail.htm
Rep. Pete Aguilar (California): (202) 225-3201
https://aguilar.house.gov/contact
Rep. Nancy Pelosi (House Speaker – California): (202) 225-4965
https://pelosi.house.gov/contact-me/email-me
Rep. Kevin McCarthy (Minority Leader – California): (202) 225-2915
https://kevinmccarthy.house.gov/contact
Suggested Language:
I urge the House and Senate negotiators concerned with the humane treatment of children to reject the 2019 Secure Border Act or any other legislation that includes similar provisions related to immigrant minors and asylum-seekers, and to ensure that the spending bill negotiated in the coming week prohibits funds being used to (1) forcibly separate children from their parents, (2) terminate the Flores settlement, or (3) deny asylum to any child who possesses a valid claim under U.S. law and the United Nations Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees.
Explanation from Peter Schey, CHR
Dueling bills to end the government shutdown failed in the Senate and the government is now engaged in negotiations to fund the government and avoid a second shutdown. The issue of Central American minors was injected into the shutdown discussion by President Trump in a January 4, 2019, letter to Congress, and again in the Senate’s End the Shutdown and Secure Border Act of 2019 (“2019 Secure Border Act”), that received fifty Senate votes.
We are responsible for the treatment of the thousands of immigrant children being detained by the Administration. Pursuant to a nationwide settlement we reached in 1997 in the case now designated Flores, et al., v. Whitaker, et al., No. CV 85-4544 DMG (C.D. Cal), we represent all immigrant children detained each year by CBP, ICE, and ORR. The settlement currently sets the national standards for the care and release of detained children.
For the reasons explained below, a long-term spending bill should prohibit funds being used to (1) forcibly separate children and their parents, (2) terminate the rights children now possess under the Flores settlement, and (3) deny asylum to children who possess valid claims under U.S. and binding international laws.
The Unites States is bound by the terms of the 1967 United Nations Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees. The Protocol prohibits the deportation of any person, including minors, to countries where they face persecution. The Constitution, Article VI, clause 2, provides, “all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land …” By denying Central American minors the right to seek and be granted asylum in the United States, the Secure Border Act, if enacted, would clearly violate the supreme law of the land.
Over the past year immigrant children have increasingly become targets of the Administration’s anti-immigrant campaign. Thousands of children have been forcibly separated from their parents (many still not reunited with their mothers and fathers), thousands have been held in cages (the children call them “dog cages”), at least two minors in U.S. custody recently died, and the number of detained unaccompanied minors has skyrocketed to 15,000, because the Administration now unreasonably delays releasing them to parents or relatives living in the U.S. Among other tactics that delay and prevent the release of detained children, the ORR informs parents and relatives seeking children’s release that they will be turned over to ICE for possible arrest and deportation.
Section 103 of the 2019 Secure Border Act, would make minors from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, ineligible to apply for asylum in the United States. This is accomplished by amending Section 208(a)(2) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (“INA”), adding language that these Central American minors can only apply for asylum “outside of the United States at a Designated Application Processing Center in Central America.” Before applying for asylum with a Designated Application Processing Center, these minors must first apply for asylum with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), or a non-governmental organization designated by the Secretary of Homeland Security (no details are provided about this process), and the UNHCR or the non-governmental must advise DHS that the minor “is likely to be eligible for asylum …”
Even if a minor’s asylum claim is approved by a U.S. Application Processing Center, the minor will still not be admitted to the U.S. if the minor was previously denied asylum (even if new facts warrant a different decision), or if the minor does not have “a qualified parent or guardian [living] in the United States capable of taking custody and care of the minor upon arrival in the United States.” Div. L, Sec. 103(a)(2)(F)(i). About sixty percent of unaccompanied minors do not have parents or legal guardians living in the U.S.
Finally, the Secure Border Act requires the immediate deportation of any Central American minor unless the minor is the victim of human trafficking. Div. L, Section 108(D)(i).
Minors fleeing persecution usually flee their countries rapidly. They cannot safely wait for several months or years to process applications while their lives are at risk. Nor do most minors facing persecution have the funds that will be needed for fees the U.S. will impose to “deter frivolous applications.” Nor do most minors facing persecution have a “qualified parent or guardian [living] in the United States.” These draconian restrictions will encourage minors to attempt entry into the United States without inspection. If successful, these restrictions will result in the abuse, torture, and death of innocent children.
Administration argues against reuniting families, saying it would be “traumatic” for the children.
The Administration filed court papers last week arguing that it should not be required to reunify families because it would be “traumatic” to take the children out of their current foster settings. This effort to cast their position in the light of “what’s best for the children” comes on the heels of their admission that they didn’t keep records of where separated family members were going, and which children were related to which parents.
Women and girls who are migrants fall victim to human trafficking. What would help?
Immigration policies are largely based on the experience of the male migrant. This article explores what a feminist approach to immigration might look like.
OWLS Unite Families 