ICE Gestapo - 6/12: families placed in WW2 Japanese internment camps to be hidden from the press

tru_m.a.c

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Incredibly valuable read:

When Deportation Is a Death Sentence
Hundreds of thousands of immigrants in the U.S. may face violence and murder in their home countries. What happens when they are forced to return?

In June 9, 2009, just after 2 a.m., Laura S. left the restaurant where she waitressed, in Pharr, Texas, and drove off in her white Chevy. She was in an unusually hopeful mood. Her twenty-third birthday was nine days away, and she and her nineteen-year-old cousin, Elizabeth, had been discussing party plans at the restaurant. They’d decided to have coolers of beer, a professional d.j., and dancing after Laura put her three sons to bed. Now they were heading home, and giving two of Laura’s friends a ride, with a quick detour for hamburgers. Elizabeth said that, as they neared the highway, a cop flashed his lights at them. The officer, Nazario Solis III, claimed that Laura had been driving between lanes and asked to see her license and proof of insurance.

Laura had neither. She’d lived in the United States undocumented her whole adult life.

“Do you have your residence card?” Solis asked.

“No,” Laura said, glancing anxiously at her cousin and her friends. Solis questioned them, too. Only Elizabeth had a visa, which she fished out of her purse. Solis directed the others to get out of the car. “I’m calling Border Patrol,” he said—an unusual move, at the time, for a small-town cop in South Texas.

Laura panicked. At five feet two inches and barely a hundred pounds, she looked younger than her age. She often wore tube tops and short shorts, and styled her hair in a girlish bob. Her affect was “attached to childhood,” her older brother told me; she collected porcelain dolls, and loved Japanese anime and Saturday-morning cartoons. Laura’s friends saw her trembling. Like her, they had kids who were U.S. citizens and steady jobs they didn’t want to lose, but they knew that Laura’s fear was distinct. She had an ex-husband across the border, in Reynosa, Mexico, who had promised to kill her if she returned.

“I can’t be sent back to Mexico,” Laura told Solis, beginning to cry. “I have a protection order against my ex—please, just let me call my mom and she’ll bring you the paperwork.”

The Immigrants Deported to Death and Violence Sarah Stillman reports on people who fled their home countries fearing for their lives, and the tragic consequences when they were sent back.

Laura’s two-year-old had an operation scheduled for later that week, to remove an abscess in his neck, and Laura also told Solis about that. “I need to be here,” she begged, in Spanish. In English, Elizabeth detailed the threats from Laura’s ex, Sergio. “You can’t do this,” Elizabeth said. “He’ll kill her.”

“Sorry,” Solis replied, shrugging. “I already called.” (Solis could not be reached for comment. He was later sent to prison for unrelated convictions, including bribery, extortion, and drug conspiracy.)

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/01/15/when-deportation-is-a-death-sentence
 

tru_m.a.c

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tru_m.a.c

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ICE issues directive to make deportation arrests at courthouses
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SAN DIEGO — Federal immigration authorities formalized a policy Wednesday to send deportation agents to federal, state and local courthouses to make arrests, dismissing complaints from judges and advocacy groups that it instills fear among crime victims, witnesses and family members.

The two-page directive from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said it will enter courthouses only for specific targets, such as convicted criminals, gang members, public safety threats and immigrants who have been previously deported or ordered to leave. Family, friends and witnesses won’t be picked up for deportation but ICE leaves a caveat for “special circumstances.”

The policy, signed by ICE acting director Thomas Homan, says immigration agents should generally avoid arrests in non-criminal areas of the court, like family court and small claims, unless it supervisor approves.

ICE — in a not-so-subtle jab at “sanctuary cities” that limit work with immigration authorities — said “increasing unwillingness of some jurisdictions to cooperate with ICE in the safe and orderly transfer of targeted aliens inside their prisons and jails has necessitated additional at-large arrests.”

Immigration agents made courtroom arrests under the Obama administration, but the pace appears to have picked up under President Donald Trump, whose administration has seen a roughly 40 percent surge in arrests overall and has casted a much wider net.

ICE issues directive to make deportation arrests at courthouses
 

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U.S. tries to target asylum-seeker backlog by reviewing newer cases first

LOS ANGELES — The U.S. government will start reviewing more recent asylum applications ahead of older ones in a bid to stem a growing backlog of hundreds of thousands of cases, officials said Wednesday.

The move aims to prevent immigrants from applying for asylum to bide their time and obtain work permits when they don’t qualify for the protection as well as enable those genuinely fleeing persecution in their home countries to settle here, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said.

More than 300,000 people are waiting for their asylum applications to be reviewed by government officers, compared with 16,000 in July 2012.

Many have been waiting three or four years for an interview, let alone a decision on their cases. While they can obtain work permits during that time, they can’t bring relatives to join them — meaning they may be separated for years from their spouses and children, who can be in danger overseas.

Immigration attorneys said the new plan was absurd and would only result in even longer delays for those in line the longest. They say the government handled cases similarly some years ago before a surge in arrivals on the U.S.-Mexico border, but many applicants didn’t get timely interviews and it didn’t deter people from seeking asylum.

“It is going to create a mess,” said Jason Dzubow, an immigration attorney in Washington. “Whatever number of cases they get per week, they can’t handle it.”

More staffers have been assigned to review asylum requests since the Trump administration scaled back the country’s refugee program, said L. Francis Cissna, director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

“Whatever number of cases they get per week, they can’t handle it.”
“You have many frivolous cases, you have people who aren’t eligible at all, you have people who filed fraudulent cases, but you also have people with absolutely legitimate claims,” he said in an interview late last year in Los Angeles. “The fact that the backlog is so huge hurts them.”

There are two ways to seek asylum in the United States. Those who arrive on travel, student or other visas can file applications and be interviewed at a government office.

Those whose cases aren’t approved — as well as other immigrants facing deportation — can seek asylum before a judge in immigration court. But the court delays are as long or longer than those in the asylum offices.

The waits create stress and uncertainty for asylum seekers already are coping with learning to live in a new country and separation from family overseas.

A 34-year-old asylum seeker from Syria said he had a hard time getting an engineering job because employers could not tell how long he would be allowed to stay. He was torn about buying a house.

“There is uncertainty all over the place, and you literally are going to die if you go back,” said the man, who came on a student visa and asked not to be named out of fear of reprisals from the Trump administration and the Syrian regime. “You have to figure out all the legal ways, and you have to knock on all the doors.”

The delays may induce some immigrants to apply despite knowing they don’t qualify. They can work legally for several years before facing deportation proceedings and then wait years more for a hearing. Those in the country more than a decade may be able to seek approval for a special green card.

The waits create stress and uncertainty for asylum seekers already are coping with learning to live in a new country and separation from family overseas.
The backlog grew several years ago after tens of thousands of Central American children arrived on the border seeking asylum. Children are entitled to interviews at asylum offices, and the U.S. bumped their cases to the front of the line.

At the end of 2017, asylum officers were interviewing applicants in Southern California who filed their cases almost four years earlier.

The agency is receiving more asylum applications than it wraps up each month. In September, about 8,800 applications were filed and about 5,500 were completed, according to government data.

Immigration lawyers said they have seen asylum seekers divorce after years of separation or become homeless as their money was depleted while waiting for a work permit. The long waits also can weaken their cases if conditions change in their countries or witnesses die.
U.S. tries to target asylum-seeker backlog by reviewing newer cases first
 
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