Published on Portside (https://portside.org)
Why Is the US Deporting Refugee Families?
Michelle Chen
Monday, January 4, 2016
The Nation
The White House rang in the New Year by slamming the gates on
refugee families seeking sanctuary. Immigration and Customs Enforcementm (ICE)
announced quietly, in the midst of the holiday break, that it would begin raiding and deporting [1] Central
American families who have failed to qualify for asylum. Their impending
exile, according to ICE [2], is a
matter of upholding rule of law, apparently to make it clear that the United
States takes border control seriously [3] and
seeks to somehow deter mass migration.
The law the Obama administration is following, immigrant advocates
say, runs counter to the higher mandate
the White House should be abiding by [4]. International
humanitarian law actually dictates that these desperate parents and children be
granted protection [5] from the persecution
and violence they have fled in their home
countries [6].
The tens of thousands of children and parents who have been criminalized [7] by
Homeland Security—designated as those who have received “a final order of
removal” as of January 1, 2014—are actually seeking refuge [8] from
drug-war violence, political instability, epidemic poverty, and the utter
failure on the part of the governments of Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador
to protect vulnerable communities—a slow-burning social unraveling in
which Washington’s policies have played [9] a considerable part [10].
Overall, roughly 100,000 family members have
arrived [2] from Central America over the past two years—primarily
mothers with children, many of them seeking asylum—along with some 100,000 unaccompanied migrant and
refugee children [11]. There was also a spike [12] in
the number of unaccompanied children and family members entering the United
States in October and November—more than 23,000—exceeding the previous year’s
migration rate.
Those slated for deportation have spent months bouncing around a legal gauntlet [13] that
baffles even attorneys, let alone 7-year-olds who don’t speak English, or young
mothers suffering from post-traumatic stress. A subset of families have been jailed in prison-like private detention centers [14], unable
even to secure their release on bail so they can prepare their cases and live
with community or family members. A total of more than 15,000 family members have
gotten removal orders [15]; perhaps 12,500 families
have stayed in the country and avoided deportation, despite having exhausted
the legal process. Though they are technically “deportable,” banishing these
families is a striking about-face from Obama’s earlier promise that he would
reform immigration policy to protect “families, not felons.” [16] First,
ICE came under heavy criticism [14] for
detaining families in harsh, often abusive conditions. Now instead of
incarcerating parents and children together, the administration is moving to
deport them together.
Many migrants lacked legal counsel or didn’t even show up for the
hearing before their claims were rejected.
The irony that the announcement coincided with the Christmas
holiday was not lost on some activists, as they mobilize to defend migrants needing
sanctuary in their communities [17]. Rev.
Alison Harrington of Southside Presbyterian Church in Tucson explained the crisis in biblical
terms [18]: “What would it have been like if the president was pharaoh in
Egypt at the time of Jesus’ birth.… What if he had ordered the deportation of
the Holy Family?”
The administration’s indifference to today’s migrants betrays the
flimsiness of Obama’s earlier humanitarian overtures. Not only has the
administration largely failed in its promise [19] to provide refugees [20] with
an orderly, legal refugee migration route by allowing claims to be processed
within the region, outside the asylum process; it is now brazenly shredding the
Bill of Rights for refugees. By the government’s own estimates, the vast
majority of the migrants are thought to have valid asylum claims, according to advocacy group Kids In
Need of Defense [21] (KIND). However, without
guarantee of legal counsel under immigration law, their cases may be
doomed. Currently about half of child
arrivals [22] must brave the immigration bureaucracy without the support
of legal counsel. A child’s fate can hinge solely on whether they are fortunate
enough to connect with an ad hoc voluntary brigade of pro bono attorneys:
“children without representation are five times more likely to be deported back
to danger,” according to KIND.
Children have wended through a truncated 21-day processing
schedule known as “rocket dockets.” Court review has been conducted
haphazardly, according to Politico [23], subject
to the whims of individual judges. Many claimants lacked legal counsel or
didn’t even show up for the hearing before their claims were rejected.
According to the research group TRAC [24], of 64,500
family migration cases that have filtered through the courts as of late 2015,
fewer than 40 percent had legal representation. Among those, a small fraction
of the cases were fully resolved, resulting in fewer than 700 being granted
relief. For those cases without counsel, however, the outcomes were even
bleaker: Just 38 were granted relief, and more than 15,300 ordered deported.
Katharina Obser, a program officer with Women’s Refugee Commission [25], says via
e-mail that the White House’s enforcement regime flouts its moral imperative:
“We know that many of those seeking protection at our borders face immense
obstacles in trying to find a lawyer or get critical information on their
rights and requirements in the first place, making it incredibly difficult
to…prepare an asylum case, or appeal any decision. Rather than ensure access to
protection and justice for these refugees fleeing violence, we continue to see
the Administration…respond with detention and other efforts to deter.”
One migrant teenager, Lilian, recalled in an interview published by KIND [26] how
she felt threatened constantly in her home community in El Salvador: “I didn’t
feel safe because everyone lived with the same fear of being killed one day.…
When I would walk along the street, I had the feeling that someone was going to
come up behind me and hurt me. I decided to come to the United States. I felt really
sad because I had to leave my mother all alone. But I was sure that I would be
safer here.”
Thousands of stories like Lilian’s have been piling up in court
dockets. Yet, instead of listening to their pleas, the White House has sought
to “dispose” of their cases by making migrants fear the United States just as
they feared for their lives in Central America. Whether in a Texas courtroom or
on a Salvadorean street corner, the feeling is the same: Nowhere is safe.
Copyright c 2014 The Nation [27]. Reprinted
with permission. May not be reprinted without permission. Distributed by Agence Globa [28]l.
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Links:
[1] http://www.latimes.com/nation/immigration/la-na-ff-immigration-raids-20160103-story.html
[2] https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/us-plans-raids-to-deport-families-who-surged-across-border/2015/12/23/034fc954-a9bd-11e5-8058-480b572b4aae_story.html
[3] http://www.thenation.com/article/happy-new-year-youre-deported/
[4] https://womensrefugeecommission.org/news/press-releases-and-statements/2366-wrc-statement-on-planned-deportation-raids-of-central-american-families
[5] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/obama-deportation-raids_5684063be4b0b958f65aef3d
[6] http://www.vox.com/2014/7/31/5954909/border-crisis-dangerous-journey-prevent-safe-home-countries
[7] http://www.thenation.com/article/this-honduran-mother-fled-death-threats-only-to-be-locked-up-in-the-us/
[8] http://www.thenation.com/article/why-children-fleeing-central-america-will-not-stop-coming/
[9] http://www.thenation.com/article/how-us-free-trade-policies-created-central-american-migration-crisis/
[10] http://www.thenation.com/article/how-uss-foreign-policy-created-immigrant-refugee-crisis-its-own-southern-border/
[11] https://supportkind.org/resources/2015-a-year-of-expanding-help-and-hope-to-children-alone/
[12] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/central-american-border-apprehensions_5671b0d3e4b0648fe301da17
[13] http://www.vox.com/cards/child-migrant-crisis-unaccompanied-alien-children-rio-grande-valley-obama-immigration/what-is-the-us-government-doing-to-deal-with-the-children-and
[14] http://www.thenation.com/article/human-rights-groups-blast-obamas-plan-open-new-immigrant-family-detention-centers/
[15] http://www.vox.com/2015/12/28/10673452/deportation-central-american-immigrant-families
[16] http://www.thenation.com/article/what-will-happen-immigrants-left-out-obamas-executive-actions/
[17] http://www.notonemoredeportation.com/2015/12/24/ice-raids/
[18] http://www.notonemoredeportation.com/2015/12/24/xmas-sanctuary/
[19] http://www.thenation.com/article/the-number-of-child-migrants-arriving-on-the-uss-doorstep-has-doubled-since-last-year/
[20] http://thinkprogress.org/immigration/2014/10/01/3574259/us-70000-refugee-slots/
[21] https://supportkind.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/One-Year-Later.pdf
[22] https://supportkind.org/resources/kind-fact-sheet/
[23] http://www.politico.com/story/2015/11/under-16-and-ordered-deported-with-no-lawyer-215944
[24] http://trac.syr.edu/phptools/immigration/mwc/
[25] https://womensrefugeecommission.org/programs/migrant-rights/on-the-border
[26] https://supportkind.org/stories/lilians-journey/
[27] http://www.thenation.com
[28] http://rights@agenceglobal.com
[2] https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/us-plans-raids-to-deport-families-who-surged-across-border/2015/12/23/034fc954-a9bd-11e5-8058-480b572b4aae_story.html
[3] http://www.thenation.com/article/happy-new-year-youre-deported/
[4] https://womensrefugeecommission.org/news/press-releases-and-statements/2366-wrc-statement-on-planned-deportation-raids-of-central-american-families
[5] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/obama-deportation-raids_5684063be4b0b958f65aef3d
[6] http://www.vox.com/2014/7/31/5954909/border-crisis-dangerous-journey-prevent-safe-home-countries
[7] http://www.thenation.com/article/this-honduran-mother-fled-death-threats-only-to-be-locked-up-in-the-us/
[8] http://www.thenation.com/article/why-children-fleeing-central-america-will-not-stop-coming/
[9] http://www.thenation.com/article/how-us-free-trade-policies-created-central-american-migration-crisis/
[10] http://www.thenation.com/article/how-uss-foreign-policy-created-immigrant-refugee-crisis-its-own-southern-border/
[11] https://supportkind.org/resources/2015-a-year-of-expanding-help-and-hope-to-children-alone/
[12] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/central-american-border-apprehensions_5671b0d3e4b0648fe301da17
[13] http://www.vox.com/cards/child-migrant-crisis-unaccompanied-alien-children-rio-grande-valley-obama-immigration/what-is-the-us-government-doing-to-deal-with-the-children-and
[14] http://www.thenation.com/article/human-rights-groups-blast-obamas-plan-open-new-immigrant-family-detention-centers/
[15] http://www.vox.com/2015/12/28/10673452/deportation-central-american-immigrant-families
[16] http://www.thenation.com/article/what-will-happen-immigrants-left-out-obamas-executive-actions/
[17] http://www.notonemoredeportation.com/2015/12/24/ice-raids/
[18] http://www.notonemoredeportation.com/2015/12/24/xmas-sanctuary/
[19] http://www.thenation.com/article/the-number-of-child-migrants-arriving-on-the-uss-doorstep-has-doubled-since-last-year/
[20] http://thinkprogress.org/immigration/2014/10/01/3574259/us-70000-refugee-slots/
[21] https://supportkind.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/One-Year-Later.pdf
[22] https://supportkind.org/resources/kind-fact-sheet/
[23] http://www.politico.com/story/2015/11/under-16-and-ordered-deported-with-no-lawyer-215944
[24] http://trac.syr.edu/phptools/immigration/mwc/
[25] https://womensrefugeecommission.org/programs/migrant-rights/on-the-border
[26] https://supportkind.org/stories/lilians-journey/
[27] http://www.thenation.com
[28] http://rights@agenceglobal.com
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