Lawsuit Against Illegal Denial of Parole
to Asylum Seekers
- American Civil Liberties Union
-
The American Civil Liberties Union [ACLU] of Louisiana
filed
suit
today against the Trump administration for categorically denying
release to hundreds of people who are languishing in immigration
prisons after lawfully seeking asylum in the United States.
The class action suit was filed in the U.S. District
Court for
the District of Columbia on behalf of 12 named plaintiffs who,
like hundreds of other migrants, sought asylum at official U.S.
points of entry in compliance with federal law and then were
confined and sent to remote prisons in Louisiana and Alabama.
Because the law denies them the right to seek release
from an
immigration judge, they turned to the Department of Homeland
Security (DHS), which is bound by rules that favour their release
on parole. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the DHS
agency in charge of detaining or releasing the migrants, however,
has denied parole across the board, even when people have solid
asylum cases and satisfy the legal requirements.
ICE policy requires that asylum seekers be released
provided
they establish their identity and show they are not a danger or
flight risk, according to the lawsuit.
"Like hundreds of people being held in multiple ICE
detention
centres in the Deep South, our asylum-seeking plaintiffs are
being punished for following the law," said SPLC [Southern Poverty Law
Center] Senior
Supervising Attorney Luz Virginia Lopez. "They followed the legal
checklist by first presenting themselves at a point of entry, and
this is how America is paying them back -- with cruelty and
disrespect for the law."
Parole approvals have dropped sharply under President
Trump.
Fewer than 10 years ago, roughly 90 percent of such asylum
seekers were released. Today, at the New Orleans ICE Field
Office, which is responsible for confined asylum seekers across
several Southeastern states, parole was granted in just two of
130 cases in 2018.
"Here in Louisiana, thousands of immigrants and asylum
seekers
are now being exposed to brutal and inhumane conditions in our
jails and prisons -- with virtually no hope of release," said
Bruce Hamilton, staff attorney for the ACLU of Louisiana and
co-counsel in the case. "We're suing to stop these abuses and
hold the Trump administration accountable for following the
law."
The lawsuit also calls attention to the impact of the
dehumanizing treatment -- especially the excessive use of
solitary confinement and inadequate health care -- received daily
in immigration prisons, many of which are operated for
profit.
"Across this nation, there is a consensus building that
incarceration does much more harm than good to our communities,"
said Attorney Laura Rivera. "Yet, as criminal justice reforms
lead to lower rates of incarceration, this administration is
filling jails and prisons with record numbers of migrants -- more
than 53,000 at last count. It's causing untold human suffering,
and it's violating the law. I spent a week at the Pine Prairie
ICE Processing Center in Louisiana and saw bus after bus line up
outside the Center to unload their human cargo. Many immigrants
will spend months inside, and taxpayers are picking up the
tab."
This article was published in
Volume 49 Number
22 - June 15, 2019
Article Link:
Lawsuit
Against Illegal Denial of Parole to Asylum Seekers - American Civil
Liberties Union
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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