Swift deportations evidence to lawyers/advocates that many legitimate claims of fear are never heard

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Esther Y. Lee ?@estherindc 21m
Heartbreaking and concerning read by @Shugruberg, who visited an immigration detention center in New Mexico. http://thkpr.gs/1tsvBKX

ARTESIA, NM — On the morning of July 22, a plane of Guatemalan migrants was en route to deport its passengers back to their home country, when Guatemalan consulate officials intervened. These officials concluded that a third of the women and children on the plane exhibited fear of return, and could not be deported without having their asylum claims assessed. While the rest were flown back to Guatemala, these women and children were spared — just barely — and returned to an Artesia, New Mexico detention facility for migrant families.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement representatives shared this story with attorneys and immigration advocates during a recent visit to a makeshift Artesia detention facility. They cited the story as an example of how well their screening process is working. But lawyers in the room took it as one of several pieces of evidence that something was seriously wrong. Had it not been for the rare intervention of officials from the very country these migrants were being deported back to, their claims would have been overlooked. As unprecedented numbers of women and children are coming into the US, many to escape violence in Central America, U.S. officials are touting 3 planes of deportees returned to Central America as “proof that indeed we will send people back.” But a visit to one newly converted detention facility in Artesia, New Mexico, suggests this emphasis on swift deportations may mean many legitimate claims of fear are never being heard.

Migrants who express fear of returning to their home country are not supposed to be sent back without first being screened to determine whether their fear credible. In Artesia, the pace and volume of detentions and utter lack of legal infrastructure means these claims may never be communicated.

Part of a Federal Law Enforcement Training Center that was converted to a family detention center last month has already processed an estimated 800 women and children. Some 60 to 65 percent have expressed fear of being returned to their home countries and must be interviewed by an asylum officer to determine whether their fear is credible, under the Immigration and Nationality Act. But at Artesia, these interviews are conducted at the dizzying pace of 20 interviews every day, 7 days a week. This rapid pace, combined with the lack of access to legal services, worries attorneys like New Mexico Immigrant Law Center’s (NMILC) Legal Director, Megan Jordi, who noted, “If the government is going to expedite this whole process and wants to ensure due process, they need to provide counsel. The integrity of our entire justice system is being challenged here.” A group from El Paso, Texas, Diocesan Migrant & Refugee Services is beginning to conduct presentations to inform detainees of their legal rights, but likely not often enough to keep up with the rapid pace of credible fear interviews, deportations, and new arrivals at Artesia.

Interviews conducted with women at Artesia revealed that information about their rights and the deportation process is not being understood. Although Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is working on a sheet of pro bono attorneys in New Mexico, they currently provide only information of a few attorneys in El Paso, Texas. Women were unclear about how to contact lawyers and did not know that free legal services were available. Another said an official told her if she signed a paper, she’d get a hearing with a judge even faster. With no land line at the facility, the detainee handbook states that women should have access to flip phones held by guards three times a day, but those interviewed said they are only allowed one 3-5 minute call each day and that if the children misbehaved, everyone lost access to phones . . .


read more: http://thinkprogress.org/immigration/2014/07/30/3465639/inside-a-converted-new-mexico-detention-center-swift-process-may-mean-asylum-claims-overlooked-2/