Thousands of Immigrants Held in Violation of International Law

[babylonsister]

Thousands of Immigrants Held in Violation of International Law
Amnesty USA Research Shows Immigrants Unable to Challenge Their Detention
By Daphne Eviatar 3/25/09 12:01 AM


A comprehensive report issued by Amnesty International USA Wednesday finds that tens of thousands of immigrants are being held in detention in the United States – many in violation of international law.

Conducted by Amnesty researchers based on interviews over the course of a year with immigration lawyers and judges, asylum seekers, government officials and non-governmental organizations, the report finds that U.S. immigration policy has increasingly detained immigrants – including lawful residents and even some U.S. citizens – without a meaningful ability to challenge their detentions in an objective judicial proceeding, without access to a lawyer to help them determine their legal status, and often in inhumane conditions, commingled with criminals and denied access to minimal health care.

“America should be outraged by the scale of human rights abuses occurring within its own borders,” said Larry Cox, executive director of AIUSA, in a statement released with the report. “Officials are locking up thousands of human beings without due process and holding them in a system that is impossible to navigate. . . . The U.S. government must ensure that every person in immigration detention has a hearing to determine whether that detention is necessary.”

Such arbitrary detentions violate international standards such as the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, says Amnesty. The group calls on Congress to amend the immigration laws to eliminate arbitrary detention, use alternatives to detention where possible and improve detention conditions.

more...

http://washingtonindependent.com/35526/thousands-of-immigrants-held-in-violation-of-international-law

[WHEN CRABS ROAR]

1. This has been happening for at least 40 years.

In 1968 my Canadian cousin was picked up in Arizona, taken to Texas and held for 4 months, no charges filed, no contact, then sent back to Canada.

[seafan]

2. More fallout from the Bush/Cheney catastrophe

Thousands of Immigrants Held in Violation of International Law

By Daphne Eviatar
March 25, 2009

A comprehensive report issued by Amnesty International USA Wednesday finds that tens of thousands of immigrants are being held in detention in the United States – many in violation of international law.

Conducted by Amnesty researchers based on interviews over the course of a year with immigration lawyers and judges, asylum seekers, government officials and non-governmental organizations, the report finds that U.S. immigration policy has increasingly detained immigrants – including lawful residents and even some U.S. citizens – without a meaningful ability to challenge their detentions in an objective judicial proceeding, without access to a lawyer to help them determine their legal status, and often in inhumane conditions, commingled with criminals and denied access to minimal health care.

.....

In fact, the Amnesty report notes that there are effective and far less costly alternatives to detention, most of which takes place in jails run by private companies under contract with the U.S. government. The average cost of detaining a migrant is $95 per person, per day — approximately $2,850 per month.

.....

Meanwhile, detaining immigrants is getting more and more expensive as the numbers of detainees in the U.S. has soared, from 10,000 in 1996, reports Amnesty, to more than 30,000 in 2008. Of the more than 300,000 men, women and children taken into custody by US immigration authorities each year, many are asylum seekers, torture survivors, human trafficking victims, lawful permanent residents and parents of U.S. citizen children, Amnesty reports.

.....

Lawful residents and even U.S. citizens, unable to prove their legal status, may also get caught in the immigration system’s snare. Amnesty International “has identified more than a hundred cases in the past ten years in which US citizens and lawful permanent residents have incorrectly been placed into removal proceedings.”

TWI previously reported on the case of a developmentally disabled U.S. citizen living in Los Angeles who was deported to Mexico because he could not produce his passport. He was left homeless in Mexico until his family found him in Tijuana three months later.

Amnesty reports on another U.S. citizen placed in immigration detention in Florence, Arizona. Born in Minnesota, he had never left the United States but because he was detained, he didn’t have access to his birth certificate. He ended up working in the prison for a dollar a day to earn the thirty dollars it cost to order a copy of the birth certificate. According to his lawyer at the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project, he was finally released after being detained for over a month.

But, it is *more profitable* to take all these detainees off the hands of the state prison system, isn't it? Follow the money to find out who benefits.


Homeland Security To Build Detention Camps In The United States

January 28, 2006

Contract awarded to Halliburton subsidiary KBR.

ARLINGTON, Va.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Jan. 24, 2006–KBR announced today that the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) component has awarded KBR an Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contingency contract to support ICE facilities in the event of an emergency. KBR is the engineering and construction subsidiary of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL).

With a maximum total value of $385 million over a five-year term, consisting of a one-year based period and four one-year options, the competitively awarded contract will be executed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Fort Worth District. KBR held the previous ICE contract from 2000 through 2005.

“We are especially gratified to be awarded this contract because it builds on our extremely strong track record in the arena of emergency operations support,” said Bruce Stanski, executive vice president, KBR Government and Infrastructure. “We look forward to continuing the good work we have been doing to support our customer whenever and wherever we are needed.”

The contract, which is effective immediately, provides for establishing temporary detention and processing capabilities to augment existing ICE Detention and Removal Operations (DRO) Program facilities in the event of an emergency influx of immigrants into the U.S., or to support the rapid development of new programs.

Feds admit mistakenly jailing citizens as illegal immigrants, February 14, 2008


Do not forget: Monica Goodling named many of her unqualified pals as IMMIGRATION JUDGES.,




From Brooks Brother Rioter to Immigration Judge, May 25, 2007



So, in summary, ICE has been rounding up American citizens and immigrants alike, throwing them into numerous new prisons across our country built by Halliburton/KBR, denying them any legal rights, keeping them imprisoned for months and years and, if ICE feels like it, consulting with immigration judges previously hired by Monica Goodling.


Is that about the size of it?

[Smith_3]

3. Human rights violations? By the United States? You must be kidding...

:sarcasm: