Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the agency in
charge of enforcing our country’s immigration laws, just launched a series of
raids in North Carolina, Texas, and Georgia, to deport people (including young
children and mothers) who, among other things, entered as undocumented after
Jan. 1, 2014, or were ordered removed after Jan. 1, 2014. We have heard (from
clients and friends) that young children and mothers are being places in
custody and are being pushed to be removed quickly.
Many—if not most—of these people are immigrants from Central
America who fled their countries starting 2014 because of the violence caused
by drugs, gangs like the MS-13, and the
inability of local police to stop these increasing threats. These immigrants fled
to the United States, not because they are criminals, but because they have
become refugees fleeing their war-torn countries where they sincerely fear they
will be killed.
The ICE raids that have just started this past weekend will
make it less likely that people succeed in their asylum cases or that they will
apply at all. People who apply for asylum are usually given sufficient time to
seek an attorney and prepare their asylum cases by gathering evidence, lining
up witnesses, gathering documents and testimonies from their native countries, hiring
an expert and obtaining an expert report or testimony from him or her, and
preparing for their final hearings in front of an immigration judge.
An asylum case is not easy—and is definitely not cheap if
one hires an attorney; this task is much more difficult to manage if the
applicant is detained, which is what these ICE raids will accomplish. Imagine trying
to gather documents and testimony while you are inside a detention center. Add to
this the fact that you may need an expert to testify in complex issues
regarding the socioeconomical or political climate in your native country or
the modus operandi of gangs in your
native state. You also need to file all your evidence with the immigration
court and provide a copy of all your filings to the attorneys for ICE who are
arguing that you should be removed. Overnight, the task of winning an asylum
case (or applying for this relief) becomes nearly impossible and extremely
expensive, so what many of these people will inevitably end up doing is
forgoing their day in court and wait instead to be removed. This is a huge
miscarriage of justice for all these people who should be afforded the opportunity
for a fair and full hearing in court.
These ICE raids are not intended to keep our country safe
(most of the people who were detained were families with no criminal records),
they are meant to discourage the influx of undocumented immigrants, period. What
is sad is that the government may be accomplishing this but at the expense of
the well being of hundreds of hardworking families and, of course, the U.S.
Constitution.
If you think you run the risk of getting detained or know someone who might, please talk to an immigration attorney about your options.
Johanna Cochran, Associate Attorney
404-949-8170
jcochran@immigration.net
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