Over 50 Immigrant Rights Advocacy Groups filed an Amicus Brief Condemning Jeff Sessions’ Effort to Increase the Power of ICE, Take Away Power from Judges, in Deciding Immigrant Detention
Read the brief here.
For Immediate Release: Monday, October 29, 2018
Contact:
Jacinta Gonzalez, Mijente, 415-635-4950
Carly Perez, Detention Watch Network, 971-219-9750
Jennifer K. Falcon, RAICES 209-814-9670
Liz Martinez, lmartinez@freedomforimmigrants.org
Washington, DC – As a caravan of thousands of people seeking asylum approaches the United States, Attorney General Jeff Sessions is preparing to make a move that would allow him to keep any asylum seeker detained indefinitely. Today, immigrant rights advocacy groups and community leaders across the country joined to condemn Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ latest power grab to further take away the power of immigration judges, leaving the decision of whether certain immigrants, such as asylum seekers, should be released from detention solely to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. The more than 50 organizations filed a ‘People’s Amicus Brief’ detailing their opposition.
“The actions of Jeff Sessions are yet another example of this administration’s racist and anti-immigrant agenda,” said Jacinta Gonzalez, Field Director for Mijente. “This decision would take away any opportunity for people to go before an immigration judge to present their case for bond, leaving the decision solely up to ICE agents, who have become President Trump’s national police force. This will lead to a massive increase in the number of people held in immigration detention, including those held indefinitely.”
In early September, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that he would overturn a precedent by the Board of Immigration Appeals in the decision known as “Matter of X-K,” which held that immigration judges have the power to release certain migrants on bond at a hearing. The last day to submit comments through amicus briefs is November 9. The brief describes why they oppose the Attorney General’s latest power grab, including the alarming nature of leaving this critical decision up to ICE agents.
“Immigrant prisons and jails are rife with human and civil rights abuses,” said Christina Fialho, Co-Founder/Executive Director of Freedom for Immigrants. “For asylum seekers who’ve experienced unspeakable acts of violence and persecution in their home countries, being confined with no end in sight in an inhumane prison-like environment subjects them to further trauma and abuse. This is unconscionable.”
ICE has a documented track record of abuse. It is responsible for fatal medical neglect, collusion with private prison companies, lack of transparency and accountability, and a culture of violence and impunity. Most recently, the agency missed its first three deadlines for reporting to Congress about what detention facilities it uses to hold immigrants, only to finally release a list riddled with error and deception.
Advocates underscored how the asylum process is already failing people looking for safety and protection at today’s press conference. This decision will only make it harder for people and their loved ones to access critical legal services, a struggle faced by the majority of 44,000 people incarcerated daily in immigrant jails and prisons.
“Sessions, along with President Trump, are advancing policies that erode our democratic values, civil rights, and judicial processes in this country,” said Gabriela Marquez-Benitez, Senior Organizer at Detention Watch Network. “We know this decision will be leveraged as a sinister justification to expand immigration detention and keep more members of our community in jail. We are ready to expose this abuse and fight against it at every turn.”
The amicus brief was filed on October 29th, 2018, and included over 50 organizations around the country, including national support from Mijente, Detention Watch Network, the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild, and the National Bail Fund Network.
###
Mijente is a national Latinx digital and grassroots hub for Latinx and Chicanx movement building and organizing leading on mobilizing against immigration enforcement and criminalization.
Freedom for Immigrants is devoted to abolishing immigration detention, while ending the isolation of people currently suffering in this profit-driven system. We visit and monitor 55 immigrant prisons and jails, and we run the largest national hotline for detained immigrants. Through these windows into the system, we gather data and stories to combat injustice at the individual level and push systemic change.
Detention Watch Network (DWN) is a national coalition of organizations and individuals working to expose and challenge the injustices of the United States’ immigration detention and deportation system and advocate for profound change that promotes the rights and dignity of all persons. Founded in 1997 by immigrant rights groups, DWN brings together advocates to unify strategy and build partnerships on a local and national level to end immigration detention. Visit www.detentionwatchnetwork.org.
RAICES is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit agency that promotes justice by providing free and low-cost legal services to underserved immigrant children, families, and refugees in Texas.
Grassroots Leadership is an Austin, Texas-based national organization that works for a more just society where prison profiteering, mass incarceration, deportation, and criminalization are things of the past. Follow us @Grassroots_News.