This post originally appeared at https://wafmag.org/2017/08/the-other-refugee-crisis

Thomas, Claire R

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DigitalCommons@NYLS Other Publications Faculty Scholarship 6-1-2016 THE OTHER REFUGEE CRISIS Claire R. Thomas Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.nyls.edu/fac_other_pubs August 23, 2017The Other Refugee Crisiswafmag.org/2017/08/the-other-refugee-crisis/By Claire R. ThomasJune 2016Every day, there are stories in the news of people fleeing war, violence, famine,persecution, and other horrors in their home countries to find safety and basic dignity indistant foreign lands. But absent from the current media are the accounts of the “otherrefugee crisis,” one that is happening much closer to the United States. Central Americanwomen and children, who are victims of domestic violence, child abuse, extreme poverty,state neglect, and terrorization by gang members in their home countries of El Salvador,Guatemala, and Honduras, flee for their lives to their northern neighbor daily. Many seekreunification with loved ones, but often experience kidnapping, extortion, sexual assault,forced labor, and other forms of violence on the journey north.Photo credit: CARA Family Detention Pro Bono ProjectCurrent and historic U.S. policies—including involvement in Latin American civil wars,mass deportations, and failed attempts at curtailing drug trafficking—have played asignificant role in perpetuating some of the root causes of contemporary violence in CentralAmerica. Yet, rather than share in responsibility for the effects, the U.S. government1/6mistreats those seeking refuge. While unaccompanied children are detained and eventuallyreleased to an adult “sponsor” who can care for them during their deportation proceedings,family groups remain detained. These families, often young mothers and their children, arehoused in remote locations in Texas and Pennsylvania, denied medical care, subjected tosexual assault, and left without counsel to argue their release from detention and theirright to seek asylum in the United States. Despite a federal judge ordering the release ofrefugee mothers and children from detention in July 2015, these asylum-seekers are stillbeing detained. What’s more, these detention facilities, called “Family ResidentialCenters,” have applied to the states in which they are situated for child care licenses, so thatthey can further circumvent legal settlement agreements and detain women and childrenfor longer periods of time. Immigration detention is a for-profit industry, with a dailyquota mandated by Congress of over 33,000 beds at private prison corporationsthroughout the United States. And, not surprisingly, profits are increasing, thanks tocontracts to run facilities like the South Texas Family Residential Facility, which has bedspace for 2,400 detainees.Over two days in January 2016, the Obama Administration conducted raids and round-upsof 121 Central American immigrants throughout the United States. Women and childrenarrested during these raids were put into immigration detention, and many were deportedback to the countries from which they fled. These raids started up again in May,presumably in order to further deter Central American women and children from makingthe dangerous journey to the United States—despite studies and numerous articlespointing out that violence, murder, and deplorable conditions in the Northern Trianglecountries, and not U.S. immigration laws, are the root causes of migration.While the U.S. State Department has recognized El Salvador and Honduras as among themost dangerous countries in the world and has evacuated the Peace Corps from ElSalvador, deportations to these countries continue. Many deportees, includingunaccompanied minors, did not receive notice of their removal hearings and many did nothave counsel, as there is no appointed counsel in immigration removal proceedings.2/6Photo credit: CARA Family Detention Pro Bono ProjectThe mothers and children detained at these centers have either been apprehended at ornear the southern border of the United States without visas allowing them to lawfullyenter, or have been apprehended in the interior United States and brought to the centerduring the raids conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Somehave walked with their children to the pedestrian crossings at the U.S.–Mexico border andasked for protection from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officer. Legallyspeaking, these women and children are “asylum-seekers” applying for asylum at a port ofentry to the United States, instead of refugees, as the latter refers to formal designationgiven to individuals outside of the United States who are formally resettled in the interior.Current immigration law calls for the immediate or “expedited removal” of non-U.S.citizens seeking entry (admission) to the United States (Immigration and Nationality Act§235(a)(1)). However, if the non-U.S. citizen—in this case, a mother with her children—3/6expresses a fear to return to her home country or an intention to apply for asylum to anICE or CBP officer, she and her children will be detained and then given a Credible FearInterview (CFI) before an asylum officer. During this CFI, the asylum officer determineswhether there is a “significant possibility” that the woman could establish eligibility forasylum in the United States (INA §235(b)(1)(B)(v)); this is commonly understood as a“substantial and realistic possibility of succeeding” on an asylum case in the future beforean immigration judge.A successful CFI does not grant the woman or her children any type of legal immigrationstatus, such as asylum, in the United States. Instead, it allows her to seek to leave thedetention facility and have her case transferred to an Immigration Court in whichever stateshe chooses to live. Unable to legally work in the United States and likely not eligible forany type of public assistance, the mother and her children depend on friends, family, andthe kindness of strangers to survive in the United States, while at the same time trying tofind an attorney to represent them in removal (deportation) proceedings before animmigration judge. It is during these formal removal proceedings that the woman and herchildren will seek an application for legal relief to remain in the United States, such as anapplication for asylum. As there is no appointed counsel in immigration removalproceedings, the woman will have to find an immigration attorney to represent her and herchildren.Statistics show unequivocally the difference that representation makes in immigrationremoval proceedings. But when detention facilities are at least an hour’s drive from ametropolitan area—as is the case with the facilities in Dilley and Karnes, Texas—animmigration attorney who practices removal defenses is difficult to find, even if thedetained individual has sufficient funds to pay for a lawyer.4/6Photo credit: CARA Family Detention Pro Bono ProjectEnter the CARA Pro Bono Project, a volunteer-based organization created in the summerof 2014 by the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, the American Immigration Council,the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services, and the AmericanImmigration Lawyers Association. In order to best manage the high caseload, CARA hasestablished a system in which volunteer teams each commit to one week of intensive workat the South Texas Family Residential Facility, a detention center in Dilley, Texas,approximately 80 miles southwest of San Antonio. Spanish-speaking attorneys, attorneyand interpreter teams, law students, and other interested individuals sign up for thechallenge of using their knowledge and skills to serve refugee women and children fleeingviolence in Central America.Volunteers with CARA participate in a short before-departure briefing session, and then alonger orientation session on the ground in Texas the Sunday night before they begin aweek of service. Attorneys and advocates from CARA oversee the day-to-day operations ofvolunteers at the detention facility and assign them projects and tasks. One of the mostimportant is explaining to the women who are detained in the facility the process for beingreleased, which involves either a positive decision on a CFI or Reasonable Fear Interview, aprocess similar to a CFI for those women who have a prior removal/deportation order.Volunteers explain the concept of asylum or other forms of legal protection and helpwomen articulate their claims when they appear without counsel before trained asylumofficers. They discuss the role of CARA and the volunteers; assist women to prepare for5/6their interviews; and, if the women receive negative decisions, help them with reviewsbefore the immigration judge. Volunteer attorneys represent women who are eligible forbond at bond determination hearings before an immigration judge.This systemic incarceration and deportation of women and children is a denial of dueprocess rights, and is, quite frankly, inhumane. To be clear, while being granted asylum inthe United States is discretionary, the ability to apply for asylum is a right under both U.S.domestic law and international treaty obligations. But this right to apply for asylum doesnot matter if seeking protection becomes a farce for those facing the incredibly complexworld of immigration law without counsel. While the current Obama Administrationdithers, detains, and deports mothers and children, as well as unaccompanied children, toCentral America, violence in the region escalates and the rule of law continues todeteriorate. Detention has not served its supposed intended deterrent effect, as moreindividuals attempt to seek protection at the doors of the United States out of desperationover failed policies.Sadly, many are not aware of the daily detention of asylum-seeking mothers and childrenon U.S. soil, nor are they aware of the multi-million-dollar industry of private immigrationdetention facilities profiting from the misery of these displaced individuals. To change thisnarrative, more people need to speak out in their communities and share what ishappening to these brave mothers and children seeking protection and basic dignity in theUnited States. They can volunteer as pro bono attorneys or legal assistants with the CARAPro Bono Project in Texas, share their language expertise as interpreter/translators, raisefunds to support the legal representation effort, or help by recruiting volunteers from thelegal or medical communities. Everyone can help to end family detention.Read updated piece: Immigration Under Trump: ‘The United States is full. Go Home”6/6

THE OTHER REFUGEE CRISIS

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THE OTHER REFUGEE CRISIS

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