Immigrant Advocacy, Civil-Rights Groups File Suit Against U.S.

Wall Street Journal

By Miriam Jordan

August 22, 2014

Immigrant Advocacy, Civil-Rights Groups File Suit Against U.S. 

A coalition of immigrant advocacy and civil-rights groups has sued the federal government over an expedited deportation process implemented for women and children detained at a New Mexico facility.

The American Civil Liberties Union, American Immigration Council, National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild, and National Immigration Law Center filed the lawsuit on Friday in district court in Washington, D.C., on behalf of several migrants. The suit alleges, among other claims, that women at the Artesia Detention Center have been unable to contact attorneys and that often cases are heard in front of their children.

According to the complaint, the fast-tracking of deportations sends mothers and children back to their home countries "to face serious harm without a meaningful opportunity to present their claims for asylum."

In the complaint, the groups allege that many women and children with credible-fear claims—the first step toward winning asylum—have been ordered deported. The complaint said, so far, 38% of the families detained at Artesia had passed that step, compared with a national average of 77% "under pre-existing procedures."

As the U.S. experiences a recent, unprecedented wave of families entering the country illegally, many of the migrants, hailing largely from Central America, are seeking refuge from gang violence, rape and death threats in their home countries.

The ACLU said migrants housed at the Artesia detention center, which holds up to 672 adults and children, are being denied a fair hearing and proper legal representation.

"We should not sacrifice fairness for speed in life-or-death situations," said Cecillia Wang, director of the ACLU's Immigrants' Rights Project.

"What we are seeing in Artesia is nothing less than a sham process that values expediency over justice," said Melissa Crow, legal director of the American Immigration Council, who referred to an "assault on due process."

ICE said that as a matter of policy it doesn't comment on pending litigation. It said the response to "this unprecedented surge has been both humane and lawful."

Since July 18, the government has flown about 280 adults and children to Central America from Artesia. ICE's deportation airline, known as ICE Air, flies 10 times weekly to both Honduras and Guatemala and five times weekly to El Salvador.

In late July, ICE temporarily stopped deporting people from the Artesia facility after one migrant was diagnosed with chickenpox. The agency resumed deportation flights on Aug. 7.

"These removals are a result of the President's direction to surge resources such as immigration judges and asylum officers to process these cases more quickly," ICE said in a statement last month.

For more information, go to:  www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com