Special Issues with Immigrant Detention

Added: (Fri Jan 29 2010)

Pressbox (Press Release) - Houston-area immigration lawyer Annie Banerjee weighs in on issues of how immigrants are actually detained.

In 2007, ICE reported that the average stay in detention for an immigrant subject to deportation proceedings was 37 days. But Amnesty International found that immigrants and asylum seekers may be detained for months or even years as they go through deportation procedures that will determine whether or not they are eligible to remain in the United States. A lot of circumstances can make a difference as to how long an individual is detained.

“A lot of times, legal safeguards don’t exist for these people,” asserts Houston-area immigration lawyer Annie Banerjee. “Many individuals are held in immigration detention without access to an immigration judge or judicial body, and may have to represent themselves if they cannot afford a lawyer. If they don’t have a command of the English language, it only exacerbates their ordeal.” The indeterminate periods of detention can also be a consequence of other factors.

“It does matter whether an individual is apprehended at the border, whether they are apprehended within the United States, or whether an individual has been convicted of certain crimes, to have any idea of whether that individual is detained and what kind of review, if any, takes place,” Banerjee explains.

It may also be up to an arresting immigration officer about how a specific case is decided. “An immigration officer may get to play God,” Banerjee says, “and sometimes the decisions made immediately after the initial apprehension determine whether or not the person will remain in detention, and for how long, or if these individuals are even entitled to a review of their detention by an immigration judge.”

Even if a review has been agreed to by authorities, “There is no guarantee that the review will take place, or will take place in a timely manner,” Banerjee says.

In fact, what appears to be most pertinent or crucial to justice in these cases, is a single word: Access.

“The ability to access the outside world is the only essential safeguard against arbitrary detention,” Banerjee concludes, “But it’s a sad fact that immigrants face significant barriers in accessing assistance and support while in detention – let alone any impartial review of their reasons for being there.”