Daijiworld Media Network - Washington
Washington, Sep 22: US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has stopped publicly disclosing the locations of thousands of detainees who have received final deportation orders, making it more difficult for lawyers and relatives to locate them, according to current and former officials familiar with the move.
ICE removed the affected detainees from its online detainee locator system on September 15, according to three current and former ICE officials who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to discuss the change. Several immigration lawyers also confirmed that their clients had disappeared from the system, while the American Immigration Lawyers Association warned its members about the development.
The change was not publicly announced by ICE and marks a departure from its previous practice. Immigration lawyers said the move could make it harder for detainees to pursue last-minute legal challenges against their removal because attorneys and relatives may not know where they are being held.
Nearly 16,000 people arrested and booked into ICE detention in July had final removal orders, accounting for more than one-third of all bookings, according to ICE data obtained by the Deportation Data Project at the University of California, Berkeley and UCLA. ICE detention facilities held more than 65,000 people as of early July, with legal experts estimating that about 30 per cent had final removal orders.
ICE has not confirmed or denied the change. In a statement to the AP, the agency said detainees with final removal orders were being prioritised for deportation while ICE was facing what it described as a “historic number of injunctions” from courts blocking individual removals.
The change does not apply to detainees held at a facility in Adelanto, California, or at temporary holding facilities in Minneapolis, New York City and suburban Chicago, according to officials. Judges have ordered ICE to promptly list detainees at those facilities in the online locator as part of litigation concerning detention practices.
The development has caused concern among immigration lawyers and families because detainees are often transferred between facilities before deportation. Greg Chen, senior director of government relations at the American Immigration Lawyers Association, said the lack of information could interfere with attorneys' ability to communicate with their clients and pursue legal remedies.
People with final removal orders can still have legal options, including seeking to reopen their immigration cases or filing habeas petitions in federal court challenging their detention. Federal judges have issued thousands of orders directing the release of detainees or requiring bond hearings.
A final removal order generally follows an immigration judge's decision ordering deportation after a hearing. The order can become final when it is affirmed on appeal or when the person does not appeal. Orders can also be issued when an immigrant fails to appear for a scheduled hearing.
The ICE online detainee locator system was introduced in 2010 to allow relatives, attorneys and members of the public to locate people held in immigration detention. Previously, people generally had to contact ICE regional offices or individual detention facilities. The system already excludes certain categories, including minors, people held by US Customs and Border Protection for less than 48 hours and detainees being transported.
Several immigration lawyers said the new exclusion of people with final removal orders has no apparent precedent. Atenas Burrola Estrada of the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights said all 17 of the organisation's clients who had final removal orders had disappeared from the locator system by Monday.
Among those no longer appearing in the system are eight Somali men detained at the US military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, according to their attorney My Khanh Ngo of the American Civil Liberties Union. She said the change could make it extremely difficult in some cases for detainees to obtain the information needed to challenge their removal in court.
The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, has maintained that people subject to final removal orders have received due process. However, lawyers noted that some detainees may have protections against removal to countries where they face a risk of torture or persecution, while others are being considered for removal to third countries with which they have no ties.
The administration's decision has therefore drawn concern from immigration lawyers and advocacy groups, who say that losing access to information about detainees' whereabouts can complicate attorney-client communication and emergency legal proceedings. ICE, meanwhile, has said its priority is carrying out final removal orders amid a large number of court injunctions affecting deportations.