From NBC News: Asylum-seekers with no criminal records are being detained around the country as the Trump administration seeks to remove immigrants looking for legal pathways to remain in the United States. The move is a major departure from previous practice, under which asylum applicants were allowed to work and build lives in U.S. communities as their cases played out.
The arrests follow a pattern, attorneys and advocates told NBC News. One day, the asylum-seekers are with their families, often after having lived in the U.S. for years. Then an errand or a drive to work ends with their being swept into ICE’s vast detention system. There, they face difficult conditions and a more adversarial immigration process, along with pressure to self-deport, the attorneys and families say. Their arrests have been reported around the U.S., including in Minnesota, New York, Virginia, Ohio, Oklahoma, Maine, Alaska, Wisconsin, California and Texas.
Six of attorney Robin Nice’s asylum applicants were detained by ICE despite not having criminal issues, she said, as a federal immigration law enforcement operation swept over Maine near the end of January. Some were finishing shifts at work. One was driving to work. One was going to buy medicine and groceries. One was picked up on the way to get their newborn a U.S. passport.
“This is absolutely unprecedented,” Nice said.
Nice said she once told clients that they didn’t need to be concerned about being detained as long as they had pending applications for asylum.
“We talked about it in the same way as getting struck by lightning,” she said.
That changed six months ago.
Over 2.3 million immigrants await asylum hearings in the U.S., with fluctuating approval rates. The administration says there is a backlog of “meritless applications.”
“It destroys people’s sense of stability as they are trying to do the right thing and pursue their claims for safety in the United States,” said Elora Mukherjee, a Columbia Law School professor and director of its Immigrants’ Rights Clinic. “I’ve had clients in detention, literally from New Jersey to Texas, who’ve given up on their cases because conditions are so unbearable.”
DHS said in a statement that “a pending asylum case does NOT confer any type of legal status in the United States. If a person enters our country illegally, they are subject to detention or deportation. Each illegal alien receives due process.”
“USCIS’ top priority remains the screening and vetting of all aliens seeking to come, live, or work in the United States,” the statement said, referring to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the DHS agency responsible for determining legal immigration status.
Attorneys and advocates criticize the new practice of detaining asylum-seekers, arguing it is harmful and unnecessary. They also claim that the administration is detaining law-abiding immigrants in inhumane conditions, lacking medical care, legal access, and proper food.
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson has denied claims about the “subprime conditions” at ICE detention facilities.
Read more at NBC News
The Dennis Michael Lynch Podcast archive is available below, with the most recent on top. Never miss an episode. Subscribe to the show by downloading The DML News App or go to Apple Podcasts.
