Guest Column
Deported and Detainees: ‘Stepchildren’ of Immigrant Rights Movement?
- Deported and Detainees: ‘Stepchildren’ of Immigrant Rights Movement?
- By Roberto Lovato
- New America Media
- Mar 14, 2007
- For immigrant rights advocates who work with families in
detention, this year’s immigration reform debate stirs as much fear as
it inspires hope.
A principal concern among detainee and detention advocates is that this year’s debate will repeat what some call a “tradeoff” problem: a Congressional dialogue that focuses largely on legalization and ignores the growth of “repressive” policies targeting immigrant detainees. These advocates say that viewed from behind the bars and barbed wire fences of the many new detention centers built along the border in the last year, the next round of speeches, legislative proposals and large-scale marches urgently need to address the rights of immigrants most vulnerable to deportation and detention.
“My biggest fear is that there’s not enough political will to look at policies that decrease detention and deportation,” says Andrea Black of the Detention Watch Network, a coalition of organizations that deals with detention and deportation, issues deemed by some groups to be the “stepchildren” of the immigrant rights movement. The “continued consensus on detention and ‘so called’ enforcement provisions” causes Black the most consternation. “The bulk of both House and Senate (immigration reform) legislation last year was about detention and deportation,” Black says. “But it wasn’t discussed by the politicians. These issues were simply an accepted part of the legislation.” According to Black, there is already a bipartisan consensus on enforcement so that issues of deportation and detention, like the thousands of immigrants now wearing orange jump suits in detention, won’t be brought before the public.
Black points to proposals like the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006, authored by former Judiciary Chairman Senator Arlen Specter (R-Penn.) who many consider a political moderate. According to Black, among the more disconcerting parts of Specter’s proposal were numerous provisions that would have made it easier to jail, detain and deport hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of immigrants, in essence making it a federal crime to be undocumented. Senator Specter’s proposal also included provisions that facilitate Guantanamo-like, indefinite detention of immigrants and create a “guilty by association” provision that punishes those even suspected of being gang members.
Anticipation of this year’s debate has again given rise to tensions within the immigrant rights community. Subhash Kateel of Families for Freedom, a Brooklyn-based network of immigrants and immigrant organizations fighting deportation, says that groups like the National Immigration Forum (NIF) and others in Washington seem to be making a tradeoff: legalization in exchange for heightened enforcement. “The last debate didn’t talk about how the government is tearing up families. We’re watching the growth of the government’s unchecked power to deport and detain undocumented – and legal – immigrants. If you visit the detention facilities, and talk to the people being held there, you’ll see how the immigration system is becoming increasingly Kafkaesque. Why aren’t these issues talked about?” Kateel asks.
In response to Kateel’s criticism, Christina DeConcini, Director of Policy at the NIF, says, “We’re working to make sure that the worst parts of the (2006) Senate bill – the parts that have to do with due process and other issues – are removed or greatly changed.” DeConcini believes that whatever new bill is introduced will have to deal with the 12 million undocumented immigrants and provide provisions for future workers and their employers. However, she adds, “Whether you like it or not, you can’t move a bill if it doesn’t have enforcement. Look at the recent elections. Look at the newly elected Democrats. They want more enforcement, as does much of the public. If they (Families for Freedom) want to change the legislation, they’re going to have to change who the members of Congress are.”
Concern among immigration advocates continues to grow in proportion to the increase in raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (up 10 percent between 2005 and 2006), the lack of due process for immigrant detainees and the right to Habeas Corpus, not to mention the swelling of populations held in immigrant detention centers. According to a recently released report by the Lutheran Immigration Service, many detainees live in “prison-like” conditions. Despite recent reports of suicide, psychological abuse and inadequate pre-natal care among detainees, including families with children as young as six years old, it remains unclear to advocates whether the upcoming immigration debate will include an in-depth discussion on detention, deportation and enforcement.
In their efforts to address these concerns and slow the growth of the detention and deportation leviathan, Kateel and Families for Freedom are organizing support for HR 1176, a House bill sponsored by New York Democrat Jose Serrano. Serrano’s bill would give immigration judges discretion to stop deportation of the undocumented parents of children who are U.S. citizens if it is determined not to be in the interest of the child. “It’s one of the only lights of hope we have right now,” Kateel says. - ___________________________________________________________
- Original article at: http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=c9d2f96c300783e98295b308080bca6d
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