Photo courtesy of publik15 via Flickr
Did You Know That:
- Detained immigrants have no right to an attorney, even though they may be children or individuals with severe mental health issues.
- Immigrant detainees do not have a right to a speedy trial and an immigrant detainee can languish in jail for months, and even years, before his or her case is brought before an immigration court.
- Immigrant detainees can be transferred without notice to a detention facility hundreds or thousands of miles from family and friends making communication extremely difficult and depriving the immigrant of important emotional support as well as the assistance of family in securing legal counsel. Read more facts and statistics.
A National Problem with Community Impact
In the Washington metropolitan area, hundreds of detained immigrants (adults and children) are being held in county jails in Virginia and Maryland or in juvenile facilities in Virginia. Some of the jails holding adult detainees are in small rural communities, hundreds of miles from the detainee's family and friends. Many of the immigrants detained in these jails speak little or no English and have no understanding of immigration laws. Only a few can afford to hire an attorney and without any type of legal assistance it is nearly impossible for an adult, much less a child, to navigate the complex world of immigration law and even those individuals with good claims to remain in the United States can end up being deported.
What kinds of people does CAIR Coalition help?
Detained adult immigrants in Virginia and Maryland include recently arriving asylum seekers who have fled their home countries in fear of their lives as well as long-term residents of the United States. They also include individuals suffering from physical and mental illness who lack access to proper healthcare.
Unaccompanied immigrant children served by CAIR Coalition include youth fleeing gang and drug violence, as well as victims of child abuse and human trafficking.
They include individuals like:
VC, who was abandoned by her mother in Mexico and brought to the United States by a stepsister who forced her to do household chores and provide child care for the stepsister’s children. If she complained, she was beaten. This forced servitude continued for several years until the stepsister kicked VC out of the house when she was 15 after an argument. Her sister’s boyfriend offered to take her in. With nowhere to turn, VC accepted. Several days later, this man drugged and raped VC. Deeply ashamed, VC kept the rape a secret for nearly a year. VC was eventually detained by Immigration and Customs enforcement and placed in the Shenandoah Juvenile Detention Center in Virginia which is where CAIR Coalition staff first met her. CAIR Coalition placed her case with a pro bono attorney who is helping her to get legal permanent residence in the United States through a special immigrant juvenile visa.
JP, who was born in Honduras and orphaned at the age of four when both his parents died of AIDS. When he was 11, JP saw his brother murdered by gang members for refusing to join. Soon the gang started coming after JP and he was forced to flee the country to save his life. Heading north, JP rode the “death train,” a fright train on which many immigrants have died, either by falling off crowded roofs or at the hands of criminals. Detained upon entering the United States, he was placed in a succession of facilities until he finally ended up at the Shenandoah Valley Juvenile Center in Stanton, VA where CAIR Coalition staff met him. CAIR Coalition placed his case with a pro bono attorney who is helping JP to get legal permanent residence in the United State through a special immigrant juvenile visa.
PG, an ethnic Hutu from Burundi fled to the United States in after being repeatedly harassed, and ultimately, threatened with death, for refusing to join a Hutu rebel organization. Upon his arrival at Dulles Airport, PG. explained why he was afraid to return home and was immediately sent to a Virginia jail where he remained for the next 20 months. CAIR Coalition placed his asylum case with a pro bono attorney who represented PG pro bono before the immigration court. In an overly broad reading of the law, the immigration judge denied PG’s claim for asylum, finding that because the rebel group had stolen his lunch on one occasion and on another robbed him of $4.00, PG had provided “material support” to a terrorist group and was not eligible for asylum. When PG’s initial pro bono counsel was not able to continue with the case, CAIR Coalition placed the matter with another firm which won the appeal and a joyful PG was released from jail soon after.
Our Purpose
As long as detained immigrants have no right to government appointed counsel, as long as those fleeing for their lives and seeking a safe haven in the United States continue to be locked-up, as long as those suffering from physical or mental illness continued to be denied medical treatment, as long as long term residents of the United States with strong roots in the community continue to be arrested and detained in record numbers, CAIR Coalition will do everything possible to defend the rights of the immigrant community.
With your help, we will make jail visits, we will find pro bono attorneys, we will advocate for alternatives to detention and we will work to insure that all immigrants are treated with fairness, dignity and respect for their human and civil rights.
