From the Heartland Alliance’s National Immigrant Justice Center:

Heartland Alliance’s National Immigrant Justice Center and 30 other national and international immigrant and human rights organizations, think tanks, and academics have petitioned the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Department of Justice (DOJ) to issue regulations allowing the release of detained asylum seekers who pose no danger to the community and would face persecution if returned to their home countries.

According to the report, in 2006, “of the 5,761 asylum seekers who were detained, 1,559 (27%) were detained for more than 180 days.”  The report continues: “On average, arriving aliens who eventually obtain asylum spend 10 months in detention.”  The report discusses the mental and physical effects of detention on asylum seekers, and also notes that the cost of detaining asylum seekers averages $95 per person per day–from 2003 to 2009, we spent more than $300 million to detain asylum seekers.  The report recommends regulatory changes to allow more detained asylum seekers to be released prior to their final hearings. 

As usual, this problem is also a question of the asylum seeker’s financial situation and access to counsel.  Represented asylum seekers who are eligible for release (and who can afford to pay the bond) will almost always be released in a month or two.  The poorest and most vulnerable asylum seekers are the most likely to remain detained.  Case in point: I received a call today from a woman whose sister was threatened by gang members in El Salvador.  She fled the country, crossed the border illegally, and was detained.  She is currently being held in Eloy, Arizona, and has already made a claim for asylum.  The sister is looking for an attorney in Arizona to prepare an application for bond.  I referred her to the Florence Project, an excellent legal services organization that assists immigrants detained in Arizona.  If the woman can secure a bond, the chances of her asylum claim succeeding will be much improved.  If she remains detained, she will have to prepare her case and gather evidence–such as letters from witnesses, police reports, and medical reports–from behind bars.  Under those circumstances, I imagine the chances for her to succeed are pretty slim.