Sometimes it seems that the purpose of the ICE Detention and Removal Office is to make life so miserable that people would rather return to a country where they fear persecution than remain any longer in the United States. At least that is what the DRO has been doing to one of my clients. Here’s the story:
My client worked for her country’s government at an international organization in the United States. She was politically active in favor of an opposition party. Once her superiors learned about her activity, they ordered her to report to the home office. She feared–for good reason–that her government planned to arrest her upon her return, and so she filed for political asylum.
The Asylum Office referred the case to an Immigration Judge because the client had not filed for asylum within one year of her arrival in the U.S. (she had been working here for several years before she filed for asylum). At that point, she hired me, and we prepared a case for the IJ. I planned to argue that the client’s failure to file for asylum within one year should be excused by “changed circumstances” in her case, but I knew this argument was weak.
When we arrived in court, the DHS Attorney said he would agree to Withholding of Removal under INA 241(b)(3). An alien who receives Withholding of Removal cannot be removed to the country where she fears persecution. She is entitled to a work permit, which must be renewed every year, but if she leaves the U.S., she cannot re-enter. I had already discussed the possibility of Withholding with my client, and she agreed. In fact, she was relieved to avoid a trial. With the consent of DHS, the IJ granted Withholding of Removal.
A few years later, my client is still here. She is working hard and trying to make a life for herself.
Recently, however, DRO has begun an effort to force her to relocate to a third country. Why they have chosen my client for this attention, I do not know. She has no criminal history and she is employed, and the DHS attorney and the IJ both agreed that she faces persecution in her home country.
The DRO has the legal authority to remove my client to a third country: Withholding of Removal protects an alien from removal to the country where she fears persecution, but it does not prevent ICE from removing her to another country. Thus, every month for the last few months, DRO has made my client report to their office. For the client, this means losing a day of work (and having to make excuses to her employer), waiting for hours, and then receiving a lecture about how she will be deported, how the DRO has “power” over her, how they can make her report every month, every week or every day; in short, how they can disrupt her life to the point where she can no longer remain in the U.S. They leave her with instructions to find a visa to a third country, and to report back about her efforts to get a visa. The repeated threats from the DRO officers are the worst part. They terrorize and demoralize the client, who, of course, has no where else to go.
My client has dutifully contacted different embassies, none of which offer her a visa. More stress and wasted time. She and I both know that no country will offer her residency. The DRO officers know it as well. Yet they persist in their efforts to make her keep looking. As a result, my client is depressed and fearful, she may lose her job due to the frequent absences (to report to DRO and to visit embassies), and she has no certainty about her future in this country.
I suppose I should not speculate about the motivation behind the DRO officers’ actions, but I can clearly see the results of their behavior: They are harming a person who has been granted protection by our country. And to me, that is a disgrace.
