A new report from Human Rights Watch documents the fate of dozens of Cameroonian asylum seekers deported to their country between 2019 and 2021. According to HRW, people deported to Cameroon “faced arbitrary arrest and detention; enforced disappearances; torture, rape, and other violence; extortion; unfair prosecutions; confiscation of their national IDs; harassment; and abuses against their relatives.” In addition, many also “reported experiencing excessive force, medical neglect, and other mistreatment in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody in the U.S.” Sadly, none of this is particularly surprising.
The portions of the report that I want to discuss here relate to asylum seeker confidentiality (or the lack thereof) and to the persecution of returnees because they sought asylum in the United States. (more…)
For weeks, the Trump Administration has been threatening to deport “millions” of illegal immigrants. The on-again, off-again plan seems to be on again (sort of), and so let’s discuss who might be targeted, and what to do if ICE comes calling.
Before we get to that, I think it is important to understand something about the rhetoric of President Trump and his aids: Through their words and their actions, they are trying to terrorize non-citizens. Unfortunately, they are largely succeeding, and many people throughout the U.S. are living in a state of dread. Perhaps the President and his supporters can argue that this is about enforcing the law, and about deterring foreigners from coming here. But it seems to me that the law can be enforced without the cruel words and rhetorical games, such as Mr. Trump’s gleeful tweet that unless Congress can work out a solution to the “Asylum and Loophole problems at the Southern Border… Deportations start!” From where I sit, this is pure cruelty, and the harm to regular people–non-citizens and their citizen family members–and to our nation is very real.
Remember when Conservatives used to oppose raids against children?
In a case of giving advice that I would have a hard time accepting myself, I think it is important to ignore the Administration’s words as much as possible. By this, I don’t mean that non-citizens should tune out, since it is important to know what’s happening in order to protect yourself. But dwelling on the Administration’s threats and bluster is mentally exhausting, and it serves no purpose (other than perhaps to further the President’s goal of terrorizing you). Despite it all, so far, Mr. Trump’s bark has proved far worse than his bite (in terms of deportations, the opposite might be said of President Obama).
And so while the rhetoric is bad, and bad things are happening, they are not happening on the scale that the President likes to claim. The “millions” of deportations is now down to two thousand, and even that may be difficult to accomplish given the government’s limited resources and the advance notice provided by the Commander-in-Chief. In short, the situation is not as bad as it may appear, and it is important to not let the stress and fear become overwhelming.
Turning to the raids themselves, who is a target? We don’t precisely know, since ICE keeps its cards close to the vest, but the New York Times reports that ICE will target individuals and families with final orders of deportation, particularly those who entered the country recently. Also, according to RAICES, an immigration non-profit, raids will occur in 10 different cities.
If you have legal status in the United States, or if you have a pending application in Immigration Court or at the Asylum Office, the raids should not directly affect you. Indeed, from what we know so far, unless you actually have been ordered deported by an Immigration Judge and that order is final (meaning, you did not appeal or your appeal was denied), you are not a target of the raids.
On the other hand, if you do have a final order of removal, you could be a target. It likely does not matter how long you have been in the U.S., whether you have family here, or whether you are otherwise law-abiding. If you live in one of the targeted cities, the risk is probably greater than if you live elsewhere, but we cannot be sure about that–raids could occur anywhere.
Also, ICE officers are perfectly happy to arrest any “illegal” who they encounter, even if that person is not the target of a raid. So if you live with a person who is a target, or you spend time with such a person, or if you just happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, you could find yourself affected by a raid. For this reason, it is good for all non-citizens to be prepared.
So how do you prepare? The ACLU has a helpful webpage in many different languages. Also, the National Immigration Law Center recommends the following for people without status (I have slightly edited this list):
If you encounter ICE agents, remain silent, or tell the ICE agent that you want to remain silent.
Find out the name and phone number of a reliable immigration attorney and keep this information with you at all times.
Know your “alien registration number” (“A” number) if you have one, and write it down someplace at home where your family members can find it.
Prepare a form or document that authorizes another adult to care for any minor children.
Advise family members who do not want to be questioned by ICE to stay away from any place where a raid occurred or where a detained person is being held.
Do not sign any U.S. government documents without first speaking with a lawyer.
More generally, have a plan. Make sure a trusted family member or friend has access to your immigration information and documents. Maybe scan or photograph your documents and save them online. Make a plan with your immediate family about what to do in the event of a raid – who to call, where to go.
If you have a deportation order, realize that you are a target for ICE. If ICE or any part of the U.S. government has your home, work or school address, they could come there to arrest you. If you are in an area where raids are likely to occur, you also face risk, as ICE can detain anyone without status, even if that person was not the specific target of the raid. One thing you can do affirmatively is to talk to a lawyer–if there is a basis to re-open your case, you are probably better off getting started now rather than waiting until you are detained.
Non-citizens who are in-status also need to be careful and should be aware of their rights. Carry your Green Card, EAD or other documents with you (in some cases a non-citizen is required to carry such documents), or at least carry a copy of them. And keep a copy at your house, online, or with a trusted friend, in case you lose the original.
If you do not have status but have a pending case, carry copies of your receipts or Immigration Court scheduling order, and–if you have it–a photo ID. Such documents should provide protection against arrest.
If you are arrested, there are actions that you (or more likely, your lawyer) can take: File a motion to reopen a closed case, request a stay of removal, file a motion for bond. So even an arrest may not be the end of the story, if you are prepared to take action.
Finally, try to keep things in perspective. In 2016, there were over 950,000 people in the U.S. with removal orders. This is the most recent data I could find, and I suspect that the numbers are even higher today. If ICE hopes to arrest 2,000 people in these raids, that accounts for only about 1 person in 500 of those in the U.S. with a deportation order. And even if they arrest more than that, the likelihood of any one individual being targeted is quite low. These raids are more about frightening people than about effective immigration enforcement. Keep that in mind and make sure you are prepared. These are the best ways to get through this difficult time.
A recent article in the Washington Post discusses the case of Santos Chirino, a Honduran man who sought asylum in the United States after gang members threatened him for testifying against one of their own. Immigration Judge Thomas Snow found that Mr. Chirino did not qualify for asylum or other relief, and ordered him deported. Eight months after he returned home, Mr. Chirino was shot dead at a soccer match.
Mr. Chirino’s is a sad and sympathetic case. But the fact is, his story tells us nothing about whether Judge Snow made the wrong decision. In fact, our asylum system is designed so that a certain percentage of those properly ordered deported will be harmed or killed in their home countries. Let me explain.
To win asylum, an applicant must demonstrate that he faces at least a 10% chance of “persecution” (serious harm or death) in the home country (this statement is a simplification, but for our purposes, it works just fine). Mathematically speaking, applicants who demonstrate a 9% chance of harm should be deported. If 100 such individuals are deported, we would expect nine of them to be persecuted upon their return.
Predicting is difficult; especially when it’s about the future.
As a conservative and cautious person, I do not like these odds. If you tell me that my airplane has a 9% of crashing, there’s no way in hell I’m getting on board. I’ll take the bus, thank you very much.
The situation is even more grim for people–such as Mr. Chirino–who do not qualify for asylum, but who still fear harm. Some people are ineligible for asylum because they committed crimes; others, like Mr. Chirino, are barred because they failed to file within one year of arriving in the U.S. and failed to meet an exception to that rule; still others are blocked because the harm they face is not “on account of” a protected ground (race, religion, nationality, particular social group or political opinion). Such people can apply for other, lesser, forms of relief: Withholding of Removal and relief under the United Nations Convention Against Torture (“CAT”). But to qualify for protection under these laws, an applicant must demonstrate that she will “more likely than not” suffer persecution or torture in the home country. In other words, that the likelihood of harm is greater than 50%.
This means that under our system, applicants for Withholding or CAT who demonstrate a 49% chance of being persecuted or tortured should properly be deported. Again, if 100 such people are deported, we can expect 49 of them to be harmed. This is not very comforting for asylum applicants or their families, or for people like Judge Snow who work in the system and are tasked with enforcing the law.
There’s another side to this coin, however. That’s the case where the adjudicator grants relief, and then the person commits a bad act inside the United States. Fortunately, such cases are rare, and it has been pretty-well demonstrated that immigration to the United States has a neutral or positive effect on crime rates (this makes sense given the strict vetting process for immigrants). But there are glaring exceptions, and these tend to get significant attention. One recent case involved a Salvadoran teen accused by DHS of membership in MS-13. Last summer, an Immigration Judge found the evidence against him insufficient and ordered him released from custody. A month later, he helped commit a brutal murder. Once again, the Immigration Judge may have made the “right” decision, but the end result was tragic.
So in a sense, Immigration Judges are caught between the Charybdis of granting relief and the Scylla of denying. But to me, that is not really their problem. We live in an imperfect world, and we have an imperfect asylum system. Judges operate within that system and hopefully follow the law to the best of their ability. If a particular asylum seeker has demonstrated a 9% chance of harm, the judge should deport that person. That is the law, and if we don’t like the law, we should try to change it.
In Mr. Chirino’s case, the tragedy is compounded by the fact that his denial was likely a result of failing to meet the nonsensical one-year filing deadline. Had he filed on time, or met an exception to the one-year bar, his case would have been evaluated under an easier standard, and he might have been granted relief. Again, this is a problem with the law, not the judge, and it is up to us to change laws that we do not like.
Several years ago, I was speaking with Judge Snow, who I consider one of the best and most thoughtful judges I know. I was thinking about applying to be an Immigration Judge, and I asked him how he handles hard cases, those where his sympathies lie with the applicant, but where relief was legally unavailable. He told me that in such cases, he does his best to follow the law, even when it is difficult. That is a judge’s duty, and I have little doubt that that is what Judge Snow did in the case of Santos Chirino.
I suppose all this goes to show that what works for “the system” does not necessarily work for the individual. One could argue that Mr. Chirino was an innocent martyr of our asylum system. He and many others have died or been persecuted so that our humanitarian immigration system might exist. It is important for all of us to be aware of these sacrifices, and to work towards a more perfect and just system.
The case of Ded Rranxburgaj, a rejected Albanian asylum seeker living in Detroit, has been getting attention lately. Mr. Rranxburgaj arrived in the United States in about 2001 and applied for asylum. An Immigration Judge rejected his claim in 2006, and the BIA denied his appeal in 2009. Instead of deporting him, the government allowed him to remain in the U.S. for humanitarian reasons: He was the primary caretaker for his wife, who has multiple sclerosis. Mr. Rranxburgaj’s wife is wheelchair bound, and she recently suffered a stroke. Doctors say that she is too sick to travel.
Rev. Zundel: When life gives you ICE, make ice cream.
There seems little doubt that Mr. Rranxburgaj is a “decent, family man” who does not pose a danger to the United States. According to his wife, he is a “very good husband” who helps her “take a shower… change clothes [and] cook.” Besides his wife, he has two sons in the United States–a DACA recipient and a U.S. citizen.
Mr. Rranxburgaj was living here peacefully since his case ended in 2009, but events took a turn for the worse last year when ICE decided to implement his removal order. According to an ICE spokesman: “In October 2017, ICE allowed Mr. Rranxburgaj to remain free from custody while making preparations for his departure pursuant to the judge’s order, which he had satisfactorily done.” “He was again instructed to report to ICE [to be deported this week], but did not report as instructed.”
Instead, Mr. Rranxburgaj took refuge in the Central United Methodist Church in downtown Detroit. Since ICE generally does not arrest people from churches, Mr. Rranxburgaj apparently hopes to avoid removal by remaining there, at least until something can be done about his deportation order. His lawyer has requested a stay of removal from ICE, but there is no decision yet, and ICE does not appear willing to play nice. An agency spokesman says that Mr. Rranxburgaj is considered a “fugitive.”
Meanwhile, the church is standing with Mr. Rranxburgaj and his family. The Pastor, Rev. Dr. Jill Zundel, said that the decision was in line with the teachings of Jesus, who had “compassion for those who seek new hope in a new land.” Rev. Zundel, who–if I can say this about a member of the clergy–seems like a real bad ass, has a tattoo on her arm that reads, “When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty.”
There are different ways to look at Mr. Rranxburgaj’s case. On the one hand, he is a man who has been in the United States for 17 years, his immediate family members are all here, he takes care of his sick wife, and he does not pose a danger to our country. So he should be allowed to stay. On the other hand, he is a man whose asylum case and appeal were rejected, and who is violating the law by remaining in our country. Allowing him to remain here will only encourage others to follow his lead. Therefore, he must go.
In short, Mr. Rranxburgaj’s story lays bare the conflict between enforcing the immigration law and showing mercy in a sympathetic case.
This situation reminds me of another–much older–conflict between law and mercy (or, more accurately, between law and justice, but I think the concepts of mercy and justice are closely related). After he was unjustly sentenced to death, Socrates sat in his cell waiting to be executed. His friend Crito arrived to help him escape. In the ensuing dialogue (creatively named The Crito), Socrates argues that he cannot violate a law, even an unjust law. He says that he entered into a social contract with “The Law” by choosing to live in Athens, and he gained benefits accordingly. To violate the rules now would undermine the social contract and ultimately destroy the city. Rather than breaking the law to escape, Socrates believed he should try to persuade the authorities to let him go. Failing that, he must accept death, since he could not justly attack The Law (by escaping) on account of having been unjustly convicted. In other words, Socrates disagrees with Rev. Zundel’s tattoo.
So where does this leave us?
I must admit that my sympathies lie with Mr. Rranxburgaj and his family. They are not doing anyone any harm. What is the benefit of ripping the family apart, especially considering the wife’s vulnerable position? Thomas Aquinas writes that “Mercy without justice is the mother of dissolution; justice without mercy is cruelty.” In Mr. Rranxburgaj’s case, fealty to the abstract concept of “The Law” seems cruel in the face of family separation and the wife’s illness.
On the macro level, Mr. Rranxburgaj’s case begs the question whether there is room for mercy (justice?) in the enforcement of our nation’s immigration laws. Well, why shouldn’t there be? Every person convicted of a crime is not subject to the maximum penalty. Indeed, due to mitigating factors and prosecutorial discretion, very few criminals actually receive the maximum sentence. The same is true for government enforcement in the civil arena: Not everyone who breaks the speed limit receives a ticket. If there is room for mercy and justice in the implementation of the criminal and civil law, why can’t the immigration laws be interpreted in a similar manner?
Unfortunately, that is not the view of the Trump Administration, which seems hell-bent on enforcement. To be fair, restricting immigration was an important plank of Mr. Trump’s campaign, and so it makes sense that he would crack down on illegal immigration. However, in Mr. Rranxburgaj’s case, and in many other instances, the Administration’s policies defy common sense. In the rush to implement The Law, the Administration has lost sight of justice. And of humanity.
When our government replaces mercy with cruelty, it is not only “illegals” who will suffer. We all will. And so it is heartening to see brave people like Rev. Zundel and her congregation standing up for justice, even when it sometimes means disobeying the law.
