FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 21, 2014

CONTACT
Adela de la Torre, 213-400-7822, [email protected]
Wendy Feliz, American Immigration Council, 202-507-7524, [email protected]
Inga Sarda-Sorensen, American Civil Liberties Union, 212-549-2666, [email protected]

Immigrant Rights Advocates Sue in Effort to Reveal Policies and Procedures at Artesia Family Detention Facility

LOS ANGELES — Immigrant rights advocates today filed Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) litigation to compel the release of documents regarding the federal government’s use of the expedited removal process against families with children, including those detained at the government’s family detention center in Artesia, New Mexico.

To date, the government has not publicly released critical information about the policies and procedures governing its operations at the Artesia facility, despite the potentially life-threatening consequences for the women and children detained there. It is particularly urgent that the government make these policies and procedures publicly known, given that it has opened another family detention center in Texas and has announced plans to open a massive 2,400-bed family detention facility, also in Texas.

The American Immigration Council, National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild, the American Civil Liberties Union and co-counsel, the National Immigration Law Center and Jenner & Block, LLP, brought this litigation after the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) failed to respond in a timely manner to their FOIA request.

In June, DHS opened a remote, makeshift detention facility in Artesia to detain women and children who are fleeing violence in Central America. On August 22, the same groups, in coalition with others, filedlitigation challenging the validity of the expedited removal process in Artesia. With this new FOIA suit, the groups are trying to shed light on a broad range of new government policies regarding the detention and deportation of families amidst a stunning increase in family detention under the Obama administration.

“Over the past several months, the Obama administration has overseen a dramatic increase in its practice of locking up mothers and children, with very little public explanation of this change in policies,” said Melissa Keaney, staff attorney for the National Immigration Law Center. “Before they open the biggest family detention facility yet, federal officials should explain why they’ve decided to place toddlers and their mothers behind barbed wire and then whisk them back to the dangerous situations they fled.”

“Lawyers representing clients in Artesia report that the processes are anything but fair and fall far short of the government’s obligations to provide due process,” said Melissa Crow, legal director of the American Immigration Council. “Compounding these injustices is DHS’s refusal to provide basic information about the policies and procedures that apply in these cases.”

“The American people have a right to know the truth about what is happening at Artesia,” said Cecillia Wang, director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project. “We already know that the government is turning its back on the life-threatening risks these mothers and children will face if they are returned to Central America. But the government is still keeping its new processes for detaining and deporting these families a secret. This lawless lack of transparency will cost lives. It’s time for the government to come clean.”

“With the administration poised to expand expedited removal processing in more detention centers, it is difficult to understand the rationale behind the government’s decision to refuse our requests for more information about its own procedures,” said Paromita Shah, associate director of the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild. “This lack of transparency sends a strong signal to the world that the U.S. government is abandoning its obligations to provide detained families with children a meaningful opportunity to present their claims.”

The complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. A copy is available athttp://nilc.org/document.html?id=1152.

More information about Artesia-related litigation is available atwww.nilc.org/artesialawsuit.html.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 17, 2014

CONTACT
Adela de la Torre, [email protected], 213-400-7822

Administration Announcement to Speed Haitian Family Reunification a Good First Step

Obama must do more to end years-long backlog for Haitian families still reeling from devastating earthquake

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration announced today that some Haitian family members stuck in the 12 year visa processing backlog would be able to join their families in the United States two years before their current approved entry date. This move could benefit several thousand Haitians who, in the aftermath of one of the world’s deadliest earthquakes, have faced increasingly dire situations while waiting to be reunited with their families. Below is a statement from Marielena Hincapié, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center:

“Today’s announcement rightly recognizes that the United States can and should do more to ensure that Haitian families aren’t being forced to wait endlessly to be reunited with their loved ones. This is an important first step toward the policy solution Haitian-American and immigrants’ rights advocates have long called for: a robust Haitian family reunification parole program that ends the family reunification wait for up to 160,000 Haitians.

“Such a program has been used effectively in our recent past: Cuban entrants have benefitted from a similar program since 2007. Furthermore, doing the right thing for Haiti and Haitian families enjoys bipartisan support and has been recommended by more than 100 members of Congress.

“Nearly five years after the devastating earthquake in Port-au-Prince, today’s announcement is welcome news. This victory comes after years of hard work and inspiring advocacy by the Haitian community in the United States, and their incredible work will change the lives of the thousands of people impacted by this policy change. President Obama should build upon this welcome news by delivering on his promise to enact bold administrative relief that would help keep Haitian immigrant families — and all immigrant families — together.”

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