RE: Rethinking mandatory detention and deportation in light of the Department of Justice s Smart on Crime initiative

Transcription

1 August 29, 2013 The Honorable Janet Napolitano Secretary Department of Homeland Security Washington, DC John Sandweg Acting Director U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Washington, DC RE: Rethinking mandatory detention and deportation in light of the Department of Justice s Smart on Crime initiative Dear Ms. Napolitano and Mr. Sandweg, As the Department of Homeland Security undergoes a transition to new leadership, we join the 110 undersigned immigrant and refugee rights, criminal justice, racial justice, and faith-based organizations to urge you to consider a full review of the DHS s detention and deportation policies in light of the Justice Department s recent Smart on Crime reforms. This package of reforms would correct unfair sentencing disparities, decrease rates of incarceration by focusing on alternative approaches and diversion programs, and de-escalate the war on drugs that created the highest rate of incarceration in U.S. history, and the highest in the world. Attorney General Eric Holder, in his remarks to the American Bar Association on August 12, 2013, recognized that high rates of incarceration and harsh mandatory minimum policies not only have created unsustainable rates of incarceration in this country, but they are also wasteful, ineffective, unfair, exacerbate poverty and insecurity for families, and weaken communities. DHS should follow DOJ s lead with similar reflection on reforms to make the immigration enforcement system smarter, less wasteful, fairer, and more humane. Like the general U.S. prison population, immigration detention has ballooned to unsustainable and unmanageable proportions, increasingly relying on private prison facilities with insufficient oversight. Rigid and harsh criminal deportation policies result in thousands of fathers and mothers separated from citizen children, and judges have no power to stop many deportations even if an individual clearly poses no risk to society and may be a U.S. veteran, a small business owner, a role model in the community, or came to the U.S. as a very young child or as a refugee. These policies exacerbate a cycle of poverty for families in many communities of color, and unfairly punish individuals who have turned their lives around and who can serve as mentors to new generations of immigrant and second generation youth struggling to find their way. Like the criminal justice system, mandatory deportation and detention laws have resulted in exorbitant fiscal costs, separation of families and communities, and unfair consequences for immigrants.

2 High cost Attorney General Holder recognizes that mass incarceration is ineffective and unsustainable, costing around $80 billion dollars per year, and that it is disruptive to families who may lose the income of one or both parents for months or years. Last year, the U.S. government detained about 400,000 people in immigration custody, a vast network of federal, county, and city jails and prisons, many of which are privately owned and operated, at the cost of about $164 per person / per day. DHS should continue to expand community-based alternative approaches to detention, which are far less costly and less disruptive to families. Deportation is also extremely costly to U.S. taxpayers and the U.S. economy. According to the National Immigration Forum, the current administration has deported over one million people at a cost of about $23,000 per person, and the Migration Policy Institute has found that the total cost of immigration policing, apprehension, detention, and deportation is larger than all other federal criminal law enforcement programs combined. The extremely high economic and social costs of permanently separating thousands of families every year is harder to measure. Effects of deportation on families and communities The DOJ recognizes that high rates of incarceration and disproportionate punishment exacerbate a cycle of poverty and criminalization by breaking apart families, destabilizing communities, and decreasing economic opportunity and earnings. According to federal data released to the Applied Research Center through a FOIA request, in the first six months of 2011 alone, more than 46,000 parents of citizen children were deported, leaving many in foster care or Child Protective Services. Thousands of other children must say goodbye to one parent forever, leaving another to raise them alone. Deportation has had a devastating impact on immigrant communities. Take for example the impact on Southeast Asian American communities. Mout Iv was resettled in the U.S. as a refugee from the Cambodian genocide when he was nine years old, and struggled to find his way growing up in high crime neighborhoods. After serving time for a conviction after a neighborhood fight when he was 21, Mout spent seven years turning his life around, building a small family, running a thriving community barbershop, and advocating for inner-city youth. He was still subject to mandatory deportation without consideration of any of these factors. When he was finally deported, his barbershop closed and his wife and two U.S. citizen daughters were left without a father or breadwinner. Mout s case is not an anomaly. Noncitizens, including refugees and Lawful Permanent Residents, serve their time in the criminal justice system and start their lives over only to find that they will be automatically deported years later. Despite evidence of rehabilitation, positive contributions to the community, or the potential impact of a deportation on parents, spouses, and dependents, current policies make deportation mandatory in many cases. Harsh and disproportionate consequences of deportation as a mandatory minimum Attorney General Holder has stated that judges should have more discretion not to apply draconian and excessive mandatory minimum sentences to drug offenders, arguing that it is important to ensure a sentence length commensurate with the crime committed. Deportation is a mandatory minimum life sentence of permanent exile for thousands of lawful permanent residents convicted of aggravated felonies a category so broad as to encompass crimes that are neither aggravated nor felonies. Drug convictions

3 have resulted in mandatory deportation for many immigrants who have long resided in the U.S. According to ICE, drug-related charges were the most common grounds for criminal deportations in 2009 (30%). Lundy Khoy is an example of the disproportionate immigration consequences that drug convictions can impose on immigrants. She was born in a refugee camp in Thailand after her family fled the Cambodian genocide, and came to the U.S. when she was a year old. When she was a freshman in college, Lundy was caught with ecstasy on her way to a party, and was convicted of possession with intent to distribute. After serving only three months of her sentence, a judge released her. Lundy completed four years of supervised probation without missing an appointment, went back to school, and got her life back on track. Unfortunately, her drug conviction led to a mandatory life sentence of deportation to Cambodia at the end of her probation period, she was met by an ICE officer who took her directly to an immigration detention facility where she was imprisoned for almost nine months. She was then ordered deported without any consideration of the individual circumstances of her case. Lundy now lives day to day, continuing to work at her job as a college admissions counselor, not sure when ICE will finally put her on a plane to Cambodia a country she has never even visited. Recommendations We urge DHS to consider the following reforms, in line with DOJ s Smart on Crime reforms: Urge Congress to pass legislation that ends mandatory detention and deportation policies. Encourage reforms that let immigration judges do their jobs to decide whether deportation is proportionate to the crime committed, or whether an individual has already paid his or her debt to society and no longer poses any risk. For example, a judge should be able to take into account the impact of deportation on U.S. citizen children, contributions to community and family, length of residence in the U.S., military service, and the nature of the offense. Work with Congress to promote more alternatives to detention and better oversight of existing detention facilities. Until Congress fixes these policies, DHS should exercise discretion not to pursue deportation or to close cases where deportation is clearly unjust and would have a detrimental impact of families and communities, even for those with past criminal convictions. We ask DHS to seriously consider reforming mandatory detention and deportation policies during this time of transition, and to consider whether such policies really serve the interests of American taxpayers, help to build strong and safe American communities, and reflect American principles of justice and fairness. Signed, Phuong Do, Interim Executive Director Southeast Asia Resource Action Center Angie Junck, Supervising Attorney Immigrant Legal Resource Center

4 Signing organizations: National 1Love Movement American Friends Service Committee Americans for Immigrant Justice Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Asian Law Caucus Asian Americans Advancing Justice-AAJC Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, AFL-CIO (APALA) Bill of Rights Defense Committee Black Alliance for Just Immigration Blacks in Law Enforcement of America Community to Community Development - C2C Congress of Day Laborers Defending Dissent Foundation Detention Watch Network DRUM - Desis Rising Up & Moving Ella Baker Center for Human Rights Families for Freedom Forum for Immigration Reform & Empowerment Hmong National Development, Inc. Human Rights Project Immigrant Defense Project Japanese American Citizens League Juntos Karen American Communities Foundation Laotian American National Alliance (LANA) Latino Education & Training Institute Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service Lutheran Social Services Muslim Consultative Network NAFEA NAPAFASA National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA) National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum (NAPAWF) National Association for the Education and Advancement of Cambodian, Laotian, and Vietnamese Americans (NAFEA) National Council of Jewish Women National Day Laborer Organizing Network National Immigrant Justice Center National Immigration Law Center National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance One Horizon Institute OneAmerica PANGEA Legal Services

5 Political Asylum Immigration Representation Project Refugee and Immigration Ministries, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) Refugee and Immigration Ministries, Disciples Home Missions South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT) St. Michaels' Parish The Center for APA Women Unitarian Universalist Association V.O.T.E. State/Local 1Love Movement - DC 1Love Movement - San Diego 1Love Movement - Seattle ACLU BerkeleyNorthEastBay Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Los Angeles Asian Law Alliance Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, Los Angeles Bhutanese Association of Georgia Bhutanese Community of Houston BPSOS-Delaware Valley California Coalition for Women Prisoners California Immigrant Policy Center Cambodian Association of Greater Philadelphia Capital Area Immigrants' Rights Coalition CCISCO Coloradans for Immigrant Rights, a project of the AFSC CO Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition Colorado Progressive Coalition Committee for Immigrant Rights of Sonoma County Fresno Interdenominational Refugee Ministries (FIRM, Inc.) Georgia Detention Watch Greater Cleveland Immigrant Support Network Hennepin County Public Defenders (MN) Hmong Women's Heritage Association Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights Immigrant Justice Clinic, University of Wisconsin Law School Just Communities of Western Mass Justice for Palestinians, San Josè, CA Justice for Our Neighbors -- Northern Illinois Khmer Girls in Action Lao Assistance Center of Minnesota Lawrence Action Network for Diversity Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area Marin Interfaith Task Force on the Americas Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition Mujeres Unidas y Activas

6 Northern Manhattan Coalition for Immigrant Rights NW Detention Center Roundtable NYU Immigrant Rights Clinic Office of the Mayor, Richmond California Post-Deportation and Human Rights Project, Center for Human Rights and International Justice, Boston College Providence Youth Student Movement Sacramento Area Congregations Together San Jose Peace and Justice Center Silicon Valley De-Bug Skagit Immigrant Rights Council South Asian Bar Association of New York Southeast Asian Coalition Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition Thai Community Development Center The Reformed Church of Highland Park, NJ UC Davis School of Law - King Hall Immigration Detention Project Unitarian Universalist Legislative Ministry, California Vermont Immigration and Asylum Advocates Vietnamese American Young Leaders Association of New Orleans (VAYLA) Washington Defender Association's Immigration Project Washington DREAM Act Coalition WeCount! Who Is My Neighbor? Inc. Women's Crisis Support - Defensa de Mujeres (Santa Cruz County, California)