DETAINED LONG-TERM RESIDENTS
The Need
Noncitizens with significant family, community, and employment ties to the United
States are increasingly vulnerable to removal (deportation) and also to detention for
long periods while they await removal hearings.
CLINIC's Response
CLINIC helps individuals with strong cases to apply for relief from removal, and to
apply for release while awaiting their hearings. CLINIC detention lawyers are also
representing noncitizens who, despite having no terrorist connections, were caught
up in the government's post-September 11 sweep.
Until the late 1980s, noncitizens with significant family, community, and employment
ties to the United States were not likely to be detained while removal proceedings
were pending against them. Beginning in 1988, and continuing through the 1990s, a
series of laws were enacted that: (1) defined more activities as deportable offenses;
(2) greatly expanded the use of detention during the period preceding a removal
hearing; and (3) made it much more difficult even for long-term residents with strong
U.S. ties to obtain relief from removal.
CLINIC provides a variety of services for detained long-term residents facing removal
proceedings. For individuals with strong claims to relief from removal, and whose
cases are in judicial circuits where release is legally possible, CLINIC will assist them
to apply for pre-hearing release and to reunite them with U.S. family members. CLINIC
also provides full representation in Immigration Court for selected long-term residents
who have claims for relief. Represented noncitizens, unlike those unrepresented, are
far more likely to succeed in making such a claim.
The aftermath of September 11 has provided additional challenges for noncitizens,
particularly those of Middle Eastern and South Asian origin. Using minor immigration
infractions as a rationale, the government has detained numerous noncitizens for
extensive periods in order to interrogate them prior to removal. CLINIC has assisted
long-term U.S. residents who, despite having no terrorist connections, were caught
up in the post-September 11 sweep. CLINIC has helped them to mount defenses in
situations where they qualify for asylum, for the right to depart voluntarily in lieu of a
deportation order, or for other forms of relief from removal.
In 2003, CLINIC was awarded a contract by the Executive Office of Immigration
Review (EOIR) to conduct legal orientation workshops for detainees at the Mira Loma
detention facility in Lancaster, California. A second contract for the program, known
by the initials “EOIR LOP,” was awarded to CLINIC in 2004 for work at the El Paso
Service Processing Center in Texas. Although CLINIC is the sole organization
involved in our California EOIR LOP program, in Texas, Diocesan Migrant and Refugee
Services of the Diocese of El Paso provides LOP services in collaboration with CLINIC.
These projects call for attorneys from CLINIC and partner organizations to meet with
all incoming immigration detainees in these large detention facilities to explain their
rights under US immigration law. According to EOIR estimates, detainees spend an
average of two fewer days in detention as a result of the knowledge they gain from
these legal orientation presentations.
In 2005
In the fall of 2005, EOIR informally announced that it anticipated receiving an increased
Congressional appropriation for the EOIR LOP program in 2006. EOIR intends to
expand the LOP program to between four and eight additional sites in 2006. CLINIC
staff have worked closely with CLINIC diocesan affiliates in California, Texas, and
New Jersey to plan for potential EOIR LOP contract bids by these agencies in 2006.
Current EOIR LOP contracts range from $90,000 to over $150,000 annually, making
the LOP program the largest single source of support nationally for service provision
to immigration detainees.
CLINIC gave 286 legal orientations to 6,300 detainees in 2005. Although the EOIR LOP
projects are the only federally funded legal orientation programs that CLINIC operates,
all CLINIC detention staff provide legal orientation. In 2005, 286 such presentations
were made by CLINIC staff to over 6,300 adult and juvenile detainees.
Legal orientation presentations also permit rare access behind the walls of detention
facilities, which allows for better evaluation of the conditions of immigrant detention.
They form the cornerstone of the legal work of the Special Project Division, as well as
the detention- related advocacy work of the Public Education and Advocacy Division.
The Need
Noncitizens with significant family, community, and employment ties to the United
States are increasingly vulnerable to removal (deportation) and also to detention for
long periods while they await removal hearings.
CLINIC's Response
CLINIC helps individuals with strong cases to apply for relief from removal, and to
apply for release while awaiting their hearings. CLINIC detention lawyers are also
representing noncitizens who, despite having no terrorist connections, were caught
up in the government's post-September 11 sweep.
Until the late 1980s, noncitizens with significant family, community, and employment
ties to the United States were not likely to be detained while removal proceedings
were pending against them. Beginning in 1988, and continuing through the 1990s, a
series of laws were enacted that: (1) defined more activities as deportable offenses;
(2) greatly expanded the use of detention during the period preceding a removal
hearing; and (3) made it much more difficult even for long-term residents with strong
U.S. ties to obtain relief from removal.
CLINIC provides a variety of services for detained long-term residents facing removal
proceedings. For individuals with strong claims to relief from removal, and whose
cases are in judicial circuits where release is legally possible, CLINIC will assist them
to apply for pre-hearing release and to reunite them with U.S. family members. CLINIC
also provides full representation in Immigration Court for selected long-term residents
who have claims for relief. Represented noncitizens, unlike those unrepresented, are
far more likely to succeed in making such a claim.
The aftermath of September 11 has provided additional challenges for noncitizens,
particularly those of Middle Eastern and South Asian origin. Using minor immigration
infractions as a rationale, the government has detained numerous noncitizens for
extensive periods in order to interrogate them prior to removal. CLINIC has assisted
long-term U.S. residents who, despite having no terrorist connections, were caught
up in the post-September 11 sweep. CLINIC has helped them to mount defenses in
situations where they qualify for asylum, for the right to depart voluntarily in lieu of a
deportation order, or for other forms of relief from removal.
In 2003, CLINIC was awarded a contract by the Executive Office of Immigration
Review (EOIR) to conduct legal orientation workshops for detainees at the Mira Loma
detention facility in Lancaster, California. A second contract for the program, known
by the initials “EOIR LOP,” was awarded to CLINIC in 2004 for work at the El Paso
Service Processing Center in Texas. Although CLINIC is the sole organization
involved in our California EOIR LOP program, in Texas, Diocesan Migrant and Refugee
Services of the Diocese of El Paso provides LOP services in collaboration with CLINIC.
These projects call for attorneys from CLINIC and partner organizations to meet with
all incoming immigration detainees in these large detention facilities to explain their
rights under US immigration law. According to EOIR estimates, detainees spend an
average of two fewer days in detention as a result of the knowledge they gain from
these legal orientation presentations.
In 2005
In the fall of 2005, EOIR informally announced that it anticipated receiving an increased
Congressional appropriation for the EOIR LOP program in 2006. EOIR intends to
expand the LOP program to between four and eight additional sites in 2006. CLINIC
staff have worked closely with CLINIC diocesan affiliates in California, Texas, and
New Jersey to plan for potential EOIR LOP contract bids by these agencies in 2006.
Current EOIR LOP contracts range from $90,000 to over $150,000 annually, making
the LOP program the largest single source of support nationally for service provision
to immigration detainees.
CLINIC gave 286 legal orientations to 6,300 detainees in 2005. Although the EOIR LOP
projects are the only federally funded legal orientation programs that CLINIC operates,
all CLINIC detention staff provide legal orientation. In 2005, 286 such presentations
were made by CLINIC staff to over 6,300 adult and juvenile detainees.
Legal orientation presentations also permit rare access behind the walls of detention
facilities, which allows for better evaluation of the conditions of immigrant detention.
They form the cornerstone of the legal work of the Special Project Division, as well as
the detention- related advocacy work of the Public Education and Advocacy Division.
415 Michigan Ave., NE
Suite 150
Washington, DC 20017
202.635.2556
202.635.2649 fax
media inquiries:
e-mail me
(202) 635-5810
Suite 150
Washington, DC 20017
202.635.2556
202.635.2649 fax
media inquiries:
e-mail me
(202) 635-5810
| CLINIC gave 286 legal orientations to 6,300 detainees in 2005. |
On the benefit of legal orientations for
detainees:
Presentations permit CLINIC to seek out the
most vulnerable indigent detainees for in-depth
legal representation or referral to volunteer
counsel. They also permit detainees to make a
better, and earlier, assessment about whether
they have any realistic option to fight their case
under increasingly harsh deportation laws.
Detainees who meet with CLINIC staff earlier in
their detention and learn that they have no option
to fight their case often decide to take an early
deportation order. This generally shortens the
time they spend in detention and permits them to
resume their lives more quickly in their countries
of origin.
detainees:
Presentations permit CLINIC to seek out the
most vulnerable indigent detainees for in-depth
legal representation or referral to volunteer
counsel. They also permit detainees to make a
better, and earlier, assessment about whether
they have any realistic option to fight their case
under increasingly harsh deportation laws.
Detainees who meet with CLINIC staff earlier in
their detention and learn that they have no option
to fight their case often decide to take an early
deportation order. This generally shortens the
time they spend in detention and permits them to
resume their lives more quickly in their countries
of origin.
Photo: Steven Rubin
Case Study
Mr. F-" was in danger of persecution because
of his father's activities that opposed the
government in Sudan . Mr. F- arrived to the
United States in 1993 as a refugee sponsored
by a resettlement agency in Tennessee . Upon
arrival, he worked steadily as a laborer in
warehouses. He filed tax returns each year.
Three years later, Mr. F- was convicted of
simple possession of crack cocaine and
sentenced to probation. In early 1998, the INS
placed him in removal proceedings for having
violated a controlled substance law. Although
Mr. F- was not a danger, the INS detained him
in rural Louisiana throughout the proceedings.
In September 1999, the Board of Immigration
Appeals granted Mr. F- withholding of removal,
but the INS did not release him until December
1999. In total, he spent 21 months in custody.
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