The following articles were published in the September 2007 newsletter (for the September 2007 newsletter in pdf format, click here:
IRATE's 9th Annual Columbus Day March
IRATE Joins International Detention Coalition
IRATE - Monmouth University Partnership
IRATE's 9th Annual Columbus Day March
October 7, 2007 at 2:00 PM
Meet at Progress St. just off Dowd Ave. in Elizabeth, NJ
Please join us as we once again march with the flags of the nation to honor our immigrant heritage and protest the treatment of immigrants held at the Elizabeth Detention Center. We will assemble on Progress Street, just off Dowd Avenue in Elizabeth and march two blocks to the Detention Center. At the Detention Center we will hold a vigil to remember those detained in the EDC. Directions to the EDC, 625 Evans St., Elizabeth, NJ 07201 may be obtained from Mapquest or Yahoo Maps (Progress is two blocks away toward the northwest on the map).
Ten Years in Detention by Karen Long
For the past eight months I have been visiting R. at the Elizabeth Detention Center. Each time I begin visiting another asylum seeker at the EDC I think to myself, "This person's story can't be worse than the last." This time I was mistaken. In October of this year, R. will have been "detained" for ten years by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement merely for seeking asylum in our country.
Our government argues that R. would not continue to be in this situation if he would drop his asylum case in the U.S. court system and leave the country. However, he chooses to stay and continue to do whatever it takes to attain his freedom and begin a new life in the U.S. He has pursued various petitions for review and petitions for writs of habeas corpus in order to challenge an immigration judge's negative decision. R. believes the negative judgment was made because his lawyer did not provide pertinent evidence and because his own inability to testify easily in English hampered his making his case (this happens more often than not I am told by detainees).
R. sought political asylum because he was actively involved in local politics in his home country in Africa. R. was beaten and tortured by the state and military police and as a result of his political activities. R.'s two brothers, sadly, met worse fates. One was murdered for helping R. to escape the country; another brother was charged with treason. R. further fears persecution should he be deported back to his country of origin due to his conversion from Islam to Christianity.
Currently, R. has a petition for a writ of habeas corpus pending with a district court judge in Newark, New Jersey, and a motion to reopen his case with an immigration judge in New York, NY. The U.S. Attorney's Office has agreed to a stay of deportation while an immigration judge in New York City reviews the motion to reopen based on his claims stated above.
R. also has a federal lawsuit pending in the Eastern District of New York concerning the conditions of his confinement over the years. R. was formerly detained in the Wackenhut Detention Facility in Jamaica, New York, as well as Berks County Prison in Leesport, Pennsylvania. The Department of Homeland Security has no enforceable regulations with regard to humane conditions and access to health care making it difficult for asylum seekers to challenge conditions of their confinement. Over the past ten years R. has been deprived of sunlight and fresh air, has not seen a dentist or an eye doctor (his eyesight is failing, making reading difficult), and he has high blood pressure.
Through all of this, somehow R. has remained strong. He has an amazing outlook on life and a very deep and trusting faith in God. On my visits to the EDC, as I sit waiting in a worn out plastic chair, in front of the scratched up Plexiglas that separates detainees from their friends and loved ones, and with what I call another EDC headache, I am once again amazed when R. strides confidently through the steel door. In those awful, worn out, blue scrubs, R. greets me with his brilliant smile and a "Hello, how are you doing? Let me tell you what has been happening with me."
This year at our annual Columbus Day March to the Elizabeth Detention Center, I would like to make a special appeal to the authorities at least for R.'s parole from the EDC. After what he has endured R. should be able to continue his fight under more humane conditions. If anyone would like to support R. in anyway please contact me at karen4164@aol.com.
IRATE Joins International Detention Coalition by Bill Westerman
At the annual Detention Watch Network conference in June, IRATE joined more than 100 other groups worldwide as members of the International Detention Coalition. As the detention of migrants, refugees, and asylum-seekers is growing around the world, organizations and concerned individuals from more than 40 countries have come together to share knowledge and information and to advocate for the human rights of all.
The International Coalition on Detention of Refugees, Asylum Seekers and Migrants, to use its full name, was founded in response to the increased used of jails and prisons for immigration violations and for refugees seeking protection under international law. According to the mission statement, the Coalition's objectives are:
- to prevent and/or limit the use of detention of asylum seekers, refugees and migrants;
- to advocate for alternatives to detention, and for the use of the least restrictive forms of detention;
- to promote greater protection of and respect for the human rights of those held in detention; and
- to promote the development and adoption of best practices in the use of detention.
A current goal of the Coalition is the abolition of the detention or imprisonment of children for immigration violations. Activities to raise awareness of this issue are planned for Universal Children's Day on November 20. In the U.S., hundreds of children are detained at camps such as the Berks County (Pa.) Family Shelter Care Facility and the Hutto Residential Center in Taylor, Texas. Hutto is a private prison run by Corrections Corporation of America ñ the same company that runs the Elizabeth Detention Center.
At the launch of the Coalition in June 2006, Renato Raffaele, Cardinal Martino, Head of the Pontifical Council on Justice and Peace, stated, "Closed borders force desperate people into the hands of smugglers and traffickers, and on arrival in their country of asylum, into detention centres. The increasing use by governments of the policy of routine detention to deter migration conflicts with...the absolute right to protection from persecution.... A renewed open and participatory reflection on the ethics of detention is in order with greater focus on possible alternatives to detention. There are humane and effective alternatives to detention - such as open centers, regular reporting requirements, or supervised release - and they should always be considered."
The next meeting of the Coalition will take place in Geneva in September. The Coalition's extensive website (www.idcoalition.org) features articles, archives, and other materials about detention around the world and is a valuable resource.
IRATE Receives ASC Grant by Charlie Mulligan
In August of 2007, the ASC Foundation announced a grant to The Interfaith Refugee Action Team - Elizabeth for $20,000. ASC, a ministry of the Adorers of the Blood of Christ/US Region, was established in 2003 to support initiatives that reflect the Adorers' commitment to serve others, especially the poor and marginalized. Ann Haubrich, executive director of the Foundation, stated that ASC was "honored to support agencies that utilize varied approaches to push boundaries working so that marginalized people can attain equal footing."
The Adorers of the Blood of Christ is an international congregation of Catholic religious women founded by St. Maria De Mattias in 1834. There are 358 Adorers in the US centered in Pennsylvania, Illinois and Kansas.
IRATE is delighted with this grant to support part time staff as a supplement to and catalyst for our volunteer efforts. This new resource is especially important this year since we will be strengthened by more than 1,500 hours of effort by graduate-student interns from Monmouth University in a program designed to strengthen our organization, provide better support for volunteers and provide new outlets for in depth information about the plight of detained asylum seekers and visa violators. Our program year from September of 2007 through June of 2008, will be a time of great promise.
ASC Foundation Funds will assist with "The Community Based Detention Assessment Program of North Jersey." This IRATE program is aimed at educating the public by conducting and compiling interviews with detainees, the families of detainees and other community members to highlight the profiles and needs of the detained. The report will be distributed to and utilized by the media, churches, advocates, legislators, and legal and social service organizations.
For a long time, IRATE members recognized that a program like detaining asylum seekers and running closed courts inside the EDC can survive only by keeping it secret. It is not a formal secret, but hidden in the midst of the warehouse district of Elizabeth, we hold people seeking asylum for much too long with no constitutional protections. We hope what is hidden inside a warehouse will be put on a lamp stand by this grant.
IRATE - Monmouth University Partnership by Geri Mulligan
For the past three years IRATE has been blessed by the talents of three interns from the Social Work Department at Monmouth University. The students have given of themselves far beyond the 250 hours a semester they were expected to work. Not only have the students participated in the work of IRATE but their supervisors and instructors have also become interested and involved. Thus a new affiliation is being born.
During this school year a formal partnership will be formed between Monmouth University and IRATE. All of this came about with the help of the grant from the ASC Foundation (see preceeding article). We wish to collaborate with the students in the Masters Program of International Social Work in three areas:
- organizational development which will include grant writing, strategies for recruiting and retaining volunteers and board development;
- needs assessment which will involve direct contact with those detained at EDC as well as their families. Through interviews, correspondence and outreach to other community-based organizations involved with the EDC, an intern will collect, record and analyze data to propose programs that meet the needs of those detained;
- public education in which the student will organize anecdotal, research and gathered data into education and outreach programs for universities, religious congregations, and other organizations to alert them to what occurs at the EDC.
In addition to the three interns, a supervisor will be assigned to meet weekly with the students both individually and as a group to help coordinate their efforts and the work of IRATE.
This is a challenging and exciting partnership that will further the work and mission of IRATE and help us provide more meaningful service to detainees, volunteer visitors, and the community at large while engaging students in the work of justice to help them walk more surely into the future.
Detainees Lack of Phone Access. On July 6, the US government Accountability Office issued a report entitled "Alien Detention Standards." GAO found the most consistently serious problems in telephone access for detainees. (Human Rights First "Asylum News," July 2007). IRATE's program of giving phone cards to detainees was ended by the Corrections Corporation of America, the for-profit company that runs the EDC, when they changed their phone system. Selling over priced phone cards to detainees is part of their business.
More Beds Mean More Profits. More Progress to expanding "services" to asylum seekers. The GEO Group (NYSE: GEO) announced on July 25th that the LaSalle Economic Development District (the "LEDD") has signed an agreement with ICE for the housing of up to 1,160 immigration detainees at the GEO-owned LaSalle Detention Facility located in Jena, LA. GEO expects to ramp-up to 416 beds by the end of 2007. The Facility is expected to reach full occupancy by the end of the 3rd quarter of 2008. The agreement is expected to generate approximately 23.5 million in annualized operating revenues for GEO at full occupancy. (A GEO Press Release).
Statistics on Asylum Seekers. The Human Rights First 2006 "Country Updates" has been issued. In the section on the US, they reported that there were 82,200 new asylum seekers last year. The total number of refugees and asylum seekers were 147,200 with 16,400 from China, 12,000 from Haiti, 11,400 from Cuba and 11,300 from Somalia.
Solitary Confinement Abuse. A person who refused to go back to his country was held in Solitary Confinement for 11 weeks at the Elizabeth Detention Center until a lawyer questioned whether this was according to protocol. He was immediately released without comment.