On Thursday, May 17, the 老澳门开奖结果 will be in federal district court to challenge the Trump鈥檚 administration鈥檚 arbitrary and illegal incarceration of thousands of asylum seekers who fled persecution, torture, or death in their countries of origin.
For our plaintiffs, and the class members they represent, the chain of events leading to incarceration was the same: They presented themselves to immigration officers, passed screenings, and were found to have credible asylum claims. Then they were locked up in immigration jails across the country.
All of them applied for 鈥渉umanitarian parole,鈥� or release from detention, presenting evidence that they were not flight risks or dangers to the community. And yet, ICE denied every request, often with form letters that provided no indication that their applications and supporting documents were taken seriously.
It鈥檚 clear that ICE is violating its own policy directive, which instructs that asylum seekers should be granted release provided they meet certain requirements while they await rulings in their cases. The government, however, maintains that each of our plaintiffs and class members did, in fact, receive an 鈥渋ndividualized determination鈥� of whether or not they should be released. To support the claim, the government provided a series of 鈥渞easons鈥� of why ICE denied our plaintiffs鈥� parole requests. This is the first time our plaintiffs have been given even anything close to a real explanation for their detention. And they鈥檙e only getting those explanations months after their parole requests were denied, in the form of declarations put together by officials seeking to justify their actions after the fact. But let鈥檚 look at some of the government鈥檚 so-called 鈥渄eterminations.鈥�
Take Mr. Abelardo Asensio Callol, who came to the U.S. fleeing persecution by the Cuban government. ICE denied his parole request because he allegedly had not shown an 鈥渙ngoing relationship鈥� with the person he would live with outside of detention while he awaits a decision in his asylum case.
The catch? Mr. Callol鈥檚 sponsor was his own mother, a green card holder. If Mr. Callol鈥檚 parents can鈥檛 vouch for him, who can?
What about H.A.Y.? She came to this country with her husband after they received death threats from an armed wing of a criminal cartel in Mexico. The government鈥檚 reason for denying her release is that she is a 鈥渞ecent entrant.鈥� Literally everyone who comes to the U.S. border seeking asylum is, by definition, a 鈥渞ecent entrant.鈥�
And then there鈥檚 Mr. Ansly Damus, the lead plaintiff of the lawsuit, who has been locked up for more than a year and a half 鈥� and counting. An ethics teacher from Grande-Rivi猫re-du-Nord, Haiti, Mr. Damus criticized a local official for corruption in one of his seminars. Afterwards, an armed gang who supports that official brutally attacked him before setting his motorcycle on fire and threatening to kill him. Mr. Damus fled to the United States, where he presented himself to immigration authorities and applied for asylum. A judge granted him asylum 鈥� not once, but twice. He has not committed any crimes and has shown ICE that he had a safe place to live after he was released.
ICE鈥檚 reason for denying him parole was that he didn鈥檛 have 鈥渟ufficient ties鈥� to the United States. For one thing, that鈥檚 not even true 鈥� Mr. Damus showed that he had a friend with lawful status whom he could live with, as well as letters of support from other community members.
Second, every asylum seeker who comes to the border, again, by definition does not have 鈥渢ies鈥� to this country. And if they鈥檙e never released from detention, they will never get the chance to build those 鈥渢ies.鈥�
The arbitrary imprisonment of people like Mr. Callol, H.A.Y., and Mr. Damus are part of the administration鈥檚 larger strategy of deterring immigrants from seeking refuge, even though our laws permit them to.
There can be no other plausible explanation for ICE鈥檚 dramatic shift from granting parole in more than 90 percent of cases to denying parole for asylum seekers in nearly every case. This same cruel and abusive deterrence strategy underlies tactics like brutally separating parents from their children and criminally prosecuting individuals who cross the border to seek asylum.
In order to further the Trump鈥檚 administration鈥檚 anti-immigrant agenda, ICE is holding asylum seekers to criteria that they can never meet. Their justifications for denying parole are painfully transparent, and the court should see through them.
