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This summer, a federal judge ordered the U.S. government to immediately release or grant hearings to more than 1,000 asylum-seekers who were in detention. In a court hearing earlier this week, attorneys representing the detained argued that, for many people, that's not happening. Monica Ortiz Uribe reports.
MONICA ORTIZ URIBE, BYLINE: Two days after Christmas last year, a cattle rancher and his wife fled their home in northern Mexico after getting death threats from organized crime. They arrived at an official U.S. border crossing, inquired about asylum and were detained. They were then separated and held for six months, despite passing an initial screening by an asylum officer and having a U.S. citizen daughter who was petitioning for their residency. Carlos Spector is the couple's attorney.
CARLOS SPECTOR: While they were detained, the I-130 petition to fix their residency was approved. All they needed to do is be released, and then they could fix their papers.
URIBE: But officials with Immigration and Customs Enforcement refused to release them, claiming they were a flight risk. So this spring, the couple joined a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union which accused ICE of violating its own policies by denying asylum-seekers humanitarian parole. In July, a U.S. district court judge in Washington, D.C., ordered ICE to reconsider parole for some 800 asylum-seekers nationwide. The Mexican rancher and his wife are among the lucky few who've been released. Still fearful for his family, the rancher requested we not use his name.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Through interpreter) They did everything on purpose so we would self-deport.
URIBE: "The ICE officers discouraged and harassed us until we felt like giving up," he says. Immigrant attorneys from Los Angeles to Philadelphia complain that in the last two years, ICE has become more aggressive toward asylum-seekers. Linda Rivas directs a legal aid organization for immigrants in El Paso.
LINDA RIVAS: In the past, we would see people be released to a cousin, an aunt, an uncle, and we tracked those cases. They went to their court dates, and it was not an issue.
URIBE: Under the Obama administration, 90 percent of asylum-seekers were freed shortly after arriving in the U.S. That was thanks to a 2009 directive from the Department of Homeland Security which required the release of asylum-seekers who didn't pose a public threat and had strong community ties in the U.S. Then came the Trump administration, and federal authorities reversed course. In certain parts of the country such as El Paso, ICE locked up a hundred percent of newly arrived-asylum seekers.
MICHAEL TAN: It's really very disturbing to see this change in policy.
URIBE: Michael Tan is with the ACLU's Immigrant Rights Project (ph). His client, a Haitian ethics teacher named Ansly Damus, is the lead plaintiff in the parole lawsuit.
TAN: There are serious questions as to whether the government is complying with the court order and following the parole directive.
URIBE: In an emailed statement from ICE headquarters, a spokeswoman said the agency was complying with the order. At a court hearing on the case this week, a government attorney said the agency had, quote, "corrected course on asylum detentions," issuing parole for some 26 percent of cases reviewed.
TAN: In our view, that's not at all satisfactory. There are many, many more asylum-seekers that have no business being behind bars while they fight their cases.
URIBE: The judge ordered the government to submit monthly reports to the court on its parole review of asylum-seekers. Those who are released will join a backlog of some 700,000 others waiting for their case to be heard in immigration court. For NPR News, I'm Monica Ortiz Uribe in El Paso. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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