wfn.org | Religious leaders deplore use of detention centers for those seeking political asylum

[ENS@ecunet.org]

2001-103

Religious leaders deplore use of detention centers for those seeking political asylum

by James Solheim
jsolheim@episcopalchurch.org

     (ENS) A high-level group of Christian, Muslim and Jewish religious leaders emerged 
from a tour of an immigration detention center in a warehouse district near New York's JFK 
airport and expressed shock that those seeking political asylum in the United States are 
held in conditions they described as "worse than prison."

     "What I saw today was un-American," declared the Rev. Michael Kendall of the Episcopal 
Diocese of New York, after the two-hour tour through the winding corridors of the 
windowless, 200-bed brick and concrete block building run by the Wackenhut Corrections 
Corporation under contract with the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS).

     Detainees are locked in their dormitories where a uniformed guard keeps close watch as 
they sleep, read, watch television, use the open-stall toilets, shower, take their meals 
and play games to pass the time. They are allowed 60-90 minutes of recreation in cramped 
indoor and outdoor spaces.

     "I was shocked by what I saw," said the Rev. Bob Edgar, general secretary of the 
National Council of Churches. "Imprisoned criminals have more freedom, access and 
opportunity" than these detainees, he added.

     "If it looks like a jail and acts like a jail, it's a jail," Kendall said. "In the 
name of God, let's open our arms and treat these people like human beings."

     "This is a clear moral issue here," argued Richard Parkins, executive director of 
Episcopal Migration Ministries and one of the group. "Why treat those seeking freedom from 
persecution as though they are criminals, assuming guilt without due process?"

     According to Esther Ebrahimian of Lutheran Immigrant and Refugee Services, an 
organizer of the visit, statistics on the number of asylum seekers are not easy to obtain. 
LIRS estimates that approximately 200,000 immigrants are detained each year, and 1200-1500 
are seeking asylum. "Genuine refugees are getting turned away," she said, largely because 
low-level INS officials are not careful about the claims. 

     INS spokesman Bill Strassberger said that it was often difficult to determine the 
identity of those seeking asylum. "Once we determine who they are, we have to determine if 
they are a flight risk and if they are a danger to the community," he said. Immigration 
officials said that the tougher 1996 law sought to reduce the number of baseless claims INS 
had to litigate. Some are detained longer because their initial claims are denied. 
Strassberger denied claims that INS policies discriminate against African immigrants. 
"Asylum claims are treated equally," he said. 

Credible fear of persecution?

     Under the 1996 immigration law, those seeking asylum must convince a low-level 
immigration officer that they have a "credible fear of persecution" if they were returned 
to their home countries. If they are not successful in that claim they are deported 
immediately. The others are shackled and taken to INS detention centers and county jails to 
await decisions on their claims--a process that can take weeks, months or even years.

     If a hearing establishes meets the "credible fear" criteria, INS district officials 
could release asylum seekers on parole but that rarely happens in the New York district, 
according to church leaders who monitor the situation. 

     In a message shared at a May 3 Senate Immigration Subcommittee hearing on U.S. policy, 
the religious leaders called on Congress and the Administration "to take immediate steps to 
correct the policies enacted into law in 1996 that are causing such severe human suffering. 
(Text and signatories available at www.ncccusa.org.) 

     The statement said that the policies "seriously undermine our nation's commitment to 
refugee protection… As a just and generous country that has traditionally stood for the 
protection of human rights around the world, we can and must do better."

     At the subcommittee hearing, the Washington representative of the United Nations High 
Commissioner for Refugees urged the U.S. to provide full access to asylum processes, to 
treat them in a fair and consistent way, and to end the current practice of imprisoning 
them. "People fleeing wars and persecution to save their lives and freedom deserve respect 
and fair and humane treatment," said Guenet Guebre-Christos. "These often-traumatized 
individuals--many of whom may have suffered torture or other abuses in their home country--
should not have to overcome unnecessary obstacles to tell their stories. They should have 
access to legal help to navigate the complicated U.S. asylum system and should not be 
locked up in jails like criminals," the representative said.

Seeking alternatives

     The group had a conversation with a 15-year-old girl from the Congo who was 
intercepted at JFK as she attempted to join her mother, an asylum seeker in Canada. INS 
claims that, according to a dental x-ray taken when she arrived, she is 18 and therefore 
not a minor.

     "The notion of detaining a youth who had no intention of being in the United States 
and who clearly was not a criminal was appalling to us," said Parkins. "She was one of the 
most vulnerable people you would ever meet, conveying a deep sense of fear," he said, 
pointing to a frightening level of isolation, lack of any support system. Unlike other 
detainees, the girl did have legal advice.

     Parkins and others are convinced that the churches could support those seeking parole. 
"There are alternatives to detention," he said. "We want to see the 1996 law repealed or 
substantially altered." The visit to the detention center is part of what he hopes will be 
an emerging strategy to "throw a spotlight on these detention centers and a pattern being 
repeated across the country."

     He noted the contradiction between the maintaining such an inhumane detention center 
only a few miles away from the Statue of Liberty that welcomed generations of "huddled 
masses yearning to breathe free."

--James Solheim is director of the Office of News and Information of the Episcopal Church.