Texas Immigration Lawyer Blog

Federal jury awards $2.25 million to widow of inmate who died at Brooks County Detention Center

Not an immigration case, but a successful wrongful death case against a for-profit prison in Texas. 

Corpus Christi Caller by Steve Alford

FALFURRIAS — A Corpus Christi jury returned a verdict Wednesday siding with the widow of a man who died in January 2009 at the Brooks County Detention Center in Falfurrias.

The federal jury decided unanimously to award $2.25 million to the widow of 42-year-old Mario Garcia, who died of a seizure while on suicide watch at the center.

Garcia's family contends he was denied prescribed medications while at the facility, which led to his death 12 days after being brought there.

His condition began to quickly deteriorate after being jailed, though he was never sent to a physician or a hospital, according to the family's counsel. Garcia left behind a wife and a 10-year-old son.

Kathy Snapka, lead counsel for the Garcia family, called the death preventable and said facility staff disregarded his condition. Snapka said the family hopes the verdict in Garcia v. Niderhauser will send a message to other facilities that they will be held accountable for neglect.

"Monica Garcia's objective was to speak for Mario to ensure that no other person is denied the right to receive medical attention," Snapka said.

Attorneys for LCS Corrections, which owns Brooks County Detention Center, were not immediately available for comment Wednesday. Both sides await the ruling of U.S. District Judge Randy Crane, who has as much as 30 days to make a judgment.

Good work, attorney Kathy Snapka!

Act Now to Reduce Immigration Detention Spending

From American Immigration Lawyers Association: 

In this year's budget request to Congress, President Obama asked for a decrease in the amount of spending on immigration detention.   AILA supports the reduction of spending on unnecessary detention.  But the Senate is now planning to appropriate to DHS $27 million more than the President's request for detention, providing an additional 600 detention beds a year that the administration has said it does not need.

Currently, American taxpayers spend over $2 billion a year detaining thousands of immigrants each day.  ICE has all the tools it needs to safely release thousands of individuals it chooses to hold in detention; reports show that 40% of those held in detention have NO criminal history. There is no good reason to fund immigration detention above the President's request.

Call Senate Appropriations Chair, Senator Mary Landrieu, today and ask the Senate to follow the President's request on detention. D.C. Office Number: 202.228.6697

AILA Texas Chapter visits detention facilities

This week, AILA Texas Chapter members in Harlingen and San Antonio visited two local detention centers - Port Isabel Detention Center and the newly opened Karnes Country Civil Detention Center.   For many AILA members, the tours were their first opportunity to see firsthand the impact of detention on their clients.

Anu Joshi, AILA's Grassroots Associate, said, "Walking through Port Isabel, you felt a level of hostility and anxiousness surrounding both the guards and the detainees-the uncertainty of their fate within and outside of the center's walls only added to the unease."

In describing conditions in the better facilities, Meredith Linsky, Executive Director of ProBar (the South Texas Pro Bono Asylum Representation Project) in Harlingen, TX said: "La jaula, aunque sea de oro, sigue siendo jaula," quoting a Spanish saying that the cage is still a cage even if made of gold.  

"Being detained in even the best of conditions is difficult, but it is especially difficult for those trying to apply for legal relief such as asylum, Cancellation of Removal, VAWA relief, U and T visas.  ProBAR appreciates the efforts of AILA to highlight the challenging conditions of detention and support the efforts of pro bono attorneys in representing indigent immigrants and asylum seekers.  While it is impossible to win every case, we provide much needed representation and emotional support to detainees who desire to remain in the United States."

Please, Call Senator Landrieu's office today and ask the Senate to follow the President's request on detention.  D.C. Office Number: 202.228.6697

In Heart of Texas, Sheriff Takes Heat for Honoring Immigration Detainers

Immigration Impact

A local election in Travis County, Texas, is bringing to light important questions surrounding the controversial Secure Communities program. As recently reported by the Texas Tribune, Democratic primary challenger John Sisson has criticized incumbent Sheriff Greg Hamilton for honoring federal immigration “detainers”—the lynchpin of Secure Communities—because of their harm to immigrant communities. While Hamilton has said he is bound by federal law, contrary policies in jurisdictions around the country show the sheriff is either misinformed or confused.

Immigration detainers are official requests from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) asking law enforcement agencies to detain immigrants for 48 business hours after they would otherwise be released so that ICE can take custody. As we have previously explained, detainers are requests, not commands, meaning that local law enforcement agencies do not have to honor them. Yet by Sheriff Hamilton’s own admission, he honors every detainer he receives. “At the Travis County jail,” he said, “we follow the law, and the law says that when an ICE detainer is put on, the law enforcement agency shall maintain that individual for 48 hours.”

In truth, federal law does not require law enforcement agencies to hold individuals for 48 hours; instead, it requires them to release the subject of a detainer if ICE fails to assume custody within 48 hours. In fact, numerous jurisdictions around the country—including San Francisco, Cook County, Ill., and the state of Connecticut—have announced policies in the past year prescribing conditions that must be met for detainers to be honored (such as being convicted of a serious or violent crime).ICE itself is partially to blame for Sheriff Hamilton’s confusion. Agency spokespersons frequently say they expect local law enforcement agencies to honor detainers but fail to mention that they are under no legal obligation to do so. In addition, ICE issued a new detainer form (Form I-247) last year clarifying that detainers expire after 48 hours, but suggesting that law enforcement agencies were required to honor them in the first place.

Aside from problems with detainers, there is larger cause to be concerned about Secure Communities, or “S-Comm.” Although the program was intended to target serious criminals, it has resulted in the deportation of many immigrants with minor or no criminal record. Nationwide, 26% of those deported through the program in FY 2011 had no criminal convictions. In Travis County, more than 60% of the 2,269 immigrants deported between June 2009 and September 2011 were “Level 3” (the lowest priority level) offenders or had only immigration violations. By contrast, less than 40% had Level 1 or Level 2 criminal convictions. These figures are consistent with trends documented in a report released in 2010 finding that in 2008, nearly 60 percent of detainers in Travis County were placed on those charged with misdemeanors—up from 38 percent in 2007 and 34 percent in 2006.

The number of deportations from Travis County also exceeded that of nearby Bexar County, which includes San Antonio and has a larger overall population. The numbers have raised concerns that local law enforcement officers are arresting suspected immigrants on minor charges specifically to determine through Secure Communities whether they are in the country illegally. For this very reason, opponents of the program have argued that the program creates obstacles to community policing and can lead to racial/ethnic profiling and pretextual arrests.

Sisson and Sheriff Hamilton will face off in the Democratic primary on May 29. In an interesting twist, the winner will face former Sheriff Raymond Frank, a Republican, who has stated he would not honor immigration detainers because they separate families.

 

S-Comm "Reforms" are Designed to Fail

From the National Immigration Law Center:

via lawprofessors.typepad.com

ICE Ignores Own S-Comm Task Force

NYS Immigrant Action Fund by Pat Young

Here's an opposing view to the New York Times article regarding ICE's Friday announcement about Secure Communities:

Today, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that it would not adopt major recommendations made by the task force established by the agency last year. According to DHS Counselor to Secretary Napolitano, John Sandweg, the agency will continue to pursue low-level offenders, including immigrants convicted of minor traffic offenses. However, for individuals arrested solely for minor traffic offenses, who have not previously been convicted of other crimes and do not fall within any of ICE’s enforcement priorities, ICE will only consider commencing enforcement action upon conviction for the minor traffic offense. Today’s announcement, comes as a disappointment to immigration advocates who, along with state and local officials across the country, including Governor Andrew Cuomo and members of Congress; local law enforcement agencies and victims’ rights groups, have for two years voiced their opposition to the program.

This announcement came in response to a September 2011 report on S-Comm from the DHS task force; the report was harshly critical of the program, finding that S-Comm had an adverse impact on community policing because it discourages immigrant witnesses and crime victims from reporting crime and cooperating with police. Arturo Venegas, the former police chief of Sacramento, said the program was “deeply flawed” and was “undermining public safety.” Some of the task force’s recommendations include suspension pending major reforms, or outright termination of the program, better training for ICE personnel, and calls for ICE to provide legal authority for its claim that states’ participation in the program is mandatory.

“By disregarding the major recommendations by its own task force, DHS has failed to address our concerns associated with this misguided program,” said Chung-Wha Hong, executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition. “We remain deeply troubled by the Administration’s rapid roll-out of a program that has been at the center of so much controversy.”

 

ICE Prosecutorial Discretion Initiative: Latest Figures

TRAC Immigration

A special Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) program announced last August to reduce the massive backlog of pending matters by identifying those that could be dismissed or put on hold has resulted in the closure of 2,609 cases, according to government data covering the period up to the end of March. The backlog reduction is less than one percent of the 298,173 cases pending before the Immigration Courts as of the end of last September. The stated goal of the ICE program was to better prioritize and reduce the backup of pending matters that had led to lengthy delays in the proceedings of noncitizens it wanted to deport. So far, however, the pace of these closures has not been sufficient to stop the growth in the court's backlog. In fact, as of the end of March 2012, the Immigration Court backlog had risen to 305,556 matters. These and other results — by court and hearing location — are based upon analyses of very recent case-by-case records obtained from the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University. EOIR, a part of the Department of Justice, administers the nation's special administrative court system charged with deciding whether noncitizens can be deported or are legally entitled to remain in this country.

Total Cases Closed Based on Prosecutorial Discretion in the Texas Immigration Courts:

• San Antonio - 19
• Pearsall Detention Center - 1
• Harlingen - 146
• El Paso - 62
• El Paso Service Processing Center - 2
• Dallas - 56
• Oklahoma City (satelite of Dallas Immigration Court) - 6
• Houston - 1*
• Total Texas Cases - 293*

I was surprised that only 1 case from the Houston courts  have been closed. The Office of Chief Counsel in Houston began going through cases and offering termination or closures before other offices and so their numbers should be higher. 

*Raed Gonzalez, Houston Immigration attorney, confirmed that this number is not correct. He states that, "Last year, a bunch of cases were dismissed.  This is inaccurate. "

"Dignity not Detention" Campaign Resources: End Mandatory Detention

Dignity Not Detention

 

Punishment and Profits: Immigration Detention - Fault Lines - Al Jazeera English

Aljazeera

Immigration is a key issue in the US presidential election, with the Republican candidates trying to demonstrate their tough stance on undocumented immigrants.

But under the Obama administration, the detention and deportation of immigrants has reached an all-time high.

Every day, the US government detains more than 33,000 non-citizens at the cost of $5.5mn a day. That is a lot of money for the powerful private prison industry, which spends millions of dollars on lobbying and now operates nearly half of the country's immigration detention centres.

Fault Lines travels to Texas and Florida to investigate the business of immigrant detention in the US and to find out how a handful of companies have managed to shape US immigration laws.

Waco resident, Naz Mustakim, who was detained at the South Texas Detention Center in Pearsall, Texas, for over 10 months is interviewed (starting at 16:40). 

Mocking Humane Immigration Detention Standards House Hearing Makes Light of Necessary Reforms

From the Immigration Policy Center:

Washington D.C. - Today, the House Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on new immigration detention standards recently issued by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Cynically entitled “Holiday on ICE,” the hearing reflects Chairman Lamar Smith’s allegation that the new standards—which set minimum requirements for medical care, access to counsel, and other living conditions—are a “hospitality guideline” for detained immigrants. Roughly 34,000 immigrants, including lawful permanent residents, and many immigrants who have never been convicted of a crime, are detained under civil immigration laws each day. It is anticipated that the hearing will be a vehicle for promoting mandatory detention proposals sponsored by Chairman Smith, who maintains that more detention, rather than less, should be the goal of our civil immigration system. 

Unfortunately, this critique ignores the often life-threatening problems that have plagued the U.S. detention system, which routinely places asylum-seekers, vulnerable women and children, and thousands of non-criminal immigrants into jails and prisons where they are locked up with dangerous criminals. Well-documented incidents of deaths in detention, sexual assault, and substandard conditions have led the Obama administration to prioritize detention reform. Among the steps taken to improve the current system has been a comprehensive update of current detention standards in consultation with the immigration community.

Even these modest improvements are too much for immigration critics who seek to institutionalize two systems of justice that tolerate different standards of care depending on whether one is incarcerated by the criminal justice system or the civil immigration system. While today’s House Judiciary hearing seeks to poke fun at the new standards, it is far more likely to highlight just how callous many of our lawmakers have become towards immigrants and immigration.

The following is a statement from Benjamin Johnson, Executive Director of the American Immigration Council: 

“Most Americans are surprised to learn that every day our country detains thousands of men, women, and children for civil immigration violations, where they are often housed with dangerous criminals or forced to endure prison-like conditions despite the fact that they pose no risk to society. Obviously our laws must be enforced, but the vast majority of those who face deportation are otherwise law-abiding, decent people who came here to find a better life for themselves or their families. Their punishment for violating our immigration laws is deportation and there is no rationale or justification for forcing them to also endure grueling and often inhumane conditions while they await deportation.” 

For background on the immigration detention system and efforts to further expand its reach, see: Locked Up Without End: Indefinite Detention of Immigrants Will Not Make America Safer by Michael Tan, IPC Special Report, October 6, 2011.

See also, New York Times Opinion "Detention is No Holiday" by Edwidge Danticat

 

Father denied entry to U.S. to help paralyzed son

Houston Chronicle by Tony Freemantle

Inhee Park's comfortable, middle-class life a world away in South Korea was shattered by gunfire at a Houston apartment complex early in the morning after the Independence Day celebrations of 2008.

His son Dominic, a student at the University of Houston, was returning home when two young men robbed him of his wallet and car keys, shot him in the throat and left him for dead in the parking lot.

Dominic survived, barely, but was left paralyzed from the chest down and unable to care for himself.

His parents rushed to his side. They sold their condominium in Seoul and their cars and dipped deeply into their savings to pay for Dominic's enormous medical bills. For nearly four years, they have crisscrossed the Pacific Ocean every six months to keep their tourist visas valid so they can provide the round-the-clock care their son requires.

But on Feb. 15, returning from a brief trip to Seoul to renew his visa, Inhee Park was stopped by a Customs and Border Protection agent at George Bush Intercontinental Airport, accused of working illegally in the U.S. and of trying to surreptitiously settle his family here.

He was deported back to Korea on the next flight and has not yet been able to obtain a new visa.

Inhee Park, a former executive in a Seoul printing company, was Dominic's heavy lifter. He wrestled his son's 6-foot, 200-pound body in and out of bed. He picked him up and settled him in his wheelchair, loaded him in the car to take him to his appointments with his doctors, helped him with the bodily functions a 28-year-old man should be able to perform on his own.