Human Rights Situation of Refugee and Migrant Families and Unaccompanied Children in the United States of America

See also U.S. Department of Justice, Executive Office for Immigration Review, Immigration Court Practice Manual, Chapter 2.2(c) “Address Obligations” (revised June 10, 2013), http://www.justice.gov/eoir/vll/OCIJPracManual/Practice_Manual_review.pdf#page=25. According to a study conducted by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse Immigration (“TRAC Immigration”) at Syracuse University, from fiscal year 2005 through June 2014, 31% of closed cases were marked “in absentia,” and those persons were consequently ordered removed. “New Data on Unaccompanied Children in Immigration Court,” (July 15, 2014), http://trac.syr.edu/immigration/reports/359/.

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^ U.S. Department of Justice, Executive Office for Immigration Review, Memorandum from the Chief Immigration Judge to All Immigration Judges: Docketing Practices Relating to Unaccompanied Children Cases in Light of the New Priorities (September 10, 2014).

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^ According to testimony received by the Commission during its visit; see also, ChildFund, Unaccompanied and Accompanied Child Migrant Crisis: Emergency Rapid Assessment (August 2014), p. 9.

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^ IACHR, Report on Immigration in the United States: Detention and Due Process, para. 375.

254

^ As mentioned above, persons detained in holding facilities have complained of very cold temperatures inside holding facilities. The Commission takes note of reports and allegations that there have been cases where detainees’ lips and fingers turn blue from the cold and has received testimony from persons who described the extreme cold they experienced in the holding cells, adding that CBP officers failed to raise the temperature or provide blankets and required detainees to remove outer layers of clothing, such as sweaters and sweatshirts. E.g., Complaint to DHS agents Megan Mack, Officer for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, and John Roth, Inspector General submitted by ACLU, NIJC, Esperanza Immigrant Rights Project, Americans for Immigrant Justice, Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project, “Re: Systematic Abuse of Unaccompanied Immigrant Children by U.S. Customs and Border Protection” (June 11, 2014), http://www.acluaz.org/sites/default/files/documents/DHS%20Complaint%20re%20CBP%20Abuse%20of%20UICs.pdf; see also Molly Redden, “Why Are Immigrant Detention Facilities So Cold?,” Mother Jones (July 16, 2014); Cindy Carcamo and Richard Simon, “Immigrant groups complain of ‘icebox’ detention cells,” Los Angeles Times (December 5, 2013), http://articles.latimes.com/2013/dec/05/nation/la-na-ff-detention-centers-20131206.

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^ Inter-American Principles and Best Practices on the Protection of Persons Deprived of Liberty in the Americas, Principle XII(2); UN Guidelines on the Applicable Criteria and Standards relating to the Detention of Asylum-Seekers, Guideline 8 (2012), http://www.unhcr.org/505b10ee9.html.

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^ Complaint to DHS agents Megan Mack, Officer for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, and John Roth, Inspector General, “Re: Systematic Abuse of Unaccompanied Immigrant Children by U.S. Customs and Border Protection” (June 11, 2014), http://www.acluaz.org/sites/default/files/documents/DHS%20Complaint%20re%20CBP%20Abuse%20of%20UICs.pdf.

257

^ Complaint to DHS agents Megan Mack, Officer for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, and John Roth, Inspector General, “Re: Systematic Abuse of Unaccompanied Immigrant Children by U.S. Customs and Border Protection” (June 11, 2014), http://www.acluaz.org/sites/default/files/documents/DHS%20Complaint%20re%20CBP%20Abuse%20of%20UICs.pdf.

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^ ACLU, “Unaccompanied Immigration Children Report Serious Abuse by U.S. Officials During Detention” (June 11, 2014), https://www.aclu.org/immigrants-rights/unaccompanied-immigrant-children-report-serious-abuse-us-officials-during.

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^ See, e.g., KIND, A Treacherous Journey (February 2014), https://www.supportkind.org/joomlatools-files/docman-files/macArthur_report_A_Treacherous_Journey.pdf.

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^ See Amy Taxin, “Backlogged Immigration Courts Speed up Children’s Cases,” AP (July 31, 2014), http://bigstory.ap.org/article/immigration-courts-speed-childrens-cases; Rebecca Kaplan, “For unaccompanied immigrant children, a shortage of lawyers,” CBS News (August 7, 2014), http://www.cbsnews.com/news/for-unaccompanied-immigrant-children-a-shortage-of-lawyers/.

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^ Dara Lind, “9 ways detaining immigrant families is turning into a ‘shitshow’,” Vox (August 6, 2014), http://www.vox.com/2014/8/6/5971003/artesia-immigrants-detention-due-process-families-lawyers-asylum-court-border.

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^ TRAC Immigration, “New Data on Unaccompanied Children in Immigration Court,” (July 15, 2014), http://trac.syr.edu/immigration/reports/359/.

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^ TRAC Immigration, “Representation for Unaccompanied Children in Immigraton Court,” (November 25, 2014), http://trac.syr.edu/immigration/reports/371/.

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^ TRAC Immigration, “In Two out of Three Cases Pending Cases, Unaccompanied Children Have No Representation in Immigration Court,” (November 25, 2014), http://trac.syr.edu/whatsnew/email.141125.html.

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^ For information on AmeriCorps, please refer to: http://www.nationalservice.gov/programs/americorps.

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^ See The Corporation for National and Community Service, Justice Department and CNCS Announce New Partnership to Enhance Immigration Courts and Provide Critical Legal Assistance to Unaccompanied Minors,” (June 6, 2014), http://www.nationalservice.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2014/justice-department-and-cncs-announce-new-partnership-enhance.

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^ Statement of Juan Osuna, Director of the EOIR, before the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the U.S. Senate (July 9, 2014). According to the State, the DOJ and the Corporation for National and Community Service awarded the $1.8 million in grants to make Justice AmeriCorps possible on September 12, 2014.

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^ See U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, “Advance Copy of ORR-Notice Providing $9M for Direct Representation of UACs,” LexisNexis (Oct. 1, 2014), http://www.lexisnexis.com/legalnewsroom/immigration/b/outsidenews/archive/2014/10/01/advance-copy-of-orr-notice-providing-9m-for-direct-legal-representation-of-uacs.aspx.

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^ See e.g., ChildFund, Unaccompanied and Accompanied Child Migrant Crisis: Emergency Rapid Assessment (August 2014), p. 10.

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^ IACHR, Report on Immigration in the United States: Detention and Due Process, para. 451 (providing, in pertinent part, that “The screening should not be conducted by agents in ICE’s Customs and Border Protection or any other uniformed police unit”).

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^ In addition to the 100 attorneys in the AmeriCorps Justice program.

272

^ David McCabe, “Administration to close immigration detention center at month’s end,” The Hill (November 18, 2014), http://thehill.com/news/administration/224626-administration-to-close-immigrant-detention-center; ICE, “ICE’s new family detention center in Dilley, Texas to open in December,” (November 17, 2014), https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/ices-new-family-detention-center-dilley-texas-open-december.

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^ IACHR, Report on Immigration in the United States: Detention and Due Process, para. 448.

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^ Once an unaccompanied child from Mexico passes this first screening on the border, he or she is treated as an unaccompanied child from a non-contiguous country. As such, the Commission’s concerns for both Mexican unaccompanied children and unaccompanied children from elsewhere are shared and can be found in section (C), below.

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^ U.S. Department of Homeland Security, “Our Mission,” (last published date December 17, 2012), http://www.dhs.gov/our-mission.