The Obama Administration, obviously responding to complaints from groups like Human Rights First and Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont, has reduced the time a prospective asylum seeker must spend in detention before being released into the US. By the way, once released they are supposed to return for legal hearings. I don’t know what the stats are for the number who do return, but I bet its pretty abysmal. If the numbers were good AP would have reported that figure.
Currently, foreigners who come to the U.S. without valid documents can be immediately removed from the country, without a hearing. Also, requests for release must be made in writing, ICE said.
Brian Hale, ICE spokesman, said the new policy also will apply to people seeking asylum and already in detention.
The advocacy group Human Rights First reported last April that from 2004 to 2007, the rates of temporary release of asylum seekers dropped from 41.3 percent to 4.2 percent.
The Bush administration toughened criteria for asylum seekers to win release from detention in 2007. Vermont Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy, Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, said those rules were “unduly harsh” and cheered the changes Tuesday.
Immigrant advocates wanted to see more details on the change before commenting.
Steve Camarota, director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates for tougher immigration laws, said detention ensures people show up for hearings.
“The overwhelming amount of people who apply for asylum don’t get it and that’s why they don’t show up. Lack of detention destroys the credibility and meaningfulness of immigration courts,” Camarota said.
It was only last month that we reported on the Africans going to South America and then attempting to get across our Mexican border, here. So, when some fake asylum seeker, pretending to be escaping persecution, from say Somalia, Bangladesh, Iraq or even Saudi Arabia, slips into Vermont across the Canadian border we know to point a finger at Senator Patrick Leahy, Democrat of Vermont.
For more information and statistics go here. Note that we granted asylum to 22,930 people who entered the US in 2008 and claimed they were being persecuted. Chinese asylum seekers topped the list. 10,443 of the total number granted asylum were in the process of removal when a judge then granted them asylum. I’m wondering how many of the Chinese were Muslim Uighurs (see my next post, here it is).
Successful asylum seekers get all the help from public assistance that refugees receive.