Article on front page of ARIZONA REPUBLIC

[Big Daddy]

Terror ties? No, but U.S. detaining Brazilians

 

Susan Carroll

Republic Nogales Bureau

Feb. 25, 2004 12:00 AM

 

 

FLORENCE - Attorneys for the U.S. Department of Justice are using an executive order signed after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to override immigration judges' decisions and hold scores of undocumented immigrants from Brazil, despite acknowledging the detainees have no terrorism ties.

 

While immigration attorneys argue the government is violating detainees' due process rights, Homeland Security officials say the practice cuts down on absconders, dubbed by some within the department as an "Achilles' heel" of national security.

 

An order signed by Attorney General John Ashcroft in October 2001 expanded the government's power to detain immigrants who "may pose a threat" to the nation, even if a judge orders they be released on bond. In recent months, the government has broadly used the power, designated for "national security" cases, to deter an influx of Brazilians crossing the U.S.-Mexican border illegally through Arizona.

 

"Essentially, the attorney general wrote himself a regulation that gives him the right to ignore and make a mockery of an immigration judge's decision," said Cesar Ternieden, a Florence-based immigration attorney. "It's a clear violation of due process."

 

Government officials say the regulation was necessary to deter the increasing numbers of Brazilians entering the United States illegally.

 

Faced with increased economic instability at home, many have taken advantage of relaxed visa requirements with Mexico to try to enter the United States using a sophisticated smuggling network.

 

"It's not a situation of targeting Brazilians; it's targeting a smuggling organization," said Victor Cerda, general counsel for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

 

Cerda said a smuggling organization in southern Arizona catering to Brazilians was advertising the $10,000 to $30,000 bond posted in many cases as simply, "the admission price to enter" the country.

 

Cerda, the top attorney for ICE, said the influx of Brazilians poses a threat to national security because it consumes resources along the Southwest border.

 

 

Numbers skyrocket

 

 

While about 99 percent of all undocumented immigrants caught crossing the Southwest border are Mexicans, the number of Brazilians arrested in Arizona skyrocketed from 97 in 2000 to 1,397 in 2003.

 

Unlike Mexicans, who typically are returned across the border the same day, Brazilians and all "OTMs," or "other than Mexicans" as they are known within the Border Patrol, require additional paperwork and are housed in detention centers when space is available. When immigrant detention facilities reach capacity, many OTMs simply have been handed a slip of paper with instructions to return for a court date.

 

Last year, about 95 percent of Brazilians did not show for their hearings, compared with 86 percent of those issued such notices from all the countries combined, according to ICE officials.

 

"The word had basically gotten out on the streets of Brazil that . . . if you're caught, you'll be able to get out," said Russell Ahr, an ICE spokesman in Phoenix. "It was a joke. No one was showing up."

 

An analysis by ICE, the agency charged with immigrant detention and removal, showed that from August 2002 to September 2003, 346 Brazilians were released from the agency's custody in Arizona. Of those, 194 were ordered removed from the United States. As of October, ICE agents had physically removed one person.

 

That month, the government started using the executive order to detain Brazilians. ICE officials said statistics were not available on how many Brazilians had been detained and removed since October. However, Ahr said that 227 Brazilians were deported by plane to Rio de Janeiro on Jan. 27.

 

David V. Aguilar, chief of the U.S. Border Patrol's Tucson sector, wrote in a sworn declaration filed in Arizona immigration courts that a change in Mexico's visa requirement with Brazil, coupled with a "well-established" people-smuggling network in Sonora, has contributed to the increase in the number of Brazilians.

 

"They are aware that despite the fact they have been apprehended, they most likely will be released on bond," he wrote, saying that the Brazilians are "coached" on how the system works by smugglers, who charge up to $12,000 for a trip from Mexico into the United States.

 

Brad Brados, the Brazilian consulate's representative in Arizona, said detainees complained about the bond issue in December when he visited Florence.

 

"I do know that the bond option is not as openly administered, but as I understand it, it's because Brazilians are appearing at a rate that is atrociously low," he said.

 

 

Catch and release

 

 

Border Patrol union members say many Brazilians are released before an initial appearance because there just isn't any place to hold them.

 

For years, the Border Patrol has employed a "catch and release" policy when detention centers, which have a capacity of about 1,940 in Arizona, overflow. Immigrants are fingerprinted, processed through a database to check for a criminal record and then told to return for a deportation hearing.

 

"They are turning them loose because of a lack of detention space," said Mike Albon, spokesman for Local 2544, which represents 2,000 agents in Southern Arizona. "Once someone is apprehended and not deported . . . they are on the ground and they can go wherever they want."

 

The government has long had the ability to seek an "emergency stay" of an immigration judge's bond decision, but its discretion was greatly expanded after Sept. 11.

 

Ashcroft's order gives government attorneys the power to check a single box to activate an "automatic stay" of an immigration judge's bond decision. In cases involving no bond or a bond of $10,000 or higher, the government can simply file a notice of intent to appeal the bond, and the immigrant is held essentially until the deportation hearing.

 

 

No initial outcry

 

 

The order initially was used as part of "Operation Predator," a program that targeted immigrants with histories of sex crimes. While some immigration attorneys voiced concern that the government was deporting people with minor criminal histories, such as an indecent exposure conviction, there was little public outcry about the regulation.

 

Then, last April, Ashcroft ruled that an 18-year-old Haitian man who sought refuge in Florida should not be released on bond, overriding an Immigration Board of Appeals decision. Ashcroft said there was a "national security" concern because resources were diverted from the war on terror to deal with the young man, who had no criminal history.

 

Immigration attorneys and civil rights activists argue that the government is targeting disenfranchised groups, like Brazilians, who are less established in the United States than migrants from other Central and South American countries.

 

"Jury-rigging due process to enforce anti-smuggling is problematic," said Suzannah MacClay, a senior staff attorney with the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project Inc. "Clearly, at least here in this area, these regulations are not being used to make the nation safer from foreign terrorist or to safeguard national security."

 

Hope the Brazilians do not reciprocate against guys like me from Arizona. Anyone that does not think that Bush & company are not abusing their power needs to get a reality check.

 

Big Daddy

 

 

 

Reach the reporter at susan.carroll@arizonarepublic.com or 1-(520)-281-5752.

[Big Daddy]

Terror ties? No, but U.S. detaining Brazilians

 

Susan Carroll

Republic Nogales Bureau

Feb. 25, 2004 12:00 AM

 

 

FLORENCE - Attorneys for the U.S. Department of Justice are using an executive order signed after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to override immigration judges' decisions and hold scores of undocumented immigrants from Brazil, despite acknowledging the detainees have no terrorism ties.

 

While immigration attorneys argue the government is violating detainees' due process rights, Homeland Security officials say the practice cuts down on absconders, dubbed by some within the department as an "Achilles' heel" of national security.

 

An order signed by Attorney General John Ashcroft in October 2001 expanded the government's power to detain immigrants who "may pose a threat" to the nation, even if a judge orders they be released on bond. In recent months, the government has broadly used the power, designated for "national security" cases, to deter an influx of Brazilians crossing the U.S.-Mexican border illegally through Arizona.

 

"Essentially, the attorney general wrote himself a regulation that gives him the right to ignore and make a mockery of an immigration judge's decision," said Cesar Ternieden, a Florence-based immigration attorney. "It's a clear violation of due process."

 

Government officials say the regulation was necessary to deter the increasing numbers of Brazilians entering the United States illegally.

 

Faced with increased economic instability at home, many have taken advantage of relaxed visa requirements with Mexico to try to enter the United States using a sophisticated smuggling network.

 

"It's not a situation of targeting Brazilians; it's targeting a smuggling organization," said Victor Cerda, general counsel for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

 

Cerda said a smuggling organization in southern Arizona catering to Brazilians was advertising the $10,000 to $30,000 bond posted in many cases as simply, "the admission price to enter" the country.

 

Cerda, the top attorney for ICE, said the influx of Brazilians poses a threat to national security because it consumes resources along the Southwest border.

 

 

Numbers skyrocket

 

 

While about 99 percent of all undocumented immigrants caught crossing the Southwest border are Mexicans, the number of Brazilians arrested in Arizona skyrocketed from 97 in 2000 to 1,397 in 2003.

 

Unlike Mexicans, who typically are returned across the border the same day, Brazilians and all "OTMs," or "other than Mexicans" as they are known within the Border Patrol, require additional paperwork and are housed in detention centers when space is available. When immigrant detention facilities reach capacity, many OTMs simply have been handed a slip of paper with instructions to return for a court date.

 

Last year, about 95 percent of Brazilians did not show for their hearings, compared with 86 percent of those issued such notices from all the countries combined, according to ICE officials.

 

"The word had basically gotten out on the streets of Brazil that . . . if you're caught, you'll be able to get out," said Russell Ahr, an ICE spokesman in Phoenix. "It was a joke. No one was showing up."

 

An analysis by ICE, the agency charged with immigrant detention and removal, showed that from August 2002 to September 2003, 346 Brazilians were released from the agency's custody in Arizona. Of those, 194 were ordered removed from the United States. As of October, ICE agents had physically removed one person.

 

That month, the government started using the executive order to detain Brazilians. ICE officials said statistics were not available on how many Brazilians had been detained and removed since October. However, Ahr said that 227 Brazilians were deported by plane to Rio de Janeiro on Jan. 27.

 

David V. Aguilar, chief of the U.S. Border Patrol's Tucson sector, wrote in a sworn declaration filed in Arizona immigration courts that a change in Mexico's visa requirement with Brazil, coupled with a "well-established" people-smuggling network in Sonora, has contributed to the increase in the number of Brazilians.

 

"They are aware that despite the fact they have been apprehended, they most likely will be released on bond," he wrote, saying that the Brazilians are "coached" on how the system works by smugglers, who charge up to $12,000 for a trip from Mexico into the United States.

 

Brad Brados, the Brazilian consulate's representative in Arizona, said detainees complained about the bond issue in December when he visited Florence.

 

"I do know that the bond option is not as openly administered, but as I understand it, it's because Brazilians are appearing at a rate that is atrociously low," he said.

 

 

Catch and release

 

 

Border Patrol union members say many Brazilians are released before an initial appearance because there just isn't any place to hold them.

 

For years, the Border Patrol has employed a "catch and release" policy when detention centers, which have a capacity of about 1,940 in Arizona, overflow. Immigrants are fingerprinted, processed through a database to check for a criminal record and then told to return for a deportation hearing.

 

"They are turning them loose because of a lack of detention space," said Mike Albon, spokesman for Local 2544, which represents 2,000 agents in Southern Arizona. "Once someone is apprehended and not deported . . . they are on the ground and they can go wherever they want."

 

The government has long had the ability to seek an "emergency stay" of an immigration judge's bond decision, but its discretion was greatly expanded after Sept. 11.

 

Ashcroft's order gives government attorneys the power to check a single box to activate an "automatic stay" of an immigration judge's bond decision. In cases involving no bond or a bond of $10,000 or higher, the government can simply file a notice of intent to appeal the bond, and the immigrant is held essentially until the deportation hearing.

 

 

No initial outcry

 

 

The order initially was used as part of "Operation Predator," a program that targeted immigrants with histories of sex crimes. While some immigration attorneys voiced concern that the government was deporting people with minor criminal histories, such as an indecent exposure conviction, there was little public outcry about the regulation.

 

Then, last April, Ashcroft ruled that an 18-year-old Haitian man who sought refuge in Florida should not be released on bond, overriding an Immigration Board of Appeals decision. Ashcroft said there was a "national security" concern because resources were diverted from the war on terror to deal with the young man, who had no criminal history.

 

Immigration attorneys and civil rights activists argue that the government is targeting disenfranchised groups, like Brazilians, who are less established in the United States than migrants from other Central and South American countries.

 

"Jury-rigging due process to enforce anti-smuggling is problematic," said Suzannah MacClay, a senior staff attorney with the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project Inc. "Clearly, at least here in this area, these regulations are not being used to make the nation safer from foreign terrorist or to safeguard national security."

 

Hope the Brazilians do not reciprocate against guys like me from Arizona. Anyone that does not think that Bush & company are not abusing their power needs to get a reality check.

 

Big Daddy

 

 

 

Reach the reporter at susan.carroll@arizonarepublic.com or 1-(520)-281-5752.