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 Court TV Film, Inspired by Lawyers Committee Case, Shines a Light on U.S. Detention of Asylum Seekers Asylum Seekers Protest Detention with Hunger-Strike (11/05/03) New DHS Initiatives Impact Asylum Seekers and Detention (10/15/03) Study Shows Negative Health Consequences of Detention (06/17/03) Haitian Asylum Seekers Targeted for Indefinite Detention (4/25/03) Operation Liberty Shield Targets Refugees for Detention Department of Homeland Security Targets Haitian Refugees (3/21/03)  Lawyers Committee Urges Secretary Ridge to Rescind New Detention Policy (3/20/03) LCHR Comments to INS Denounce Expansion of Unfair Deportation and Detention Procedures (12/13/02) LCHR Report: Refugee Women Fleeing Persecution Face Unfair U.S. Laws (2002) Detention Survey: A Country by Country Review of Detention Procedures and Practices Report Released (9/18/02) Refugees Behind Bars: The Imprisonment of Asylum Seekers in the Wake of the 1996 Immigration Act (August 1999)  Asylum International Refugees |
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Detention of
Asylum Seekers in the U.S. As a result, those who arrive in this country
seeking freedom and protection are routinely imprisoned for months,
and sometimes for years, while their asylum cases are pending. Even
when government guidelines call for an asylum seeker to be released,
local officials often refuse, detaining them at substantial expense
to U.S. taxpayers rather than releasing them to the care of legal
U.S. family members or friends who are willing to bear the burden
of housing and supporting them.
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The
United States has long viewed itself as the land of the free and
the protector of the persecuted, in the words of Emma Lazarus, the
"Mother of Exiles." In fact, U.S. concern for the plight
of refugees during the Second World War was instrumental in the
development of the modern international refugee protection system.
Sadly however, "world-wide welcome" no longer glows from
the Statue of Liberty’s torch upon the exiles who flee to
our shores "yearning to breathe free." Instead, handcuffs,
shackles, and imprisonment too often await those who arrive seeking
protection from persecution. The imprisonment of arriving asylum
seekers, a practice that expanded dramatically in the 1980s, was
reinforced by the restrictive provisions of changes to immigration
law made in 1996. The "expedited removal" provisions of
that law, which went into effect in April 1997, have resulted in
lengthy detentions of asylum seekers who flee to the U.S. without
valid travel documents. The situation has only worsened as the result
of policies enacted since September 11th, 2001.