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Lawyers representing hundreds of people being held in immigration detention around the country say that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been arbitrarily singling out asylum-seekers from post-Soviet countries, detaining and keeping them locked up for extended periods of time — in violation of federal law and internal policies.
In a suit against the agency filed in November, 276 immigrants from former Soviet countries including Russia, Georgia and Kazakhstan — nearly half of whom are being held in Louisiana — claim that they are being wrongfully denied release from ICE detention. The reason, according to the suit, is an “unwritten policy” of categorically denying release requests from Russian-speaking asylum-seekers who originate from countries that were once part of the Soviet Union in an alleged attempt by the agency to deter others from the former Soviet bloc from the attempting to enter the United States.
Their attorneys call it the “Russian Detention & Deterrence Scheme.”
“In violation of a longstanding [Department of Homeland Security] directive precluding detention of asylum seekers except in unusual cases, ICE has detained virtually all Russian speaking adults requesting asylum at a port of entry to the United States,” the suit claims.
In some cases, the alleged scheme has left detainees separated from their children — who have been taken to separate facilities — for months.
If the plaintiffs’ claims are true, the agency’s actions would violate federal laws meant to safeguard against arbitrary and capricious enforcement, the plaintiffs’ due process rights under the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and an internal government policy meant to guarantee fairness in asylum proceedings, according to the lawsuit.
People in immigration custody may request a temporary release from detention — called parole — while their cases are proceeding. Under a 2009 policy directive from the Department of Homeland Security, ICE must conduct individual reviews of all such requests to determine whether or not an immigrant is a flight risk or a danger to the community.
That has not happened in these cases, the plaintiffs’ attorneys allege. The plaintiffs’ parole requests have been delayed or denied because of where they are from, according to the suit.
On Friday, Feb. 14, the plaintiffs will ask a federal judge in California to issue a preliminary injunction that would require individual reviews of each plaintiff’s release request.
“The parole directive is pretty clear on the process and procedure for processing parole requests for asylum seekers,” said Abadir Barre, lead attorney for the plaintiffs in the class-action lawsuit. “This is months and months of detention with delays and just blanket denials.”
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‘Arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement’
The alleged Russian Detention & Deterrence Scheme has resulted in a glut of Russian-speaking asylum-seekers in some immigration detention centers. According to the suit, 550 of 800 detainees being held in the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center are Russian speakers from post-Soviet countries — “reflecting Defendants’ continued arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement of the Scheme.”
One of those detainees, Sofia, a Russian national who asked to use her first name only, has been detained in Louisiana for roughly six out of the seven months she’s been in ICE custody. Sofia said she followed all of the procedures to seek asylum in the U.S. She and her husband traveled to Mexico and waited for eight months to get an appointment through the Customs and Border Protection app called CBP One. She went through a screening process – called the credible fear interview – which proved that her fear of persecution in Russia was credible and that she could qualify for asylum.
Throughout the process, Sofia said, officials essentially kept her in the dark.
“No one ever explained to us what is happening and what will happen [next] and what we should do,” Sofia said.
After passing the screening she applied for parole, which she was eligible for. But her request was denied. Even though her husband – who she traveled with and with whom she shared a sponsor – had been released from detention in California, she was labeled a flight risk without any explanation, she said. Her immigration attorney submitted multiple parole requests. They went unanswered.
After months in detention watching other Russian-speaking women experience the same parole denials as she did, she and many others joined the class action lawsuit
Representatives from ICE and the New Orleans ICE field office, which oversees Louisiana immigration detention, did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Verite News.
If the judge grants the preliminary injunction relief it may only apply to the plaintiffs and not to other immigrants from post-Soviet Union countries who are detained, as the Supreme Court in 2022, ruled that federal district courts cannot grant injunctive relief to any full class of immigrants in immigration cases.
“I just hope that the judge will see the situation how it really is now and that he could do something so that we don’t have to spend even more months here just waiting,” Sofia said.
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This article first appeared on Verite News New Orleans and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.