Federal immigration agents are interviewing inmates in New York prisons, violating their rights, and conducting about 3,000 deportation proceedings annually.
"Take ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] out of jails," close to 150 people shouted in unison yesterday at Judson Memorial Church in Manhattan, where pro-immigrant organizations announced that they had reached an agreement with the commissioner of the New York City Department of Corrections to regulate ICE's access to inmates in the prison system.
At least 13,000 inmates at Rikers Island (the largest prison in the city) have been placed under deportation proceedings since 2004, revealed activists who obtained these figures through the Freedom of Information Act. There are 105,000 people detained annually at Rikers.
According to Javier Valdés, executive director of Make the Road New York, "ICE officials dressed in plain clothes interrogate prisoners without identifying themselves, violating the right of inmates to remain silent and have a lawyer present."
The Northern Manhattan Coalition for Immigrant Rights, the New Sanctuary Movement, and Make the Road New York, which launched the campaign yesterday to regulate ICE's intervention in the prison system, announced the agreement with Martin F. Horn, commissioner of the New York City Department of Correction.
"Inmates will be notified when ICE asks to interview them, and they will also be asked to personally give permission for those interviews," explained Reverend Giovanny Sánchez of the New Sanctuary Movement.
"Although the Department of Correction is not obligated to inform inmates, the Commissioner made a promise and we are already moving forward with the necessary forms and training for officers," said Stephen Morello, spokesperson for the Department of Correction.
Morello added that the Department of Corrections does not ask about inmates' legal status – only their birthplace – and that is the information given to ICE.
Out of the 4,000 inmates interviewed annually by ICE, 3,000 start deportation proceedings and 3,200 face retention orders, according to information obtained by activists.
A retention order is when the prison does not release inmates under the orders of ICE, even if they have completed their sentence or have been declared innocent, explained Jennifer Brown, public defender for the Federal Defenders of New York.
According to the New York Bar Associate, 3,979 inmates at Rikers Island received retention orders in 2007 and were sent to Texas, Alabama, or Louisiana, where they began deportation proceedings.
"Rikers can only hold an inmate under a retention order for up to 48 hours, and after that the inmate is free to leave," explained Morello.
But that doesn't always happen.
This summer, the Immigrant Rights Clinic at NYU won a lawsuit for $145,000 against the Department of Correction for having held an inmate, Cecil Harvey, for 30 days under a retention order, explained Alisa Wellek, the lawyer in the case.
The brother-in-law of Florentina Williams, a Colombian, was picked up by ICE at Rikers after he had been declared innocent. Today he is at a detention center in Texas and faces deportation. "He didn't know that ICE was waiting for him," said Williams.
According to Human Rights Watch, in 2008, ICE had 300,000 immigrants waiting for a decision on their cases, and this year they expect that number to exceed 400,000.
The regional ICE office said that the Criminal Alien Program (CAP), [which focuses on identifying, processing, and removing criminal aliens who are incarcerated in federal, state and local prisons] which includes Rikers, permits agents to impose retention orders on immigrant inmates who have been arrested for crimes in the community.
