Last year I joined a team that visits the Strafford Country Department of Corrections in Dover, NH to meet with those immigrants who have been recently detained by ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement). I go as often as my schedule allows, usually once every three to four weeks. In addition, I visit the jail each month to celebrate Communion in Spanish and respond to pastoral requests that are referred to me. Occasionally, I am asked how my ministry to the immigrant detainees at is going, and I want to talk about that here.
How do these immigrants come to be incarcerated? Frequently,
cars are pulled over on the interstate highway as groups of men and women drive
to and from their homes to work; some of these men and women may be detained.
Some individuals are arrested by ICE outside of courthouses and
workplaces. Those undocumented immigrants who are detained/arrested in
Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine are held at The Dover facility, which is
contracted by the Federal government.
The profiles of the men and women the team sees at the Dover facility
vary. Some of them have been living and working in this country for
decades. Some are in their mid-30s and were brought to the country as
minors. I have met some men who were political refugees from civil-war-torn
West Africa who arrived in this country traumatized and, never fully
assimilated into our society, became criminalized in poor and marginalized
neighborhoods. Now they are day laborers who work in dairy farms in rural
Vermont, doing the back-breaking work in rural areas that American workers do
not want to do. They are mothers and fathers of children born in the U.S.
They are people who have escaped gang-infested homelands, where there is little
prospect for a peaceful future, who arrived to this country after a perilous
journey. Many have no criminal records. Their only crime is being
undocumented. They are from Mexico, Honduras, Romania, Serbia, Jordan,
Jamaica, Cape Verde, Sudan, Liberia, Nigeria, El Salvador, Belgium, Cuba,
Haiti, Iraq and many others nations.
When I enter the facility, I bring my acquired personal
political beliefs. I do believe that every developed economy today needs
a reliable and safe flow and exchange of immigrants traveling to and from their
home countries to add to a thriving or developing economy. And I do
believe that our prosperity has come at a cost, often born by those unseen and
unknown. Our importation of illegal drugs from this hemisphere has left
the social structure of many countries south of our border in shambles.
Money and guns flow south and drugs come north.
I also bring my faith. The Gospels invite us to encounter
Christ in and with those who are imprisoned. There is humanity,
vulnerability, regret, anguish, loneliness, fear, and longing. Every
emotion possible is on display.
The team does not judge those whom we meet. We listen to
them and inform them of the legal rights they have. We connect some of
them to legal counsel and share with them the long and arduous process of being
granted
asylum.
When I enter the jail as pastor/priest, I always remind those I
meet that they will not be defined by this experience—but it will affect them.
I encourage them to be hopeful. I remind them that there are people on the
outside of those walls who desire a better system to regulate the flow of
migrants across borders.
I carry their faces with me throughout my day.
I am thankful to the vestry of Christ Church, Exeter, for
encouraging and supporting my work outside of the parish.
Glossary
of Terms: Immigration Cheat Sheet
(Friends Visitation Manuel)
Department of Homeland Security (DHS): charged with “protecting” the United
States. In 2003, the Department of Homeland Security Act, DHS absorbed most of
the former Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) and took on its duties.
DHS split immigration-related duties between three separate agencies:
(CIS)-Citizenship and Immigration Services, (ICE)-Immigration and Customs
Enforcement, and (CBP)-Customs and Border Protection.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement
(ICE): Part of the US
Department of Homeland Security, the US ICE oversees and administers all
matters relating to enforcement of US immigration laws.
Immigrant: a person who comes to the U.S. in
order to establish their residence here (for economic betterment, family
re-unification, etc.
Undocumented: An informal term to describe
noncitizens who have no government authorization to be in this country.
Refugee: a person who is outside their country
and unwilling to return because of persecution or a well-founded fear of
persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a
particular social group or political opinion. (Definition in the 1951 Geneva
Convention and U.S. Immigration Law).
Asylum seeker: a person seeking asylum in another
country based on similar characteristics as a refugee. US immigration law
requires that people who ask for asylum at an airport or point of entry into
the U.S. must be detained. Affirmative asylum seekers are those who ask for
asylum after entering and within 1 year of residing in the US. They are not
detained.
Asylee: a person granted asylum in the United
States.
Asylum office: the branch of ICE that makes
decisions on asylum cases and also does ‘credible fear’ interviews in the
detention centers.
Detention: People are detained at every step of
the “immigration process” (1) awaiting adjudication of asylum or adjustment
applications; (2) picked up and jailed without charges; (3) pending immigration
proceedings; (4) after being ordered deported, while ICE is actively trying to
remove them; and (5) sometimes indefinitely, when ICE knows it may not be able
to deport someone with an order of deportation.
Criminal Alien: a noncitizen legally in the U.S. who
has committed a felony at some time in the past and is deportable. The
definition of a felony was drastically broadened by the 1996 Immigration Act.
Undocumented worker: a noncitizen in the U.S. who works
without proper visas.
Deportation/Removal: Expulsion of a noncitizen from the
United States. People who can be deported include noncitizens (including green
card holders) with past criminal convictions; visa overstays; refugee/asylum
seekers; and those who entered without inspection (for example, by crossing the
border unlawfully). Once removed, a noncitizen faces legal bars for a time
period that prevent his or her return or sometimes they are permanently barred.
Voluntary Departure: DHS may, in its discretion, allow a
person to depart from the US at his or her own expense in lieu of being subject
to proceedings. DHS will allow someone no more than 120 days to depart the US.
If the person fails to deport, s/he will be subject to fines and a 10 year
period of ineligibility for other forms of relief. Immigrants with aggravated
felonies are ineligible for voluntary departure.
Who
are Immigration Detainees?
The detention of immigrants is the
fastest growing prison industry in the United
States. Every day, 34,000 immigrant
detainees are held in detention centers throughout the country. Each year,
between 280,000 and 300,000 immigrants are held in over 350 detention
facilities, operated by the federal government, by private prison corporations
or local county jails (detentionwatchnetwork.org).
Detainees include both individuals and
whole families, including children and asylum seekers. Immigrants from across
the world are detained (imprisoned) for a variety of reasons which include but
are not limited to:
· Asylum seekers fleeing persecution in their homeland
because of their race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership
in a particular social group.
· Border crossings, for economic reasons, or waiting many
years to be reunited with a family member.
· Undocumented workers who were caught in a raid and are
awaiting deportation.
· Visa overstays: Individuals who have committed a crime, served their
time, found to be without correct documented papers and are detained waiting
for deportation. Lawful permanent residents are subject to deportation for
minor offenses such as buying stolen jewelry or possession of marijuana, which
are misdemeanors for U.S. citizens but deportable offenses for lawful permanent
residents.
Many immigrants in detention are
married to U.S. citizens and have U.S.-born
children. Most immigrants face civil
charges relating specifically to their immigration status. However, some immigrants have
been charged with identity fraud for using false social security cards, which is
a criminal offense. Depending on these charges, detained immigrants may proceed to
either civil or criminal court.
Whatever their circumstances may be, detainees suffer
from inhumane treatment in all aspects of their detention
