1. How big is federal immigration detention?

The number of non-citizens who are arrested, detained and placed into removal proceedings is rising every year.  In 2010 approximately 400,000 non-citizens were detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. 

For more information on the use of detention in immigration enforcement, the Detention Watch Network has reports and statistics on the numbers and trends nationally: www.detentionwatchnetwork.org . 

2. What is federal immigration detention?

• Zadvydas: http://www4.law.cornell.edu/supct/pdf/99-7791P.ZO
• Detention Watch Network:  www.detentionwatchnetwork.org
• ACLU detention work:  http://torturefoia.aclu.org/immigrants/detention/index.html
  

3. How long are people kept in immigration detention?

How long an individual is held in detention varies from person to person, depending on how long their case lasts, whether or not the person qualifies for a bond in order to fight their case outside of detention, and whether or not the person agrees to their own deportation.  It generally takes anywhere from 2-4 weeks for individuals held at the Mira Loma Detention Facility in Lancaster, Ca to see an Immigration Judge for the first time.  For those who fight their deportation from inside Mira Loma, the average length of detention is approximately 6-8 months.  If either the immigrant or the government (ICE) appeals the decision of the Immigration Judge, the time in detention could be much longer, up to 1 1/2 -2 years.  However, recent changes in 9th Circuit case law allows immigrants to have a special type of bond hearing if they have an appeal pending and have been detained 6 months or longer. 

A large number of immigrants in detention agree to be voluntarily deported instead of waiting for long periods of time in detention for their cases to end.  This also includes some who could qualify to remain legally in the United States if they would fight their case.  For those who are deported, if they return to the United States without permission, they risk being prosecuted and convicted in federal court for "illegal reentry after removal," which could get them anywhere from between 6 months - 20 years in federal prison. Others who agree to be voluntarily deported - also called a "stipulated removal" - do so because they think they are receiving a form of relief called "voluntary departure" that could allow them to eventually reenter the United States legally.  However, a stipulated removal is still a deportation and has the same legal consequences as if it came from the Immigration Judge. 

Special rules for persons seeking asylum: 

• They can show proof of their identity
• They can show proof of a residence where they will be living
• They can show proof that they will continue to attend all of their Immigration Court hearings
• They can prove that they are not a danger to the community
• They can prove that they have not participated in any terrorist activities

• Jails administered and managed directly by the Federal Government (ICE)
• Jails administered and managed by local governments (such as local sheriffs' departments) and contracted with ICE exclusively for the detention of immigrants
• Jails administered and managed by local governments and partially contracted with ICE (in other words, some individual in these jails are being held pending their criminal cases or are serving their criminal sentences)
• Jails administered and managed by private for-profit corporations, such as Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) or GEO.

• Individuals who present themselves at the US order or at other ports of entry, such as airports, seeking asylum;
• Individuals apprehended by federal immigration agents through raids or investigations, including those who were not the target of the raid or investigation, but happened to be discovered during the course of the raid or investigation;
• Individuals who have been convicted of a crime in the criminal justice system; People who have never been convicted of a crime, but have been detained by local law enforcement officials in the criminal justice system long enough to be identified as immigrants, including those who have been arrested for very minor offenses but the charges are dropped such as: 
• Jaywalking
• Driving without a license
• Riding a bicycle without a headlight

• Approximately 800 - 900 men are held in ICE custody at the Mira Loma Detention Center run by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department in Lancaster, Ca, about 70 miles north of central Los Angeles;
• Between 200 - 300 men and women in removal proceedings are held in ICE custody in beds rented from the Orange County Sheriff's Department in the Santa Ana Jail;
• Around 200 men and women are held in ICE custody at the James M. Musick Facility run by the Orange County Sheriff's Department in Anaheim, Ca;
• Close to 450 men are held in ICE custody at the Theo Lacey Facility run by the Orange County Sheriff's Department in Orange, Ca;
• Currently 650 men are held at the newest facility in the Los Angeles area, run by the private for-profit corporation GEO in the city of Adelanto in San Bernardino County, Ca.  Opened at the end of August 2011, the facility will soon hold 1300 immigrant detainees;
• For short period of time (less that 24 hours), individuals are held in the "B18" center in the Federal Building in downtown Los Angeles.  There are five large cells where varying numbers of people can be held;
• ICE makes the decision of where to detain an individual and may do so without regard to the location of that person's family, lawyer, or community. 

NO!!! Immigrants cannot be represented by attorneys paid for by the government.  This means that immigrants must find an attorney on their own and must either have the funds to pay for a private attorney, find a pro bono attorney (an attorney who will take the case for free), or find an organization that can help them with their case.  A typical fee from a private attorney in the Los Angeles area for taking a case is between $3,000 - $5,000.

Immigration law is a particularly complicated area of administrative law, generally compared with tax law in its complexities.  Nevertheless, if a person cannot pay for an attorney and is unable to find a pro bono attorney to assist him or her for free with their case, the person must represent themselves in Immigration Court.  

9. What are immigration courts?

Federal Immigration Courts are administrative courts within the Federal Department of Justice, Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) http://www.justice.gov/eoir/.

Even though they are called Courts, and the people who make the final decision in cases are called judges, the judges are actually administrative judges and federal government employees, which means that thy have different powers and abilities than other judges in other judicial and administrative systems. 

10. How are immigration courts different from other courts?

Rules of Evidence:

The Federal Rules of Evidence do not apply in Immigration Court, although they do serve as a guide.  This means that pieces of evidence that would generally be inadmissible in the majority of courts, such as heresay, are admissible in an immigration court. 

Role of the Immigration Judge: 

Even though the immigration judge is sole decider in any case, he or she may question a witness directly from the bench. 

Appeals Process:  

Once an immigration judge has made a decision in a particular case, no matter in which part of the United States, the first appeal goes to an administrative appeals court located in EOIR headquarters in Falls Church, Virginia, called the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA). 

Because the BIA is part of a federal agency (The Department of Justice), the head of the administrative agency, the Attorney General, may decide cases and direct decisions directly. 

If a party wants to appeal a decision of the BIA, the Circuit Court of Appeal for the circuit in which the case was originally decided is the one who hears the case. 

11. When does someone in deportation proceedings qualify to stay in the United States legally? 

• If a family member submitted an application petitioning for the lawful permanent residence (green card) for the person sometime in the past;
• If the person is married to a United States citizen, or has a United States citizen child who is 21 years or older and the person entered the U.S. legally;
• The person has had their green card for more than 5 years;
• The person has continuously resided in the United States for 10 years and has a parent, spouse, or child who is a United States citizen or lawful permanent resident and that relative would suffer exceptional and extremely unusual hardship if their relative was deported, such as someone who has a serious medical condition;
• The person fears returning to his or her country of origin because he or she believes they would be harmed or tortured if they did; 
• The person has been the victim of a violent crime here in the United States and cooperated with law enforcement officials; or
• The person was a victim of human trafficking.

Both terms actually mean the same thing.  However, legally speaking, "deportation" describes the process that was in place prior to the passage of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRAIRA) of 1997.  After the passage of IIRAIRA, "deportation hearings" were re-named "removal proceedings."

1. Deportation hearings were for people who were already physically present in the United States. 
2. Expulsion hearings were for people that wanted to enter the United States. 

• Federal government agencies
• U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) www.uscis.gov
• Department of Homeland Security www.dhs.gov
• U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) www.ice.gov
• Customs & Border Patrol (CBP) www.cpb.gov
• Detention and Removal Operations (DRO) http://www.ice.gov/about/dro/contact.htm
• Office of District Counsel (Formerly called Trial Attorneys) http://www.ice.gov/about/district_offices.htm#Los Angeles    
• Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR)
• Division of Unaccompanied Children’s Services (DUCS) http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/orr/programs/unaccompanied_alien_children.htm 

1. CAP
2. 287g
3. Secure Communities

• Criminal Alien Program (CAP)
• Oldest program for flagging and detaining non-citizens
• 60% of non-citizens given immigration holds in 2009 were identified through CAP (source NY Times)
• Law enforcement agencies notify ICE of foreign born detainees in custody after booking
• ICE officers interview inmates for possible placement of immigration hold
• ICE officers notify jail or prison that it intends to place non-citizen in immigration custody after release
• ICE requests jail or prison to be notified before non-citizen is released
• ICE required to take inmate into custody no more than 48 hours after release date
   
• 287(g)
• Enacted in 1996, 287(g) is the section of the Immigration & Nationality Act  
• Authorizes local law enforcement agencies to designate officers to perform certain immigration law enforcement functions
• Officers must undergo special training
• 67 communities in US have MOAs (Memorandum of Agreement) to participate (Source National Immigration Law Center) (NILC) www.nilc.org
• Los Angeles County Sheriffs were early participants
• 61% of localities with MOAs have crime rates below national average (source NILC)
• 90% of localities had Latino populations higher than national average (source NILC)
• Supposed to target non-citizens charged or convicted of serious crimes but the facts indicate otherwise

• Secure Communities
• Most recent program began in March 2008 and is rapidly expanding across the country.
• Currently the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department participates in the program, but the Los Angeles Police Department does not.
• In 2011 DHS took the position that participation in S-Comm was not voluntary, but mandatory.
• Every time law enforcement agencies take the fingerprints of an individual for any reason, those fingerprints are sent to the FBI.  S-Comm is an information sharing tool whereby DHS is given access to those fingerprints and checks them against its database of fingerprints.
• If ICE suspects someone is in the country in violation of immigration laws, they will place an ICE "hold" on that person.
• Once an ICE "hold" is in place, the local law enforcement cannot release that individual, but must wait for ICE to come and take that person into ICE custody.  This is true even if the criminal court judge gives the individual bail and even if the local law enforcement officials want to release them. 
• The only time law enforcement officials can release someone who has an ICE hold is if the person has completed his or her complete sentence given by the criminal judge and the person has been in custody for 48 hours beyond that time. 
  

• pose a danger to the national security of the United States,
  
• those with criminal convictions,
  
• those who have been ordered deported, but have not left,
  
• those who are recent arrivals who have less ties to the United States, and
  
• those who have a history of consistently disobeying immigration law.  

• When they decide whether or not to pick someone up from their house or the local police station
• When they decide whether or not to put an ICE hold or detainer on someone already in criminal custody
• When they decide whether or not to issue a Notice to Appear and place someone into deportation proceedings
• When they decide whether or not to keep someone in immigration detention pending their immigration proceedings
• When they decide whether or not to move forward with someone's case in Immigration Court

• Individuals who are long-term residents of the United States;
• Individuals with strong family and community ties to the United States, including close relatives who are US Citizens or Lawful Permanent Residents;
• Individuals who have health issues or who have relatives with serious health problems and who need care;
• Individuals who have relatives that have served or are serving in the U.S. military;
• Children who were brought here by their parents, who have remained in school and could go on to higher education or enlist in the military and who might be eligible for the DREAM Act if it is ever passed by Congress;
  
• Individuals with no criminal records

• Ag Fel = Aggravated Felony
• BIA     = Board of Immigration Appeals
• AOS     = Adjustment of Status = the process of a person obtaining lawful permanent residency status (a green card) usually through a family or work based petition.
• CIMT   = Crime Involving Moral Turpitude
• EWI     = Entered w/o Inspection
• IAC     = Ineffective Assistance of Counsel
• IIRAIRA = Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996
• IJ         = Immigration Judge
• INA     = Immigration & Nationality Act
• LPR     = Lawful Permanent Resident (green card holder)
• MTR      = Motion to Reopen
• NTA     = Notice to Appear
• (The Notice to Appear is the charging document, where ICE describes the factual and legal reasons ICE is using to try to get deportation order against a person)
• S-COMM = Secure Communities
• TPS     = Temporary Protected Status
• USC     = US Citizen
• VAWA = Violence Against Women Act