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Eighty Immigrant & Civil Rights Organizations Urge DHS and ICE to Release People Who Have Won Fear-Based Protection
Letter delivered today exposes ICE’s hidden, systemic practice to detain people even after judge rules they should be back with family
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, 80 immigrant and civil rights organizations, legal services organizations, and law firms delivered a letter to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) calling on DHS Secretary Mayorkas and ICE Acting Director Lechleitner to release all immigrants in ICE detention who have been granted fear-based protection from deportation.
In the wake of mounting outrage against ICE’s abuse, medical neglect, and violations of human rights in Louisiana, California, Washington, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania, among other states, the letter urges ICE to adhere to its own 20-year policy to immediately release people after they have won their case for asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under the UN’s Convention Against Torture.
“When people like my family come to the U.S., we’re seeking safety. We’re fleeing violence and persecution. I came to the U.S. when I was around 8 years old. I grew up here, met and married my wife here, and now we’re raising four children,” said Jose Melvin Gonzalez, who has been detained by ICE in Philipsburg, Pennsylvania since October 2023. “Back in April a judge ruled that I cannot be sent to El Salvador because I will likely be tortured. That day, I thought I was heading home, but home is still thousands of miles away in California. My wife is struggling with a potential cancer diagnosis and trying to keep everyone afloat. Under basic fairness, I should be living freely, doing my job as a computer and security technician, helping my youngest with his homework, and caring for my family.”
For many years, federal agency officials dismissed ICE’s arbitrary detainment of people after they won their immigration cases as isolated mistakes. The letter delivered today exposes how pervasive ICE’s violation of due process has become. In Virginia and Pennsylvania alone at least 100 people have remained detained after winning fear-based protection in the last two years. Recently, community members detained by ICE’s Washington Field Office reached a settlement with the agency resulting in the release of multiple people and requiring ICE consider releasing people who have won their cases, now and in the future.
“Our immigration policies should be rooted in our values: equality, fairness, and common humanity. After a judge grants people protection from deportation, ICE is choosing to detain them for months or years longer, a practice that is both callous and perplexing,” said Trevor Kosmo, an immigrant rights attorney at the Asian Law Caucus. “While that happens, community members can’t restart their life, missing birthdays, holidays, and all the days in between with their children and loved ones. The solution is simple: when people win their case, the nightmare of detention should end.”
“After we brought a class action lawsuit, the ICE Washington Field Office finally started following its own policy and promptly reviewing the custody of folks who win their cases,” said Austin Rose, a senior attorney at the Amica Center. “This has had a profoundly positive impact on many of our immigrant neighbors who have reunited with their families. We hope this will be replicated across the country, without the need to expend government resources in litigating for these solutions.”
In some cases of prolonged detention, ICE argues that the agency is trying to find a third country to which to deport people. However, that is impossible in the vast majority of cases and ICE already has documentation about most people in its custody that verifies there is no other country available. The signatories write: “No viable policy or humanitarian reasons justify ICE’s pattern of subjecting people who have won protection from removal to prolonged and unnecessary detention…Prolonged detention of our clients is punitive at best and another form of torture at worst.”
“My family fled Mexico when I was a small kid. A paramilitary organization murdered 16 members of my extended family over the course of decades, and my parents wanted us to live,” said Rigoberto Hernandez Martinez, who is Indigenous Triqui and an interpreter and family coach in Greenfield, California. “When I was a teenager, I threw an empty beer can at someone and missed, and was convicted of assault. After I served my sentence, I was detained by ICE for nearly two years. Last year, a judge granted me fear-based protection, but it took another harrowing two months to get home. Today, I am where I belong and using my language skills in English, Spanish, and Triqui to help my community. When I was in ICE I met so many others like me, who face death or torture if we are deported. Like most people, we want a basic thing: to be safe.”
Read the letter delivered to DHS and ICE.