Save the Date: Immigration Detention: Give Detainees Fair Hearings
12/2/2009
***Save the Date***
Excessive Detention, Detainee Transfers, and Inadequate Access to Counsel Create Barriers to Justice
WASHINGTON – The Constitution Project and Human Rights Watch are pleased to invite you to a panel discussion based on reports from both organizations about immigration policies that impose detention too frequently, impede access to counsel and interfere with the ability of detained immigrants to challenge deportation orders.
The reports, Recommendations for Reforming our Immigration Detention System and Promoting Access to Counsel in Immigration Proceedings by the Constitution Projectand Locked Up Far Away: The Transfer of Immigrants to Remote Detention Centers in the United States by Human Rights Watch, will be released at the event.
In recent years, a sharp rise in the number of non-citizens held in immigration detention has been accompanied by their increased transfer between facilities. In light of these dramatic changes, debates have emerged regarding the barriers immigrant detainees face in accessing counsel and in receiving fair treatment in immigration proceedings. The panel discussion will explore these issues based on the findings of the two reports.
Recommendations for Reforming our Immigration Detention System and Promoting Access to Counsel in Immigration Proceedings examines the overutilization of immigration detention and the difficulties incurred by detainees in seeking representation in removal proceedings, specifically exploring the issues of expedited removal, mandatory pre-removal detention, and post-removal detention.
Locked Up Far Away finds that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency’s widespread practice of transferring immigrants (1.4 million transfers were made from 1999 through 2008) to detention centers far away from their homes severely curtails detainees’ ability to access counsel and challenge their deportation.
What:
Panel discussion and release of reports by The Constitution Project and Human Rights Watch.
Who:
Hon. Bruce Einhorn, director, Asylum Clinic and Professor of Law at Pepperdine University; former federal immigration judge
Asa Hutchinson, former member of Congress (R-AR); former Director of the Drug Enforcement Administration; former Under Secretary for Border & Transportation Security at the Department of Homeland Security; former US attorney; Member, Constitution Project’s Liberty and Security Committee
Alison Parker, deputy director, US Program, Human Rights Watch
Megan Mack, director, American Bar Association Commission on Immigration (moderator)
When:
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Noon to 2 p.m.
A light lunch will be served
Where:
National Press Club
First Amendment Lounge
529 14th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20045
RSVP:
The Constitution Project seeks consensus solutions to difficult legal and constitutional issues. It does this through constructive dialogue across ideological and partisan lines, and through scholarship, activism, and public education efforts.
Human Rights Watch is dedicated to defending and protecting human rights. By focusing international attention where human rights are violated through objective investigations and strategic, targeted advocacy, it gives a voice to the oppressed and holds oppressors accountable for their crimes.
For more information and to schedule interviews, please contact:
For Human Rights Watch
In San Francisco, Alison Parker, deputy director of the US Program of Human Rights Watch and author of Locked Up Far Away, (English): +1 (917) 535-9796 (mobile); or parkera@hrw.org
In Washington, D.C., David Fathi (English, French): +1 (202) 906-0455 (mobile); or fathid@hrw.org
In New York, Jamie Fellner (English, Spanish): +1 (917) 912-7343 (mobile); or fellnej@hrw.org
For the Constitution Project
Note to journalists: The full reports are embargoed until the time of the panel discussion. Copies of both reports in English and the summary and recommendations of Locked Up Far Away in Spanish will be available at the December 2nd event.
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