ICE agents in Louisiana deport asylum applicants without interview or trial

National civil rights group accuses immigration officers in New Orleans of illegally deporting asylum seekers, reports NBC.

Photo: Shutterstock

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) said in a complaint filed last month with the local office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in New Orleans that in some cases asylum seekers never received a credible interview to explain why they fled and why they are afraid to return.

Some deportations occur before asylum seekers can be heard by a judge, or while their case or appeal is pending, SPLC lawyers say.

The center filed a complaint on January 18 with the Office of Civil Rights and Liberties of the Department of Homeland Security.

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Under federal law, a person who expresses fear of returning to their home country cannot be deported until they have been interviewed by an asylum officer. The law also prohibits the removal of asylum seekers if they have filed an appeal and while their case is pending before the Immigration Appeals Board.

"I've never seen anything like this before," said Mitch Gonzalez, an attorney for the SPLC, who said three of his clients were illegally deported.

Gonzalez and other lawyers say they have seen isolated cases over the years in which asylum seekers were erroneously deported and often returned when DHS realized a mistake had been made.

“But to see this many cases in six months is unprecedented,” Gonzalez said. “DHS and ICE know about these recent cases, but they wash their hands of everything.”

One of his clients was deported to Nicaragua on December 23, the eve of Christmas. The client said he spent two months asking for a real interview. He said he fled Nicaragua after being beaten several times by members of the national police.

“A representative of the national police shot me with a rubber bullet and beat me. And here the United States turned its back on me,” he said in an interview with Noticias Telemundo Investiga before being deported.

An ICE spokesperson stated that Gonzalez's client "had been provided with all due process to which he was entitled under US law."

ICE, in an emailed statement, insists it conducts a thorough review of cases before expelling anyone from the U.S. to "ensure that due process is being followed and that they are not entitled to any additional form of assistance during expulsion”.

Immigration lawyers say this is not the case.

Gonzalez said another client was deported to Haiti days before Christmas, though emails indicate ICE was informed of the review request.

After arriving in Haiti, according to photos and text messages sent to Gonzalez by his client, he was "severely beaten" by supporters of two political parties due to his family's political activism and narrowly escaped being burned.

Gonzalez said his client is still actively fleeing persecution.

According to Gonzalez, ICE has not responded to numerous requests for the return of his client from Haiti.

Homero Lopez, executive director of immigration and legal protection in New Orleans, said his office received 20 to 30 calls from asylum seekers who said they had been notified of deportation but had not received a credible interview.

“Definitely there have been some changes in the office,” said Lopez, who has noticed a trend over the past three to four months.

Lawyers have long been critical of conditions in the New Orleans local office detention centers since the Trump administration. There were complaints about "appalling conditions" in institutions, excessively low parole rates, and asylum seekers offered parole under unusually high guarantees.

Jeremy Jong, a staff lawyer for the nonprofit Al Otro Lado, said he has a client who was deported to Guatemala despite an active "removal hold". He said that for several months ICE assured him that they would return it.

"They haven't taken any steps in that direction at all - she's still there and I can't get a response from the ICE staff," he said.

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Jong believes part of the problem is that even though the administration has changed, the staff that runs day-to-day operations at the detention centers remains the same.

“I am not in touch with the thousands of people detained by the ICE office,” Gonzalez said. “I don't know how deep the scale of this problem is. The human cost is terrible."

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