Take a walk through Greenwich Village. On your way, try the Elvis at Peanut Butter & Co. Sample a truffle or two from chocolatier Jacques Torres. And, if you’re a lawyer, rub elbows with some of the inmates over at the Varick Detention Center.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/williamaveryhudson/
Varick Detention center is a 250-room dormitory style detention center operated by the United States Department of Homeland Security Immigration and Customs Enforcement. 11,000 illegal immigrants pass through Varick each year. Due to overcrowding, many are swept off to more remote facilities without a lawyer or a trial.
Unfortunately, without the opportunity for an attorney or review, many are transported to different facilities before the nuances of their status can be determined. The New York City Bar Association, after receiving a petition signed by 100 men at the facility, sent several volunteers to offer pro bono counsel.
The problem is in the immigrants being swept through the system without ever being represented or formally tried for a crime. A paper issued by the Congressional Budget Office mentions a process of expedited removal, which began in 1997, that allows “removal without further hearing or review if the immigrant is found inadmissible because of fraud, misrepresentation, or lack of proper documentation.” This is the broom of the system.
The key to this statement seems to be the phrase “further hearing or review.” In Varick’s case, immigrants are being removed – technically – without having an initial hearing or review. I say technically because they are being removed from their original detention facility, and shipped to another, without first being tried.
At the end of the day, it seems to be an issue of unfairness rather than unlawfulness. The volunteers found a “fundamental unfairness” of a system where immigrant detainees – unlike criminal defendants – can be held without legal representation and moved with no prior notice. In fact, the only instance of unlawfulness appears to be in the cases of several detained men who may have a legitimate claim to citizenship.
Posted by Tyler on November 2, 2009 at 12:47 pm.
