IMMIGRATION LAW CHALLENGED
A Mexican woman who claims her five-day detention at a federal immigration office was an illegal arrest filed the first lawsuit challenging enforcement of Arizona’s landmark immigration enforcement law. Thursday’s filing by Maria del Rosario Cortes Camacho alleges constitutional violations in how a police agency enforced the law, as opposed to challenging the law itself. A domestic violence victim who had applied for a visa allowing her to remain in the U.S. to assist authorities with the case, Cortes alleged two Pinal County sheriff’s deputies had unreasonably prolonged the length of a September 2012 traffic stop for a cracked windshield and made an illegal arrest by bringing her in handcuffs to a Border Patrol office, where she was detained for five days. Pinal County authorities responded that the deputies had followed the law.
— Associated Press
An official with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement revealed that about 70 percent of immigrant families the Obama administration had released into the U.S. never showed up for follow-up appointments.
The ICE official made the disclosure in a confidential meeting at the agency’s Washington headquarters with immigration advocates participating in a federal working group on detention and enforcement policies. A reporter obtained an audio recording of Wednesday’s meeting and separately interviewed participants.
On the recording, the government did not specify the total number of families released into the U.S. since October. Since only a few hundred families have already been returned to their home countries and limited U.S. detention facilities can house only about 1,200 family members, the 70 percent figure suggests the government released roughly 41,000 members of immigrant families who subsequently failed to appear at federal immigration offices.
The official, who was not identified by name on the recording of the meeting, also said final deportation had been ordered for at least 860 people traveling in families caught at the border since May but only 14 people had reported as ordered.
In a statement emailed Thursday afternoon, ICE spokeswoman Gillian Christensen said the no-show rate “represents an approximate snapshot of individuals encountered beginning in May” who failed to report to ICE. Christiansen added that some of those people may still be reporting to immigration court hearings and a “significant” number of deportation cases are still pending before judges.
The administration in June declined to say publicly how many immigrant families from Central America caught crossing into the U.S. it had released in recent months or how many of those subsequently reported back to the government after 15 days as directed.
More than 66,000 immigrants traveling as families, mostly mothers and young children, have been apprehend at the border since the start of the budget year in October. Nearly 60,000 of those immigrants are from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala and cannot be immediately repatriated, so the government has been releasing them into the U.S. and telling them to report within 15 days to the nearest Immigration and Customs Enforcement offices.
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