Ordered deported, but kept in jail
Stowaways from W. Africa imprisoned months longer than courts suggest
By Maria Sacchetti, Globe Staff | June 2, 2009

His name is Sunday Agbata. He came to the United States as a stowaway on a ship from West Africa, on a deadly voyage that left one man crushed by a propeller and Agbata and another man subsisting on biscuits and water.

Desperate, they shouted to the crew for help and were turned over to federal authorities when they docked in Rhode Island.

Almost one year later, Agbata says he is still on a terrible journey, but this time it is through the federal immigration system. Agbata was ordered deported in July 2008 to his native Nigeria, but he says America will not let him go.

"They've kept me in jail. I don't know anything. I don't have anything," said Agbata, a 27-year-old who worked in an auto factory in Nigeria, wearing an orange jumpsuit during a recent half-hour interview at the Suffolk County jail. "I don't know what I will do."

The 10-month detention of Agbata is raising questions about why the federal government keeps some immigrants in jail long after they have been ordered deported, according to advocates and lawyers for the immigrants.

In 2001 the Supreme Court ruled that six months is a reasonable amount of time to deport immigrants after a final decision in their case; after that period the federal government must justify their continued detention.

In Agbata's case, federal officials say they have kept him in jail because the United States cannot deport him to Nigeria until that government provides him with a travel document that will allow him to return home; he carried no passport or other ID when he arrived on US shores.

Each day of confinement costs US taxpayers about $90.

Although Agbata has not been charged with a crime, they say, he violated civil immigration laws by attempting to enter the United States illegally. Also, officials said, Agbata offered "limited cooperation" in confirming his identity and obtaining travel papers from the Nigerian government.

"He didn't cooperate with us in obtaining a travel document; he didn't provide us with enough information," said Jim Martin, deputy field office director of detention and removal operations for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, in New England. "We are still attempting to remove him."

But Agbata's lawyer said he has cooperated with the federal government, including providing information and contacting the Nigerian consulate to obtain the necessary papers. In February, ICE sent Agbata a letter saying it expected to deport him in the "foreseeable future," according to a copy of the letter.

"It's extremely upsetting to think that in the United States we could hold people with no end in sight," said Andrea Sáenz, a lawyer at the Boston-based Political Asylum/Immigration Representation Project, which discovered Agbata's case during a routine visit to jail. "ICE has never said that Sunday is dangerous. They've never said he's a flight risk. All they've said is, 'Don't worry, we're about to deport him.' And now they've been saying that for 10 months."

In March, ICE loaded Agbata into a van and drove him 450 miles to Buffalo, N.Y. to deport him, but officials were unable to get travel papers at the last minute, so they brought him back to Boston, Martin said.

On Friday, federal officials released Agbata's fellow stowaway, Alex Duna of Ghana, from Suffolk County jail until he can be deported. Duna, who was released shortly after he granted an interview to the Globe, will be on supervised release and will be deported as soon as possible, Martin said.

Martin pointed out that Duna was released only three months after his deportation order was final. The US government does not yet have a passport or travel document for Duna.

Nigerian and Ghanaian government officials in Washington did not return calls seeking comment on the cases.

In an interview before his release, Duna said he did not understand why he had to stay in jail for 10 months. He asserted that he was forced to take antipsychotic drugs in Plymouth County jail, where he was previously held, and put in a cold room as punishment. He produced a jail discipline report from January that said he refused to take medicine.

Duna, a 25-year-old ice cream vendor, said Plymouth jail officials also punished him for 30 days for refusing to be strip-searched, forcing the cancellation of a planned interview with the Globe in April. He was transferred to Suffolk shortly afterward.

Paula Grenier, ICE spokeswoman, said the federal agency is investigating Duna's treatment after the Globe asked questions about it. She said Duna did not file a complaint in jail.

John Birtwell, Plymouth County spokesman, refused to comment on Duna's case, citing jail policy not to speak about specific inmates.

"We don't mistreat or deal inappropriately with anybody in our care," Birtwell said. "Our staff is highly trained. It's professional, and their actions are highly choreographed and guided by policy, and that applies to each and every individual placed in our care."

Duna's lawyer, Nyasha Karimakwenda of the Boston College Immigration and Asylum Project, said she has struggled to get answers about his case.

Agbata and Duna said their experience is far from what they imagined when they began their journey one night last June off the coast of Benin, a hot, humid strip of land between Ghana and Nigeria.

Agbata, Duna, and Duna's cousin, Emmanuel Atta, huddled in the propeller room of a ship called the Dixie Sunbelt, hoping for a better life in America. Three days later, Atta slipped, was crushed by a propeller, and fell into the sea. Duna and Agbata banged on the walls so that the ship's crew could help them.

On July 7, 2008, they arrived and were turned over to federal authorities in Rhode Island. Both men requested asylum: Agbata said that an uncle threatened him over a land dispute and that he feared government persecution. Duna said his father was poisoned in a land dispute.

But the US government rejected both cases as not credible and ordered them deported, according to their lawyers.

Deportation cases vary, depending on each immigrant's circumstances, and not all immigrants are jailed pending deportation. Martin, of ICE, said some are held as flight risks or potential danger to society, among other concerns.

But advocates for immigrants say such cases continue to crop up across the United States and are pushing ICE to reveal how many immigrants with final deportation orders have been jailed longer than the six months the Supreme Court recommends.

"It's become a black hole," said Sarnata Reynolds, policy director for refugee and migrant rights for Amnesty International USA, in Washington. "People end up in these detention centers for months, even years. They have no lawyers. They're desperately reaching out to anyone that they can."

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