Thread: Immigrant advocates object to 'draconian' provisions ...

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Immigrant advocates object to 'draconian' provisions in Senate bill




By Ruth Morris
South Florida Sun-Sentinel

June 1, 2007



Two prominent South Florida immigrant advocacy groups on Thursday denounced what they called "draconian" detention and deportation provisions included in a Senate bill to overhaul the U.S. immigration system.

The bill, introduced before the Senate's Memorial Day recess, would offer legal status to some 12 million people in the United States without documents, and has drawn support from many groups promoting immigrant rights. But directors from the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center and the Haitian Women of Miami said the bill's enforcement measures -- including a provision to add 20,000 detention beds -- would intensify federal policies that target non-threatening immigrants and break apart families.

"The people who will fill these beds are not criminals. They are people who sometimes hold two, three jobs," said Marleine Bastien, of the Haitian Women of Miami, referring to rising numbers of deportations from the United States. "They are in hiding, because they are afraid of being apprehended in the middle of the night."

The Senate bill resulted from tense negotiations between lawmakers and the White House, and is largely seen as a last chance for sweeping changes to immigration laws before presidential election campaigns go into full swing. Dubbed the "grand bargain" by lawmakers, it attempts to reconcile political and economic demands by bolstering efforts to stop illegal immigration before benefits like guest worker visas and legalization kick in.

The bill also calls for 370 miles of border fencing and thousands more border agents, plus ground-based radar and camera towers to crack down on illegal crossings. Another provision sets up new detention facilities for immigrants being deported.

Policy groups working to lower immigration levels say the enforcement measures don't go far enough.

"Immigration law does not distinguish between threatening and non-threatening immigrants. If you are here illegally, the law calls for you to be deported. It's not a question of who is valedictorian and who pays their taxes," said John Keeley, a spokesman for Center for Immigration Studies in Washington D.C.

Immigrant advocates and lawyers say the Senate bill would exacerbate problems they have reaching clients who are shuttled from one detention facility to another, sometimes across state lines. They also assert that most of the immigrants detained don't have criminal backgrounds and are held at great cost to taxpayers.

A recent study by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a private research group at Syracuse University, found that since fiscal 2004 just 13 percent of deportation cases have involved criminal charges such as drug trafficking or human smuggling. An overwhelming majority, 86.5 percent, involved immigration violations, among them entering the country illegally or overstaying a student visa, the study said.

At the press conference, Marlene Jaggernauth of Trinidad and Tobago, who holds a green card, said she has spent 11 months in jail during deportation proceedings, forcing her to leave her U.S.-born children in the care of her parents, also U.S. citizens.

"They pulled into my driveway and handcuffed me in front of my four minor children," she said. "Why was I held in jail?"

Her deportation resulted from two shoplifting convictions, but a three-judge panel at the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals later ruled her crime was not an aggravated felony. Permanent residents like Jaggernauth can be deported if they are deemed "aggravated felons," and legal experts say the definition sometimes covers relatively minor offenses.

"Immigration is no longer about foreigners," said Jaggernauth, a former administrative assistant at Florida Atlantic University.

"It is about American families."

Jaggernauth hopes to stay in Port St. Lucie with her family. She awaits a judge's ruling on a petition seeking cancellation of her deportation order.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/ ... ws-broward

If these women are so lawabiding then they should not be in America illegally. They should have applied to enter America legally and then they would not need to worry about the detention beds.

They pulled into my driveway and handcuffed me in front of my four minor children," she said. "Why was I held in jail?"

because you were convicted twice did you shoplift with your chirdren?






Her deportation resulted from two shoplifting convictions,

she should be use to being handcuffed

Her deportation resulted from two shoplifting convictions,

Here's another law abiding citizen!!
We are only deporting aggrevated felons Deport all them you fools, gee I wonder why we don't trust them to enforce our laws