Irregularities in the Treatment of Asylum Seekers at LaSalle ICE Processing Center

LaSalle detention facility in Louisiana

By MA in Migration Studies students from Cohort 6 and Bill Hing, Law and Migration Studies professor and director of the Immigration and Deportation Defense Clinic.

In recent months, dozens of South American and Central American persons have entered the US seeking protection due to threats received in their home countries. They were interviewed, some had a Credible Fear Interview (CFI), and others a Reasonable Fear Interview (RFI), and their claims were not considered suitable for applying to asylum. This is in spite of the fact that they have evidence and enough reasons to demonstrate that their lives are in danger if they return to their home countries. They have not received adequate information about their rights and about the process, and in some cases, they have not received copies of their interview transcripts (which they are entitled to receive). They are currently detained at LaSalle detention center in Louisiana.

Considering the fact that:

• The U.S. has obligations to asylum seekers under the international refugee convention and protocols to allow such individuals to apply for asylum or at least protections from removal (nonrefoulement).

• If an asylum officer finds that the person has not passed the CFI interview, the officer should notify the person that they have a right to have an immigration judge conduct a new CFI. The legal process of determining asylum cases is not explained to detainees. They do not know the sequence of events or what to expect.

• None of the individuals we encountered were given adequate information about the CFI process and the purpose of the process.

• The CFI process is intended to be a screening procedure -it's not a point at which the person has to prove that they will be persecuted.

• Some of these detainees have received a copy of the court's decision in English which many are unable to read due to language barriers.

We denounce the detention of these persons as an arbitrary detention that is condemned by the United Nations Refugee Convention, the United Nations International Convention on Migrant Workers, and the United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

We make a public call for government and civil society organizations to defend the rights of these persons to have a review of the interviews done or have a second interview to prevent their deportation, and to stop their revictimization. Right now, they are secluded and fearful about their lives without adequate information, nor resources or options to defend themselves, causing them anxiety and other mental health problems.