Michael Mukasey is taking his last few days as Attorney General to gut the meager protections afforded people under deportation procedures. From a press release from the American Immigration Law Foundation:
In a decision issued Wednesday, January 7, the Attorney General declared that henceforth, immigrants, asylum seekers, and all others in removal (deportation) proceedings do not have any right under statute or the Constitution to representation by a lawyer before they can be ordered deported. The Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) and most federal courts have for decades operated under the premise that immigrants DO have such rights. The Attorney General has reversed many years of precedent and operation by simply declaring it so.
There is a Senate bill, the Protect Citizens and Residents from Unlawful Raids and Detention Act, that would provide Habeas rights to individuals detained in immigration raids regardless of citizenship. Besides the dubious rationale behind denying people constitutional rights on American soil on the basis of their not being citizens, the truth is that some people detained by ICE and subsequently deported actually do turn out to be citizens. Without access to a lawyer and the ability to challenge their detention, mistakes like this are going to be made.
Most of the complaints about the Bush Administration's disregard for civil liberties have focused on the indefinite detention of terrorist suspects. But the United States detains a large number of people in prison-like facilities (often private) under questionable conditions without giving them the ability to challenge their detention in court. With the economic crisis looming, and immigration no longer a top priority, it's easy to see how the push to grant people under deportation proceedings Habeas rights could get lost in the chaos.
-- A. Serwer
