USCIRF Expedited Removal Study Report Card: Two Years Later

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 06, 2007

Contact:
Judith Ingram, Communications Director,
(202) 523-3240, ext. 127

-PRESS ADVISORY-

USCIRF EXPEDITED REMOVAL STUDY REPORT CARD: 2 YEARS LATER

When:Thursday, February 8, 2007, 9:30-10:30 am

Where:Dirksen Senate Office Building, Room 342

Agenda: The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) published its congressionally authorized Report on Asylum Seekers in Expedited Removal on February 8, 2005. The study identified serious flaws in implementation of the Expedited Removal policy that put asylum seekers at risk of being returned to countries where they may face persecution, and it documented that they were held in inappropriate, prison-like conditions or even actual jails, among other findings.

Despite the passage of two years since the report was released, most of its recommendations have yet to be implemented. Senators Lieberman (ID-CT) and Brownback (R-KS) requested that the Commission report on progress made by the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security.

The Commission will hold a press conference to present its report card on the performance of those Departments and their subsidiary agencies dealing with expedited removals. The speakers will include:

• Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, Chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee
• Felice D. Gaer, Chair, USCIRF
• Preeta D. Bansal, Commissioner, USCIRF

RSVP:Angela Stephens, [email protected], (202) 523-3240, x114

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom was created by the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 to monitor the status of freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief abroad, as defined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and related international instruments, and to give independent policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State and the Congress.