| USCIRF

Aug 15, 2009

For Your Information

August 15, 2009| by Michael Cromartie and Elizabeth H. Prodromou

The following Op-Ed appeared in the Miami Herald on August 15, 2009

Last week was important for those seeking to reform the U.S. system by which asylum seekers are detained. On the same day, Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., introduced the Secure and Safe Detention and Asylum Act to ensure that asylum seekers are treated in accordance with U.S. law, and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement finally recognized the need to overhaul a broken immigration detention system.

The Lieberman bill would address many glaring problems that have been identified by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, an independent, bipartisan federal government commission. Congressional action is needed, as unfortunately almost all these problems remain today.

The commission found that the Department of Homeland Security, along with the Department of Justice, were improperly treating asylum seekers in expedited removal, a procedure through which asylum seekers are detained and can be deported without even seeing an immigration judge. The Lieberman bill addresses both of these concerns.

Improved custodial conditions

The ICE announcement established goals and a framework for a new civil detention system that, within the next three to five years, would seek to offer improved custodial conditions and medical care, fiscal prudence and greater federal oversight. The announced goal of such reform is to move away from the ``present decentralized, jail-oriented approach.'' We hope that the agency's plans become reality and look forward to ICE issuing specifics.

Given the sorry state of the current detention system and the fact that ICE has announced general plans but no concrete actions, legislation like the Lieberman bill is necessary. Simply put, asylum seekers fleeing persecution should not be returned to countries from which they have fled, nor should they be confined in prison-like conditions like criminals, simply for seeking freedom and protection in the United States.

In surveying detention facilities, we found conditions that may retraumatize asylum seekers: They were housed with criminal offenders, underwent inmate counts, invasive searches and surveillance and had limited contact with families and legal assistance providers.

We were particularly troubled to learn that asylum seekers were being restrained and forced to wear handcuffs and shackles like violent criminals. Often coming to this country suffering trauma, asylum seekers were being detained by staff who were neither trained to be sensitive to their special needs nor able to address the issues arising from torture and other trauma.

The commission made a number of recommendations -- none requiring congressional action -- to fix these problems. They include increased coordination among agencies that implement expedited removal; increased alternatives to detention or detention in non-jail-like facilities; increased opportunities for pro bono counsel for asylum seekers; and increased quality assurance procedures.

Four years after we issued our report, asylum seekers still are detained under prison-like conditions. Such confinement is unnecessarily severe, especially as there are legal alternatives to detention. Problematically, the use of detention has increased.

Taxdollars wasted

Over the past six years at least 42,000 asylum seekers have been detained, at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars to U.S. taxpayers. To date, DHS has been unwilling to use and expand alternatives to detention.

We thus especially take note of ICE's announcement to develop a national strategy on detention alternatives. Essential to that effort would be a revision of the existing parole criteria, as we have consistently recommended since 2005, to facilitate asylum seekers' release from detention. The agency should immediately revise such criteria by returning to preexisting standards.

Before last week, DHS had not undertaken necessary remedial actions, nor even signaled its intention to do so. USCIRF welcomes the Lieberman bill and ICE's announcement. Both are important first steps to achieving the goal of treating asylum seekers fairly and humanely as well as reaffirming the leading role that the United States long has played in providing safe haven to those seeking freedom and safety on our shores.

Michael Cromartie and Elizabeth Prodromou are vice chairs of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.

Aug 14, 2009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 14, 2009

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) is deeply concerned about the recent upsurge of sectarian violence in Iraq. Among the most recent bombings, a village outside of Mosul inhabited by Shabak, an ethnic and predominantly Shiite minority, was completely destroyed by two large truck bombs, killing at least 28 people and injuring at least 150. In addition, a café in the Yazidi town of Sinjar was attacked by two suicide bombers, killing at least 21 and injuring at least 30. The Yazidi are a small religious minority indigenous to northern Iraq.\

"The Iraqi government must do much more to prevent a return to escalating sectarian conflict,” said Leonard Leo, USCIRF chair. "This includes providing visible and effective protection to all religious and ethnic minorities in Iraq, ensuring greater sectarian integration into the government and security forces, and bolstering police protection where it is needed the most by shifting resources when necessary. The government also needs to promote reconciliation and religious tolerance by maintaining a truly operational national human rights commission, by doing a far better job of investigating and prosecuting acts of sectarian violence, and by facilitating interfaith conflict resolution and dialogue amongst Iraq"s youth.”

The attacks that took place Friday, August 7, Monday, August 10, and Thursday, August 13, were among the worst since U.S. troops withdrew from Iraqi cities on June 30. According to reports, at least 120 persons have been killed, and hundreds more injured in a wave of bombings targeting, in addition to the Shabak and Yazidi communities, Turkomen Shiite pilgrims, Shiite pilgrims country-wide, predominantly Shiite areas in Baghdad, and other areas of the capital city.

In the lead-up to and since June 30, the country has witnessed an increase in sectarian attacks, with dozens of bombings and suicide attacks killing more than 500 Iraqis from all religious backgrounds. The targets have included religious sites, including mosques and churches, and religious processions. "It is imperative that the Iraqi government ensure that houses of worship and religious events are respected and protected in Iraq,” said Mr. Leo.

Analysts speculate that al-Qaeda operatives and similar insurgent groups are responsible for most of the attacks in an attempt to return Iraq to sectarian war, which engulfed the country in 2006 and 2007, and intensify Arab-Kurd tensions.

Monday"s attack devastating the Shabak village of Khazna was reminiscent of an August 2007 attack in Sinjar, which targeted and killed almost 800 Yazidis. Both towns are located in the Nineveh governorate. USCIRF has consistently called for increased protection for religious and ethnic minorities in Nineveh governorate who are caught in the middle of an Arab-Kurd struggle over disputed territories.

USCIRF recommended that Iraq should be named a "Country of Particular Concern” (CPC) under the International Religious Freedom Act in 2008 and 2009 due the Iraqi government"s failure to protect the country"s smallest religious minorities and the role of Iraqi security forces in sectarian conflict.

To interview a USCIRF Commissioner, contact Tom Carter, Communications Director, at [email protected] or (202) 523-3257.

USCIRF is an independent, bipartisan U.S. federal government commission. USCIRF Commissioners are appointed by the President and the leadership of both political parties in the Senate and the House of Representatives. USCIRF"s principal responsibilities are to review the facts and circumstances of violations of religious freedom internationally and to make policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State and Congress.