FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 8, 2007

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

WASHINGTON-Two years after the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) published the congressionally authorized Report on Asylum Seekers in Expedited Removal, the problems it identified remain and the majority of its recommendations have not been implemented.

Congress intended Expedited Removal, written into law in 1996, to protect U.S. borders and bona fide asylum seekers. As this policy is being implemented, though, it has put asylum seekers at risk of being returned to countries where they face persecution.

That has helped turn the United States, a nation founded by people fleeing repression, into a country of bureaucratic walls and mazes where victims are sent back to their tormentors or thrown into U.S. jails alongside criminals pending a judgment on asylum.

On Feb. 8, 2005, USCIRF made 18 recommendations to the agencies responsible for implementing the Expedited Removal program, all designed to further both the aims of protecting U.S. borders and ensuring fair and humane treatment for bona fide asylum seekers.

Today USCIRF issued a report card assessing how well the Departments of Homeland Security (DHS) and Justice (DOJ) have implemented the recommendations, to assure that Congressional safeguards for bona fide asylum seekers are translated into practice.

USCIRF chair Felice D. Gaer noted that "we see no significant difference between the situations of then and now-with the exception that Expedited Removal was expanded in spite of our explicit recommendation to hold off on that."

DHS has widened Expedited Removal from a port-of-entry program to one that covers the entire land and sea border of the United States.

Customs and Border Protection did not institute any of the five recommendations USCIRF made to improve oversight, including measures as simple as adding videotape monitoring systems to all border patrol stations and ports of entry or employing so-called testers to verify that procedures are followed correctly. As a result, Customs and Border Protection earned the lowest grade, with an overall score of "F."

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has taken no steps to improve the prison-like conditions under which asylum seekers are detained or ensure that release criteria are applied uniformly. ICE earned an overall grade of "D."

However, the picture isn't entirely bleak. The Justice Department's Executive Office of Immigration Review has taken steps to reinstate judicial training and expand its legal orientation program for detained asylum seekers, earning an overall grade of "C+."

The report card summary and the full report of USCIRF's two-year review of its recommendations on expedited removal are posted on its web site, www.uscirf.gov.

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.

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.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 31, 2007

Contact:
Judith Ingram, Communications Director,
(202) 523-3240, ext. 127
cell (202) 375-3787

-EVENT ADVISORY-

The Many Faces of China's Repression: Human Rights, Religious Freedom, and U.S. Diplomacy in China

When: Wednesday, January 31, 2007, 1:30 - 4:00 pm

Where:Dirksen Senate Office Building, Room 538

Agenda:

Panel I:Current policy statement from the administration
State Department official invited

Panel II:China's major religious communities: The faces of repression

• Bhuchung Tsering -Vice President, International Campaign for Tibet
• Bob Fu - President, China Aid Association
• Kamila Telenbidaeva - wife of Huseyin Celil, Uyghur Canadian Association
• Erping Zhang - President, Association for Asia Research
• Joseph Kung - President, Cardinal Kung Foundation

Panel III:Human Rights and U.S. Diplomacy in China

• Michael Green - Japan Chair, Center for Strategic and International Studies (former Senior Director for Asian Affairs at the National Security Council)
• Sharon Hom - Executive Director, Human Rights in China

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.