When An Immigrant Mom Gets Arrested

Color Lines features this piece that came out in their July/August issue. It is a bit lengthy, but it is a story worth reading to understand the consequences of family separation due to the draconian immigration laws being enforced.

When An Immigrant Mom Gets Arrested
By Julianne Ong Hing and Seth Wessler

BEHIND THE THICK GLASS THAT RUNS THE LENGTH of the Yuba County Jail’s visitation corridor, Tatyana Mitrohina’s eyes glisten, and then fill with tears as she recounts the last time she saw her son. “During the visit, he climbed into my arms and fell asleep with his head on my shoulder while I walked around with him,” she remembers.
Two months after that visit, Mitrohina was sent to the Yuba County Jail in Marysville, California, hours away from her 2-year-old son, who is in foster care. She was convicted on charges that she had hit him. While she does not deny the charges, she does say she had expected to be released from jail and to get counseling and start to rebuild her life with her child. But with the increasing collaboration between local authorities and federal immigration officials, Mitrohina found that she would not get that second chance. The government had slated her to be deported to Russia, the country she left as a teenager.

“When I first got here, I would break down crying once a week, just thinking about everything that’s happened,” says Mitrohina, who is 30 years old.

Immigration and child welfare advocates say that Mitrohina’s story—the loss of her child, her incarceration and detention, and her struggle to care for her child—represents a new and dangerous terrain at the intersection of three government systems—deportation, incarceration and foster care—that are tearing apart poor families and families of color.

While rates of detention and deportation have increased exponentially in recent years, what is happening to immigrant families is not a new story. It has been played out time and again in the lives of Black families who, in the past 20 years, have faced an increase in drug-related arrests and sentences that place Black parents in jail and their children in foster care. As immigrant families find themselves targeted by a combination of public policies, it is becoming clear that their experiences and those of Black families, women and children are troublingly similar.


Rest of article

Prince William County: be careful what you ask for

As previously mentioned by dreamacttexas, if anti-immigrationists want undocumented people to leave, then why are they putting so many in jail - which effectively means they will stay in the U.S.?

Perhaps our readers have some ideas as to what this is about.

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Detainee Program Strains Va. Jail
Pr. William Cites Delays by ICE

By Nick Miroff
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 8, 2008; A01

A highly touted partnership between the Prince William County jail and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is showing signs of strain, as crowding at the facility has hit an all-time high and federal agents are taking weeks -- not the agreed-upon 72 hours -- to pick up illegal immigrant suspects, jail officials said.

Letters sent recently by Prince William jail board Chairman Patrick J. Hurd to Julie L. Myers, head of ICE, and top officials in Prince William and Manassas said that jail workers are "at or close to their limit" as a result of new local policies that require residency checks of inmates suspected of being in the country illegally. Jail employees with immigration training are working 60 hours a week, Hurd said, and the facility is spending $220,000 a month to house a growing number of inmates elsewhere in the state.

"Something's got to change," Hurd said. "We're worried about the impact on our staff."

The unanticipated expense comes as county officials wrangle over budget shortfalls, tax increases and the additional costs of tighter immigration enforcement by its police department, which, like the jail, has a partnership with ICE through a program known as 287(g).

Under the federal program, participating jurisdictions can deputize local law enforcement officials to receive training and assist ICE in processing illegal immigrants. The local officers investigate suspects who they think are illegal immigrants, working with the federal agency to increase arrests and expedite the deportation process.

The program has become popular with elected officials whose constituents have been demanding tougher action on illegal immigration. Since 2005, the number of state and local agencies participating in 287(g) nationwide has increased from four to 47, including the Prince William jail and the police departments in Prince William, Manassas and Herndon.

But cracks in the agency's partnership with the jail suggest that federal authorities are struggling to fulfill their commitments. In Prince William, ICE agents are supposed to retrieve suspected illegal immigrants from the jail within 72 hours of their scheduled release from county custody, under the agreement that went into effect in July. Instead, Hurd says, inmates are waiting as long as four weeks, and the already-crowded jail is spending $3 million a year in additional transportation and processing costs.

Hurd's calculations do not include the potential impact of the Prince William police policy implemented March 1, which directs patrol officers to investigate a crime suspect's residency status if they think the person is an illegal immigrant. People detained for traffic violations or other minor offenses might wait weeks for federal removal.

In an e-mail, ICE spokeswoman Ernestine Fobbs said the agency met with jail officials Thursday and pledged to beef up its commitment.

"Both parties recognized that due to the dramatic increase in the number of aliens being sent to ICE beyond the originally projected caseload, that closer coordination would be required," Fobbs said. "Both agencies will continue to work together to facilitate a more expedient way to transition aliens." The agencies will begin meeting monthly "to assess any adjustments that need to be made," she said.

Since the partnership started, the jail has processed about 13,000 suspects, superintendent Col. Peter A. Meletis said. Officers have conducted checks on 1,199 inmates, 632 of whom were wanted by ICE.

The federal agency compensates the jail for holding its suspects, but those who are also charged with state or local crimes must serve out their sentences before they can be transferred to ICE for possible deportation. Another factor driving costs is that inmates who face local charges who might have been released on bond are being held for ICE. The jail picks up the bill.

Meletis said he had not calculated what that extra cost would be. "I'm sure there are people in that category, but I don't know how many," he said.

Capacity at the facility -- due to expand by 200 beds in November-- was a problem before the ICE partnership started. The two main jail facilities are rated by the state's Board of Corrections as having space for 402 inmates, but in February, the buildings held an average of 664 inmates a day. An additional 275 inmates were sent to facilities elsewhere in Virginia at a daily cost of $38 to $50 per inmate.

The crowding has resulted in a pricey process in which inmates are juggled between facilities according to bed space, court obligations and other factors. Lawyers and inmates' families said the partnership is also allowing illegal immigrant suspects to stay in Prince William while legal residents are shipped elsewhere.

Manassas resident Angie Walls said her 23-year-old son was abruptly transferred to a facility in Staunton soon after he began serving a three-month sentence for a home burglary Feb. 28 -- and not long after she had deposited money into his commissary account at the Prince William jail. She set up an account for him in Staunton, but he was transferred back to Prince William before the money arrived. She's now trying to figure out if he'll be moved again.

"Nobody can give me an answer," she said, requesting that her son's name be withheld lest he face retaliation. "I can't wait until this is over."

In his letters to Myers of ICE, Hurd, the jail board chairman, said the agency's failure to promptly remove inmates was "unacceptable" and could no longer continue. He offered three remedies: that ICE establish a designated weekday when it will retrieve inmates, that jail workers limit residency checks to more serious criminals or that the jail disregard ICE detaining orders and release suspects after 48 hours if they have no outstanding local charges.

Meletis said that his employees have been checking everyone whom they suspect is an illegal immigrant and that they would have to get permission from the jail board to scale back that approach. But they prefer that ICE meet the terms of its agreement with the jail.

"I think they want to fix the problem," Meletis said. "They've told me they lack bed space to put people in."

for link to WP article click the title of this post

Sen. Arlen Spector: Too expensive to hold detained immigrants

There are so many thousands of immigrants currently detained in the United States, it is interesting that Specter would say "criminal aliens" (such an ugly phrase) are too expensive to hold in detention.

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The Philadelphia Inquirer

February 19, 2008 Tuesday
CITY-D Edition

Specter decries cost to hold deportable alien criminals;
He spoke at the Chester County Prison. He wants an efficient plan to send them back to their home countries.

By Michael Matza and Kathleen Brady Shea; Inquirer Staff Writers


Up to 1,000 deportable aliens are incarcerated in Pennsylvania lock-ups on any given day, costing $20 million a year - which could be saved if the offenders were efficiently expelled, U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter said yesterday during a visit to the Chester County jail to spotlight the broader national costs of illegal immigration.

While states are federally reimbursed for the cost of incarcerating undocumented immigrants, the toll ultimately is borne by all taxpayers.

"The financial burden is very substantial," Specter said yesterday at the Chester County Prison in West Chester, where he met with Warden D. Edward McFadden and officials from the Department of Homeland Security's office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

"We have an enormously serious problem at the national level," he said.

The Department of Homeland Security has estimated that in 2007, about 302,000 "removable aliens" were admitted to state and local jails.

"Most . . . incarcerated aliens are being released into the U.S. at the conclusion of their respective sentences" because of lack of federal resources, the agency said.

Specter, the top-ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, has been touring state facilities "to better understand the issues surrounding the identification and deportation of criminal aliens," his office said in a news release.

Earlier this month, he visited the state correctional facility at Camp Hill.

Specter said he chose Chester County for yesterday's visit because the prison has a substantial number of illegal immigrant inmates. Chester County is home to thousands of migrants who work in the mushroom industry.

The prison has an average population of about 950. Records showed 63 illegal immigrant inmates yesterday in the prison population.

McFadden said prison statistics showed that one out of 15 inmates had a charge or detainer from ICE.

Citing a 2006 report by the Department of Homeland Security's inspector general, Specter said a substantial number of aliens who have committed crimes that would make them deportable often are released rather than deported due to inadequate resources to identify and hold them.

Critics of the removal effort have called it "catch and release." ICE spokesman Michael Gilhooley said yesterday that the agency was making headway and was able to check the immigration status of "100 percent of the names" brought to its attention by local officials.

Among the difficulties Specter cited were a shortage of beds for immigrants facing removal, inaccurate recordkeeping, and problems compelling their native countries to repatriate them.

Of 774,112 illegal aliens apprehended nationwide between 2003 and 2006, 36 percent were released because of shortages in processing personnel, bed space, and the funding needed to detain them while their immigration status was adjudicated, according to the federal report.

Specter said he would like to see the secretary of state use her power to limit visas to those nations that do not readily take back convicted aliens. He also suggested withholding foreign aid from countries that were uncooperative.

Nicole Thompson, a State Department spokeswoman assigned as duty officer on President's Day, said she did not have enough information at hand to immediately comment on Specter's suggestions.

The 2006 inspector general's report, however, does make mention of a joint State Department, Homeland Security and National Security Council "Sanctions Working Group" that has put pressure on noncooperating countries to speed up the issuance of the travel documents that are needed when an alien is removed from the United States and returned to his or her native land.

The problem has persisted, especially with removals to Jamaica and certain countries in Asia.

"As a result of these barriers to removal," the report found, 14 percent of allotted detention beds were filled by illegal aliens whose countries were either slow or unwilling to issue the necessary paperwork. A recent agreement with Vietnam is expected to speed up the process regarding Vietnamese nationals.

Specter also said that district attorneys who prosecute criminal cases have the discretion to include deportation language in plea agreements with inmates who are willing to return home in exchange for shorter sentences.

University of Pennsylvania Law School professor Sarah Paoletti, director of Penn's Transnational Legal Clinic, which represents immigrants in asylum cases, said the plea-bargain idea sounds reasonable but is prone to pitfalls.

"Criminal defense attorneys aren't trained in immigration law," she said, so their clients could end up signing documents without understanding the full consequences.

Following deportation, an immigrant is ineligible to seek legal reentry to the United States for at least 10 years.

Arlen Spector talks about illegal aliens and the New England Patriots' signal-stealing scandal on video available at http://go.philly.com/specter

Contact staff writer Michael Matza at 215-854-2541 or mmatza@phillynews.com.

from Lexus Nexus Database