Day Sixteen: Blame

At the end of this entry, I will past a letter from the mayor of this fine town, blaming the lawyers here for the awful increase in releases and decrease in deportations.  We are absolutely thrilled with this blame!

In the courtroom today, I witnessed a scene that involved multiple examples of blame.  The woman escaped a horribly abusive relationship with her second husband, the father of the youngest of her three children.  Her older two, both teenagers, are here with her in Artesia and have been for months.

This man abused her mercilessly and exploited her teenage daughter.  When asked why she had only her two older children with her, she broke down and told the court that her youngest, 6, had been killed in a car accident a year ago, while her abuser was driving and texting.  Everyone in the room cried with her.  Though he was not present, we all blamed this man for everything she had described.

Then, the questioning turn to factors more related to the decision as to her bond.  Just to be clear, the bond assessment is an analysis as to how likely the person is to show up for the hearings down the road, compared with the risk of her living in the shadows.  Remember, these mothers want nothing more for themselves or their children than a path toward U.S. citizenship. With representation, the vast majority of the women show for their hearings.

One of the lines of questioning is about whether the woman paid a smuggler for any part of her trip.  If she did, this is a strike against her, as the government argues that the money goes to gangs.  Another line of questioning goes toward the connection between the person paying the bond and the woman.  Will that person always know where to find the woman, and will the person help ensure that the woman will appear for her court hearings?

This woman did pay a coyote.  Strike one.  She is viewed to have contributed to a "national security risk" for our country.  This despite the evidence that making the journey without assistance is incredibly dangerous and far less likely to be successful.  They coyotes exploit the travelers, to be sure.

This woman's bond sponsor is her brother's friend.  Her brother is undocumented and hasn't enough money to post a bond, but his friend, a U.S. citizen, was willing to help in this way.  Strike two.  This man won't always know how to find her and won't have an interest in ensuring her presence at her hearings.

She doesn't have an attorney secured for her family in the northeast.  Strike three.

So, this tiny, grieving, brave woman who escaped an extremely abusive husband, one who abused her older child and is responsible for the death of her youngest, and made the dangerous trip to Texas, is unlikely to be released, as her bond was set too high for the sponsor to pay.  

Who bears blame?

By Alicia NeavesNewsWest 9
ARTESIA - The Mayor of Artesia, where more than 500 illegal immigrants are detained, says more immigrants are being released than deported. A drastic change from the government's original plan.
In a meeting Tuesday, the Mayor of Artesia, Phil Burch, was informed that just last week there had been zero deportations from the detention facility and 61 releases.
"This administration has changed their view on the rapid deportation, as it was the stated goal to begin with, and had just determined that they will simply release them into the United States," Artesia Mayor, Phil Burch, said.
This is a drastic change from the opening two weeks where deportations outweighed releases eleven to one.
To date, 227 detainees in total have been released.
"They are either taken to a bus terminal, then they can get on a bus and go to their destination in the United States, or they're taken to Roswell to catch a flight to wherever their destination is in the U.S.," Burch said.
Burch says the only thing that has changed in the process is the intervention of attorneys and these recent numbers are far from what was promised by the government to the community.
Immigrant advocates say more immigrants are winning their cases because they are getting the proper representation.
"I think what we are seeing in Artesia now is the result of attorneys actually being in the facility, having access to these families and being able to ensure some actual oversight and accountability of what is happening in Artesia," Policy Counsel for Detention Watch Network, Madhuri Grewal, said.
Although the swift deportation numbers have shifted, advocates add, there's still a long way to go.
"This isolation has also really created a huge public awareness problem for us because they're so far away from urban areas or from communities who might otherwise be able to help or know about them," Grewal said.
The Detention Watch Network also published a report called "Expose and Close Artesia," where the advocates documented what they saw on their tour at the detention facility.
Click here to view that report.