Today Jonathan Turley helped perpetrate another one of the #BigLies of the Trump administration; that those people seeking asylum without going through a point of entry are “criminals.”
Via Hill.
Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) has repeatedly declared, “An undocumented immigrant is not a criminal.” When asked if she meant everyone here illegally, both those who entered illegally and those who have remained illegally, she replied, “Two obvious points. It is a civil violation, it’s not a crime. Period, full stop. And the second point is that there is a whole community that is being vilified because of this misinformed, misdirected term ’illegal alien’ … It’s actually ignorant and we can’t afford to run our country that way. So they are not criminals.”
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Indeed, if it were true that illegal entry was not a crime, the entire Trump administration enforcement program, and thousands of such cases under President Obama, would have been struck down months ago. In fact, the government can charge illegal entry, even for first offenders, as a crime under 18 U.S.C. 3559 with up to six months imprisonment. Subsequent offenses or reentries, which are common, can be charged as a felony with up to two years imprisonment under 8 U.S.C. 1325. Nonviolent offenders who were removed before their prison sentences were served can be imprisoned for up to 10 years after a subsequent illegal entry.
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Many people are deported without hearings under a 1996 statute used by the Obama administration and now the Trump administration. These people are captured within 100 miles of the border and within 14 days of entry. If they claim asylum, they can appeal to an immigration judge who must rule within seven days. In 2013, 44 percent of all 438,000 removals from the United States were done through the expedited process. That was before President Trump. Even if a person asserts asylum and completes the application, the government can still pursue criminal charges. If the asylum application is rejected as meritless or unsupported, the person can be prosecuted or deported.
Turley’s argument here is technically true at least as far as the case he presents, but is missing a very crucial and important point. These laws are superseded by the UN Convention for the Refugee which was ratified by the U.S. in 1968 and as such is now part of our Constitution under the Supremacy Clause and which states that valid asylum seekers can indeed enter illegally.
Turley is an excellent attorney, but he’s not an expert on immigration law so expecting him to be an expert here is lot like asking a brain surgeon to operate on your heart. These skills are not exactly the same.
Continued.
Via thehill.com/… (which is actually the exact same publication the Turley’s opinion was published by).
Domestic law is grounded in widely-accepted international standards, starting with Article 14 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 27 of the 1948 American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man, and continuing with the 1951 U.N. Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees.
As stated by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees ‘‘refugees should not be penalized for their illegal entry or stay… the seeking of asylum can require refugees to breach immigration rules. Prohibited penalties might include being charged with immigration or criminal offences relating to the seeking of asylum, or being arbitrarily detained purely on the basis of seeking asylum.’’
Under 8 U.S.C. §1325, anyone who enters the country at an ‘‘[i]mproper time or place’’ can be sentenced to six months in jail and a fine of up to $250 (repeat offenders can be jailed for up to two years and fined up to $500).
There is a bona fide argument that entering the U.S. without documents to seek asylum is never entering at an improper time or place — especially considering that CBP has been turning asylum seekers away at the bridge so many people have no other option but to cross without documents. To the extent that the illegal entry statute may conflict with our asylum law, the asylum law trumps the illegal entry statute due both to its long-standing and widespread acceptance, and that the illegal entry statute was never intended to prevent people from seeking asylum.
Technically while going through the asylum review process an undocumented migrant can be detained and charged, however traditionally they — and their children — had been released while their case is pending and they’ve had a 99% return rate for their ultimate hearings. They haven’t been “caught and released” never to return — they actually were returning and about 57% of their asylum cases were being validated and granted.
Not anymore.
As we all know the Trump Administration has been perpetrating this lie that only asylum seekers who enter “legally” are valid after they changed the rules which previously allows persons to apply for asylum at any point within the U.S. And while they’ve been doing this they’ve not only been systematically shutting down the legal points of entry, they cut funding for refugee programs causing their offices to close. They also cancelled an Obama era program that allowed people to apply for asylum in their own country before reaching the U.S.
So if you can’t apply from your home country and you can’t get into a valid point of entry what are you supposed to do exactly wait for ever while you life and family are in direct threat from gangsters in your home country and and cartel members who prowl the border looking for people to kidnap and use as drug mules?
They’ve just claimed they’re all “criminals” locked them up and put their kids in cages.
This is all one big plot. This is one big trap. And once they’ve got you in the trap, they’re not letting you out even if it’s the law.
Going beyond that asylum seekers who been detained have been denied “credible fear” interviews, and not given immigration bonds or parole hearings once they’ve passed the “credible fear” requirement, although this last item was reversed by a Federal Judge last week.
Washington (CNN)A federal judge on Monday became the latest to rebuke the Trump administration for its immigration practices -- this time ordering the administration not to deny asylum seekers potential release from detention.
The lawsuit predates the administration's now-reversed practice of separating families at the border, but the national outcry over the policy that resulted in thousands of families being separated was not lost on the judge deciding this case.
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At issue in the case is the detention of undocumented immigrants seeking asylum in the US. Once they pass their initial screening, the government is supposed to make an individual decision about whether that immigrant should be released or detained, according to existing government policy.
The lawsuit was brought by a group of asylum seekers who said they passed the requisite threshold interview, but alleged that rather than conducting such individualized assessments, the Trump administration has been "unlawfully denying parole to virtually all asylum seekers based on deterrence at the five (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) Field Offices."
Boasberg ordered the administration to follow the policy on the books -- meaning each asylum seeker must be evaluated for being a flight risk or a danger to the community when deciding if they are to be released pending their full immigration court hearing on their claim.
Now even though they’ve been ordered by a court to reunite the children they’ve kidnapped, they can’t even get more than a failing grade of them back into the custody of their parents claiming that they lost track of where the parents are, have deported them already or that they have “criminal records” which would prevent restoring custody when that’s really not how the custody system in America works at all.
The criminals here aren’t the asylum seekers, the criminals are the Trump administration who instituted a policy of wrongful imprisonment, kidnapping, psychological torture, intention infliction of harm and child abuse and endangerment.
This is disgusting. UnAmerican. And Inhumane.
And it’s not just a matter of incompetence, all of these specific efforts all done in coordination to make the ability to MIGRATE LEGALLY almost literally impossible were deliberate. It was a plan.