Why You Should Care About What is Occurring to Women and Children in Artesia, NM
Christopher Elmore, Esq.Attorney at Law
Why You Should Care About What is Occurring to Women and Children in Artesia, NM
I do not think that anyone really knows how to reply to a five-year old boy who lifts up his shirt, shows you a scar, and says, “this is where he put the knife in my stomach.” Under the circumstances, I certainly was not able to guarantee this young boy that he would be safe from such a traumatic event happening again. He and his mother are being detained while the United States government vigorously and unapologetically pursues sending them back to Honduras.
On an afternoon in mid September of 2014, I was speaking with the boy’s mother about her upcoming credible fear interview in the “Family Residential Center” in Artesia, New Mexico. She was explaining to me that she left Honduras because gang members who live on her block were extorting money from her and were threatening to kill her son to ensure she paid. She feared they would carry out their threats because a few years before, members of the gang went into the school her son attended, and shot and killed a teacher.
While the woman explained how a boy of around the age of 11 years old placed a knife in the belly of her son to force her to pay his gang money, her son interjected to show me his scar. While seeing that this boy had already been stabbed in his short life was horrifying and difficult to absorb, it was the nonchalant manner in which he showed his scar and told me he was stabbed that was even more disturbing and alarming. That a boy of such age could treat such a violent attack as just another day’s experience is beyond words. And yet, to the United States government, this boy and his mother are considered a threat to national security.
The United States is a land of great wealth, opportunity, and generosity. The people of the United States generally hold themselves out to the rest of the world as morally upright, caring, at the forefront of just civilization, and guardians of human rights. Unfortunately, we as a nation are failing to uphold these values when it comes to our treatment of women and children seeking refuge from countries wracked with unacceptable levels of domestic violence, gang violence, extortion, rape, murder, political corruption, and lack of law enforcement.
In June of 2014, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security opened a “Family Residential Center” in Artesia, New Mexico to hold more than 500 women and children in detention after they entered the United States seeking refuge. This detention center is located on the campus of a Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (“FLETC”). The FLETC was not designed to be a detention center. In order to hold the women and children detainees, the government brought in a number of doublewide trailers and set them up in one corner of the FLETC campus. These trailers act as dormitories, child-care facilities, a law library, an attorney meeting room, and courtrooms. In some areas, the boys’ restroom is a series of port a-potties. Fortunately, the women’s restrooms have plumbing. In mid-September I spent a week working with women at the detention center in any manner needed. While I was in Artesia, there were from 10 to 15 attorneys, depending on the day, all donating their time and efforts to the AILA Artesia Pro Bono clinic that was set up to provide free legal services to thewomen and children.
The pressing needs included, and still include: preparing women for and representing them at their credible fear interviews, credible fear review hearings, representation at bond and master calendar hearings, and meeting with women to assist off-site attorneys in preparing cases. While there have not been many asylum merits hearings in immigration court yet, in the coming weeks, there will be a great need for representation at these hearings. Fortunately, Asylum has been granted for all three Artesia cases for which merits hearings have been held.
While these are all typical needs in the context of asylum claims for individuals in detention, meeting all of these needs in the environment of the Artesia detention center severely complicates matters. On a typical day, the attorneys arrive at the detention center by 6:45 a.m. Court calls and credible fear interviews start at 8 a.m. There were many occasions where attorneys were given 5 minutes notice of credible fear interviews and court hearings. 5 minutes is barely enough time to find the woman who needed to be at the interview or hearing, get to the interview or hearing, and fill out an appearance form. There was no time to review the woman’s case or prepare her for what was about to occur.
Meeting with the women at the detention center is also a challenge. The detention facility is very hectic and chaotic. Attorneys are only allowed to meet with women in the trailer that served as a meeting center. In the meeting trailer there were three semi “private” cubicles to meet with women, two non-private cubicles, and eight small tables, set up two feet apart, in the middle of the trailer. At a table overlooking everything sits an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) agent. There is no privacy for attorneys to meet with clients. While one woman is telling her story that includes either rape, beatings, extortion, murder, or some combination thereof, up to 20 other people are within ear-shot.
Not only is there no privacy to meet with the women, there are always young children accompanying the women when they meet with attorneys, and attend interviews and court hearings. While there is a daycare trailer, it is typically staffed by one male ICE agent. Every mother understandably refused to leave her children alone with one male ICE agent. The children are all adorable and beautiful, though very disruptive. Many times, the mothers are very reluctant to tell their traumatic story to the attorney, Asylum Officer, or Immigration Judge, when their children are listening. Many times the meetings, interviews, and hearings last from one to three hours, which is an impossible amount of time for children to stay quiet when they have nothing to do.
After working between 9 and 11 hours at the detention facility, the attorneys return to a church in Artesia that has graciously allowed the volunteer attorneys to use the conference room as a home office. Due to threats on the AILA project from members of the Artesia community, we were asked not to name the church. At the church, the attorneys have a group meeting to discuss the day’s successes, setbacks, new issues, and strategies. After the meeting, attorneys work until 10 p.m. on an early night, and more often until midnight or later. Due to the many demands at the detention facility, there is little time to do substantive casework during that day, and attorneys are left scrambling to finish at night.
In Artesia, things change very rapidly, and the attorneys always face the challenge of coming up with new and creative strategies to counter ICE’s actions in the detention center and in the courtroom. It is very important that the attorneys are able to think clearly in the midst of chaos and be ready to take on a variety of legal needs without notice. There have been plenty of occasions where women and children were pulled off a plane and avoid deportation because of an attorney’s ability to act quickly.
All immigration court hearings are conducted via tele-video appearance. The immigration judges and the ICE attorneys sit in an actual court room in Arlington, Virginia or Denver, Colorado, while the women, children, and attorneys sit in a trailer in Artesia at a folding table in front of a small television screen. The Immigration Court in Arlington handled all the Artesia cases from July until the end of September. The Arlington Court was anything but sympathetic, lenient, reasonable, or realistic in their handling of theses cases; the ICE attorneys even less so. So far, the Denver Court seems to be more reasonable.
Typically a bond hearing should be fairly short (20-30 minutes); however, the bond hearings heard by the Arlington Court were taking as long as three hours. The ICE attorneys were adamantly opposed to any bond, and the Arlington Court was consistently setting bonds between $15,000 to $30,000, and typically more on the higher end. Fortunately, the cases have all been transferred to the Denver Court and bonds are now regularly averaging $3,000- $5000, and sometimes as low as $1,500. In response to every bond motion, ICE is filing essentially the same 100+ page brief opposing bond on the basis that it is a national security threat to allow these women and children out of detention. I am still trying to figure out how traumatized women and young children are a threat to national security.
Violations of federal law, regulations, and the government’s own practice policies were prevalent on a daily basis. Constitutional protections appeared to be nearly non-existent. The government charged half the women I met under the wrong statutory provision of removability. Since opening in June, more than 300 women and children that were detained in Artesia have been deported.
Many of the women and children have valid asylum claims. Prior to the presence of attorneys, the government was rushing women and children through the removal process and deporting people in vast numbers. The significance of attorney representation is clearly evident by the fact that deportations have slowed since attorneys became involved. Many of the women and children are unaware of what asylum is and how to present their request for asylum, but with attorneys assisting them in understanding the law, they have a much better chance of succeeding. Additionally, the attorneys have made a drastic impact on helping women seek and obtain bond from the immigration court, especially after the cases weretransferred to the Denver Court.
Lack of adequate health care is a significant problem in the facility. There have been many instances where sick children are left untreated or undertreated for weeks at a time. The detention center has already been quarantined several times for chickenpox outbreaks. When significant or emergency medical attention is needed, and finally given, instead of getting treatment at the hospital in Artesia, the sick woman or child is taken to a hospital 40 miles away in Roswell, New Mexico. Additionally, the conditions are unsanitary and the food is often under cooked. While many of the women and childrenwould benefit greatly from new clothes and blankets, ICE refuses to accept donations of these items.
The women and children detained in Artesia all share one significant and inspiring characteristic, they are all very courageous, perhaps more courageous than anyone I have ever met. All of them are fleeing circumstances that most of us who were born and raised in the United States could never truly comprehend. The women and children in Artesia are tired, and frustrated; and many feel disappointed with the response they have received by the United States.
If you have read this far, I believe it is because you are, in some way, moved by what is happening in Artesia. There are many ways in which you can help the women and children in Artesia, or the other detention facilities. There is a continuing great need for all types of support including: “on the ground” attorneys to meet with the women and children and attend hearings and interviews, off-site attorneys to help prepare bond motions and asylum applications, financial support to help offset the high-cost for the pro bono attorneys who travel to Artesia, and expanding awareness of what is occurring in Artesia with both the public and our congressmen, senators, and our President. Please feel free to contact me if you want to learn more about Artesia and how you can help.
Christopher Elmore208 S. Jefferson St., Ste. 204Chicago, IL 60661312.600.7273christopher@celmorelaw.com