October 6, 2000
October 6, 2000
Contact HRF Communications (212) 845 5245 media@humanrightsfirst.org
Human Rights First Investigation Finds
Expedited Removal Process Causes Serious and Recurring Abuses
of Genuine Asylum SeekersNew York, October 6, 2000 – Human Rights First released a major report today that documents how a 1996 change to U.S. immigration law is hurting the ability of genuine refugees to seek asylum in this country. Human Rights First charges that asylum seekers and others attempting to enter the United States under the new system of expedited removal have been wrongly turned back or treated abusively by Immigration and Naturalization Service inspectors at airports and border crossings.
Is This America? The Denial of Due Process to Asylum Seekers in the United States documents cases in which refugees facing persecution in their home countries were wrongly denied admission by I.N.S. inspectors operating under expedited removal’s secret, summary procedures. The report details other cases in which inspectors mistreated or abused not only refugees, but ordinary tourists and business people – even U.S. citizens.
Expedited removal is a provision in the 1996 immigration law. It gives immigration officers the authority to make on-the-spot decisions to deport people with invalid travel documents, or those whose documents they suspect may be fraudulent. Before this new system was implemented, asylum seekers were entitled to appear before an immigration judge. Now, asylum seekers who are turned away have no opportunity to fully and fairly present their claims.
Mike Posner, Executive Director of Human Rights First, said "in certain areas, Congress has begun to correct some of the excesses of the 1996 immigration law." Posner continued, "The abusive treatment of asylum seekers through expedited removal is the next obvious area that needs reform. We must renew our nation’s commitment to refugee protection."
Cases profiled in Is This America? illustrate the dangers associated with expedited removal.
- A young ethnic Albanian who had been beaten and imprisoned by Serbian police was deported to Mexico when he sought asylum at a California airport in the months before the NATO air campaign.
- A Sri Lankan Tamil fleeing ethnic persecution was deported from J.F.K. International Airport to Istanbul, Turkey, where he was jailed and beaten by local police.
- A Tibetan nun twice jailed in China because of her work for religious liberty and Tibetan independance was turned back at J.F.K. after I.N.S. inspectors questioned her travel documents.
Is This America? documents numerous cases of abusive treatment by I.N.S. officers. Prominent Chinese dissident Liu Nianchun was held shackled to a bench at J.F.K. Airport for 18 hours. The victim of a politically motivated sexual attack in Haiti was made to recount her ordeal in front of male I.N.S. inspectors, then strip-searched and shackled to a bench overnight.
Also affected are ordinary tourists and businesspeople. In June, Sharon McKnight, a mentally disabled American citizen, was deported from J.F.K. Airport to Jamaica after I.N.S. inspectors accused her of trying to sneak into the country on someone else’s passport. The 35-year-old McKnight, who has the mental capacity of a 5-year-old, was enroute home to New York after visiting an ailing relative in Jamaica. When she arrived at J.F.K., inspectors accused her of posing as a U.S. citizen and shackled her to a bench overnight. McKnight’s mother rushed a copy of her daughter’s birth certificate to the airport, but it did not help. Inspectors put McKnight – confused, scared and tired – on a flight to Kingston, Jamaica.
Earlier this year, complaints of wrongful deportations and abusive treatment at Portland International Airport became so serious that the facility was becoming known as "Deportland" in many Asian countries. Oregon’s U.S. senators warned that failure to address the problems might cause Delta Airlines to eliminate Portland as the international hub for its Asian flights. Last month, Delta announced that it indeed had canceled its flights from Portland to Japan.
In November 1999, a bipartisan group of senators led by Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, and Sam Brownback, R-Kansas, introduced the Refugee Protection Act to end the use of expedited removal, except during immigration emergencies.
In July 2000, the Center for Human Rights at the University of California Hastings College of the Law issued a report documenting I.N.S. abuse of people entering the United States. The California researchers found that the I.N.S. has greatly increased its use of expedited removal.
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For a copy of Human Rights First’s report Is This America? or to arrange interviews with experts or individuals affected by expedited removal, please call Shelly Cryer, 212/845-5225 or Liz Vladeck, 212-845-5259.
For more information about Human Rights First, please visit our web site at: /
Since 1978, Human Rights First has worked to protect and promote fundamental human rights. Its work is impartial, holding each government to the standards affirmed in the International Bill of Rights.