By Rebecca Gendelman, Senior Research and Policy Counsel, Refugee Protection
The Haitian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act (HRIFA) of 1998 requires the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to produce and provide to Congress annual reports on the detention of asylum seekers. While the law mandates these reports be available to the public upon request, they have not been publicly produced since the Fiscal Year (FY) 2014 HRIFA report was released seven years ago. Without these reports, the public is denied information on the widespread detention of asylum seekers in often dangerous and inhumane Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centers.
In April 2019, Human Rights First requested the FY 2015 to FY 2018 HRIFA reports through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. ICE claimed that “no records responsive to your request were found,” which Human Rights First successfully appealed administratively in 2020. In late February 2022, ICE finally produced the FY 2015, 2016, and 2017 HRIFA reports but did not provide the requested FY 2018 report. No other recent HRIFA reports have been publicly posted by the agency.
HRIFA reports for FY 2015 to 2017 confirm that the U.S. government has long treated detention as the default for people seeking safety in the United States. Though ICE has legal authority to release people from detention at any time, it routinely and needless jails asylum seekers for prolonged periods.
In 2014, the Obama administration issued a set of priorities for the apprehension, detention, and removal of immigrants, which targeted individuals “apprehended at the border or ports of entry while attempting to unlawfully enter the United States.” This policy led to the widespread and prolonged detention of asylum seekers requesting safety at the border. The Trump administration rescinded this guidance and issued an Executive Order in 2017 directing DHS to allocate all available resources to construct and operate detention facilities and to incarcerate immigrants for the duration of their court proceedings, which resulted in the mass detention of asylum seekers and blanket denials of release.
The newly released HRIFA reports confirm the mass, needless jailing of asylum seekers and underscore the urgent need to avoid continued detention of people seeking protection. The following data is based on Human Rights First’s analysis of the FY 2015 to 2017 HRIFA Reports:
Between FY 2015 and 2017, the United States jailed at least 140,000 asylum seekers who were placed in expedited removal and received credible fear screenings.
The U.S. government incarcerated over 42 percent of asylum seekers in immigration court removal proceedings from FY 2015 to 2017 in ICE detention centers.
From FY 2015 to FY 2017, ICE detained asylum seekers with immigration court cases for an average of over 2.5 months while their applications for refugee protection were being considered instead of allowing them to wait in the community.
As women increasingly fled El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico to escape gender- and gang-based violence and other persecution, the U.S. government responded by jailing them.
During the Obama and Trump administrations’ use of family detention to punish and deter people seeking safety, the United States detained tens of thousands of children.
The Biden administration has already detained tens of thousands of asylum seekers, many of whom sought protection at the U.S.-Mexico border. Like prior administrations, the Biden administration has enacted flawed policies that target for apprehension and deportation asylum seekers who cross the border to seek safety.
As of March 17, 2022, 86% of the 154,749 people placed by the Biden administration in ICE detention centers in FY 2022 were transferred from Customs and Border Protection custody, many of them likely asylum seekers who requested protection at the border.
Since President Biden took office, DHS has subjected at least 55,000 people to the expedited removal process, over 38,000 of whom established a credible fear of persecution and many others who wrongly received negative credible fear determinations. The vast majority of these asylum seekers were likely detained during credible fear screenings, as the HRIFA reports confirm.
DHS should comply with U.S. law and make available all other existing HRIFA reports on the detention of asylum seekers. In March 2022, Human Rights First filed a FOIA request for the FY 2018 to 2021 reports but has not yet received a response.
The HRIFA reports Human Rights First recently received through FOIA can be found here:
Some prior HRIFA reports that are not available on the ICE FOIA Library can be found here:
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