OCR
HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN U.S. IMMIGRATION AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE PRACTICES Tensions over these competing visions of immigration have marked most of America’s history. In the late 19th and first half of the 20th century immigration policies actively discriminated against Asian and Middle Eastern immigrants, favoring literate European nationals, and numerically restricting the number of people who could seek refuge in the US. In the decades following World War II and the Holocaust, the US was at the forefront of an international human rights movement, implementing changes in domestic policy to protect asylum seekers from persecution, end quotas based on nationality, and affirm constitutional protections for migrants seeking entry. At the same time, exclusionary xenophobia produced new caps on immigration from Mexico and Latin America. U.S. laws in theory provide due process rights for immigrants and safety for refugees, reflecting the legal basis for a rights-oriented vision of America. In recent years, however, former President Donald Trump has taken major steps to roll back or undermine these laws. The new administration of President Joe Biden has announced plans to restore a rights-oriented approach to immigration, but it is too early to tell how successful these will be. Following the creation of the US Customs and Border Protection Authority (CPB) in 2003, serious problems emerged with due process and accountability at the border. Despite thousands of complaints of physical, sexual and verbal abuse, and property theft, over 90 percent resulted in “no action” decisions against border agents.” The Trump administration expanded the impunity of CBP by limiting public information about the scope of misconduct and authorizing summary removal of migrants without a judicial hearing. New expedited removal programs implemented in 2020 targeted Mexican and Central American migrants for removal within 10 days, precluding any time for detailed screenings and legal counsel.? The Trump administration also increased the hurdles for asylum seekers by raising the standards for “credible fear” interviews, the first step in the asylum process.’ In 2018, then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions reversed policies that had allowed victims of domestic violence or gang violence to claim asylum, dramatically decreasing acceptance rates in some localities. The Trump administration violated the international legal principle of “nonrefoulement” — prohibiting the return of refugees fleeing persecution to conditions 2 Guillermo Cantor — Walter Ewing, Still No Action Taken: Complaints Against Border Patrol Agents Continue to Go Unanswered, Special Report, Washington, DC., American Immigration Council, 2017, https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/stillno-action-taken-complaints-against-border-patrol-agents-continue-go-unanswered. Tal Kopan, Justice Department Rolls Out Case Quotas for Immigration Judges, CNN (2 April 2018), https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/02/politics/immigration-judges-quota/index.html. * Julia Edwards Ainsley, Trump Administration Drafts Plan to Raise Asylum Bar, Speed Deportations, Reuters (18 February 2017), https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usaimmigration-asylum/trump-administration-drafts-plan-to-raise-asylum-bar-speeddeportations-idUSKBN15Y04A. + 159 +