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HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN U.S. IMMIGRATION AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE PRACTICES of immigration judges, with hearing backlogs of over a year and a half, often resulting in immigrants with valid claims ultimately giving up their right to a hearing. In September 2019, the Trump administration introduced accelerated “rocket dockets”, which limited refugees’ ability to appear in court; in some 17,000 cases, 80% resulted in absentee removal orders, increasing the likelihood that refugees would be sent back to conditions of danger.® Private businesses and corporations are contractors in the U.S. immigration system, operating detention centers and conducting surveillance of asylum seekers. Private prisons are now the federal government’s default detention facilities for undocumented immigrants, housing more than three-quarters of the average daily immigration detainee population. Private prison contractors profit from the detention of migrants by implementing cost-cutting measures. Human rights organizations have reported on contracted facilities with sordid, unhygienic conditions, inadequate food and water, overcrowding, physically violent staff, and lack of medical and mental health treatment in facilities. In the midst of the global pandemic, the Trump administration exploited the public fear surrounding COVID-19 to further wall off asylum seekers in violation of domestic and international law. In March 2020, the administration began expanding travel restrictions, slowing visa processing, closing the U.S. border with Canada and Mexico, and moving to bar asylum seekers and undocumented immigrants from entering the country. Detention centers housing migrants have become breeding grounds for contracting sickness and disease, with thousands of positive tests for COVID-19 in facilities, creating new dangers for migrants already fleeing dangerous situations. PROPOSED REFORMS OF THE US IMMIGRATION SYSTEM TO COMPLY WITH CONSTITUTIONAL DUE PROCESS AND INTERNATIONAL LAW — Secure Due Process at the Border. Reform the border control system: Mandate accountability and transparency of Customs and Border Control agency, issue broad “credible fear” guidance for assessing asylum claims, require asylum claims raised in removal proceedings to be fully reviewed and if plausible to be referred to an immigration judge for determination, curtail expedited removal at the border, and reopen the green card renewal process and temporary work visas. — Secure Humanitarian Protections. Reform the asylum and refugee processing system: Bar the separation of migrant children from their families; prohibit the return of refugees to conditions of persecution; end the ban on asylum 8 Eagly — Shafer, Access to Counsel. + 161 +
