Asylum-Seekers are being locked up as a result of policies implemented by the Biden administration, and human rights are being violated. The first records show that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has detained tens of thousands of asylum seekers in jails, where they face long detentions, severe physical and psychological suffering, medical negligence, discrimination, and other abuses.
While the Biden administration has taken some steps to limit detention, under its flawed “enforcement priorities” guidance, DHS has treated adult asylum-seekers as priorities for detention and deportation, including political dissidents, LGBTQ individuals, torture survivors, human rights activists, and survivors of gender-based violence, and jailed them for extended periods of time rather than allowing them to pursue their cases while living safely with their U.S. families and communities.
Many of the 66,775 asylum applicants assigned for credible fear interviews, the first step in the asylum procedure for those facing accelerated removal, are among them.
The research is based on data from 270 asylum seekers and immigrants detained by ICE under the current administration, including direct interviews with 76 of them.
Since President Biden entered office, asylum applicants have been imprisoned for an average of 3.7 months after arriving in the United States to seek refuge. Asylum applicants from Black-majority nations were detained for a lengthier amount of time, on average 27 percent longer than asylum seekers from other countries, according to Human Rights First.
Other discoveries include:
- The “enforcement priorities” instruction has resulted in months of incarceration for persons seeking asylum in the United States. A Nicaraguan asylum-seeker was jailed for three months and refused parole as a “border security” enforcement priority; a Venezuelan asylum-seeker living with HIV was imprisoned for nearly five months; and a Haitian political activist fearing death threats was detained for three months. The Department of Homeland Security has failed to use its legal power to release many asylum seekers, including those who prove a legitimate fear of persecution.
- Following the “enforcement priorities” instructions, DHS has divided families seeking shelter at the border, illegally detained children in adult facilities, endangered numerous LGBTQ asylum-seekers, and put individuals with critical medical problems at risk during the continuing COVID-19 outbreak. After five months in custody, a Venezuelan asylum seeker died of AIDS and COVID-19 complications in October 2021.
- The government has continued to use the fundamentally defective accelerated removal procedure against imprisoned asylum claimants. As a result, DHS has illegally deported asylum applicants without conducting credible fear interviews or ordered persons to be removed based on clearly erroneous negative credible fear judgments.
- n ICE detention, black asylum seekers and immigrants have been exposed to heinous anti-Black abuse and brutality. ICE personnel cut Black people’s braided or locked hair, an affront to dignity and physical integrity with a racially unequal consequence. Human Rights First has received accusations of racial remarks and violence by ICE and detention center personnel.
- Many asylum seekers and other immigrants detained in the United States have experienced sexual, physical, and verbal abuse, punitive use of solitary confinement, denials of basic requirements, and medical negligence.
While the administration has taken some positive steps, such as not detaining families with minor children, recently requesting a reduction in detention funding, and announcing the closure of some ICE jails and reductions in others, it has drastically expanded detention capacity elsewhere and continues to jail asylum-seekers for extended periods of time. The administration’s use of detention also continues to divide families.
The study urges the Biden administration to cease mass imprisonment of asylum seekers and to welcome persons seeking refugee protection at the border in a truly humane manner, including through community-based case assistance initiatives.
We believe that as the Biden administration reverses the unconstitutional Title 42 deportation program, it should not continue the harsh and needless use of imprisonment against those seeking asylum in the United States.” The government has the legal ability to release asylum seekers and other immigrants on parole. Detaining them instead endangers lives, divides families, causes pain, wastes resources, and punishes individuals for exercising their legal right to seek refuge.