Feds phase out fast deportation
Program had been hailed as cost-effective
PHOENIX — Federal immigration officials have quietly backed away from a program in Western states aimed at quickly and efficiently deporting illegal immigrants rather than keeping them in costly detention centers.
Tens of thousands of illegal immigrants have been deported under the program over the past several years. Called stipulated removal, it allows the government to quickly deport illegal immigrants held in detention centers as long as they forgo a hearing before a judge to review their legal rights and to determine whether they want to fight their case.
The phaseout follows controversies and concerns.
Immigration officials hailed the program as cost-effective deportations for people who wanted to go home. Critics worried that the government was strong-arming immigrants to accept deportation without regard for their due-process rights.
Launched in 1995 to help alleviate overcrowding in federal, state and local detention centers, the stipulated-removal program was rarely used until President George W. Bush's administration began ramping up immigration enforcement in 2004. The high rate continued during the first two years of President Barack Obama's administration. According to Immigrations and Custom Enforcement, 32,635 people were deported in 2010.
From 2004 to 2010, immigration officials deported more than 160,000 under the program, according to the National Immigration Law Center.
Immigration officials changed course in September 2010 after a federal appellate court ruled that an immigrant held in an Eloy, Ariz., detention center had his rights violated. After that, speedy removals were offered only to illegal immigrants with lawyers, who could help them fight their cases. Lawyers are not provided at taxpayer expense in deportation proceedings.
Since then, immigration officials have not deported a single illegal immigrant through the program in Arizona, said Vincent Picard, a spokesman for ICE in Phoenix. Picard could not provide statistics for other states.
ICE officials did not publicize the dramatic policy change. Many immigrant lawyers and critics of the program were unaware the change had been made.
Time and money
In a deportation proceeding, an illegal immigrant has the right to appear in front of an immigration judge to decide whether to contest the case. The immigrant also has the right to hire a lawyer.
But under stipulated removal, an immigrant who doesn't want to fight deportation gives up the right to a hearing. The immigrant also gives up the right to an appeal. Once the immigrant agrees to those stipulations, the judge signs a deportation order, even if the immigrant is not in the courtroom....
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