Advocacy Update
August 2008

National Immigrant Bond Fund Makes Time for Due Process
By Matt Wilch, LIRS Senior Counsel for Policy and Advocacy

A new program, the National Immigrant Bond Fund (NIBF), gives immigrants apprehended in raids a fairer chance to prepare for immigration proceedings. NIBF pays a portion of their bond, while their families put up the remainder of the funds. Once released and reunited with loved ones, those who had been detained can seek legal counsel to help them navigate the complex immigration legal system.

Background
We are a nation in a hurry—fast food, fast computers, fast lane. But we need to slow down and proceed with caution when it comes to court processes that deeply impact individuals’ and families’ lives. We must insist on due process of law. Case in point—immigration raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

With an increased focus on workplace enforcement in the last two years, ICE has carried out raids in more than 36 states and U.S. territories. The enforcement operations involving hundreds of agents have the hallmark of sophisticated military operations, including the following examples:

• ICE carried out simultaneous raids on six meat packing plants scattered across the rural Midwest.
• ICE swooped in, arrested and immediately shipped off many of the 361 undocumented workers from a New Bedford, Mass., textile mill to a Texas detention center 2,000 miles away.
• In the largest single-site raid ever, ICE arrested nearly 400 undocumented workers—most from Guatemala—in a Postville, Iowa, meat packing plant and, in a chilling example of military-like efficiency, completed virtually all court proceedings within two weeks.

Impact
What do immigrants experience when a raid like this happens? They are arrested, shackled, dressed in prison jumpsuits and put into immigration detention. Over 30,000 immigrants are in detention on any given day. As seen most dramatically in the New Bedford raid, ICE often detains them far from family, friends and community support. At that point a civil immigration proceeding is usually instituted to decide whether they can stay in the United States or will be deported. They have no court-appointed lawyer for immigration proceedings and join some 80 percent of people in immigration detention who never are able to acquire legal representation. Most do not speak English; many have little formal education and do not read or write. They have no understanding of our immigration legal system, which experts say rivals the IRS code for its complexity. In other words, they are not on a level playing field when it comes to having a meaningful day in court.

What do their families experience? They experience the “overwhelming force” of the raids. One child psychologist compared the impact on children to that of wartime trauma in Kosovo. A study said that for every two adults arrested in a raid there is a child left without a parent, and often the parent is detained far away from his or her family. In single-parent households, children can be left alone and at risk after such a raid. Some of the spouses and children of people arrested are legal permanent residents and many of the children left behind are U.S. citizens. These families often have deep roots in the community, holding jobs, owning cars and houses, attending schools, and belonging to churches. Some of their detained family members have relief from deportation under the law; others do not, and their families have to reconcile themselves to their loved ones’ removal. This leaves them with a myriad of decisions and arrangements to make—e.g., what do I do with the car, the house, my job? Do my U.S. citizen children stay here or get deported to a country they do not know? In other words, the families are traumatized and in financial crisis, and are facing either complex court defenses or the need to make and carry out major life decisions.

Response
The Political Asylum/Immigration Representation Project (PAIR) in Boston is among the groups that have displayed remarkable dedication and creativity in response to the lack of fair process for the people directly impacted by ICE raids. PAIR, a longtime partner in LIRS’s Asylum and Immigration Network, collaborated with other community advocates and a very generous businessman, Bob Hildreth, to set up a bond fund to assist those detained after the New Bedford raid. The fund paid half of their bonds, while families and friends paid the other half. This enabled parents and other caregivers to return home to their families who depend on them, and gave those released a chance to seek out attorneys who could help them with their cases.

“We saw firsthand how ICE raids are separating hardworking immigrants from their families and leaving communities in disarray,” explained Sarah Ignatius, PAIR’s executive director. “Learning from the New Bedford experience, we are launching the National Immigrant Bond Fund to help immigrants in communities across the country have their day in court and to give them a better chance to pursue their rights.”

Ignatius explained that 100 percent of donations to NIBF go to helping pay bonds for individuals detained after ICE raids. Communities affected by raids apply for money to pay half of the bond for individuals detained after ICE raids. Their families and friends pay the other half to ensure that they have a stake in the bond and comply with later court requirements. Payment of bonds enables individuals to have more fair and humane immigration proceedings by allowing them to return to their families and communities, find legal representation, and pursue their cases outside of detention.

“NIBF’s committee members are working to restore fundamental fairness to our nation’s immigration system,” Ignatius notes, “and the fund allows contributors to directly help immigrants receive more fair and humane treatment.”

Endorsement
LIRS endorses NIBF and LIRS President Ralston Deffenbaugh serves on the bond fund committee. The fund’s goals align with LIRS’s continued call for just and humane immigration reform that follows four principles:

• uniting families;
• protecting human rights and worker rights;
• ending the marginalization of undocumented immigrants, enabling them to come out of the shadows and live without fear; and
• giving immigrants willing to contribute to our economy and society a path toward permanence.

LIRS views the NIBF as a good opportunity to demonstrate support for immigrants and their families and to provide more humane and fair treatment under the current system. Visit NIBF online to learn more about the fund and to support its work. Donate online to support LIRS’s efforts to fight for just and humane reform.

Other groups involved in NIBF include the Hildreth-Stewart Charitable Gift Fund, Detention Watch Network, Catholic Legal Immigration Network, National Immigration Forum, American Immigration Lawyers Association, National Immigration Project, Public Interest Projects and Greater Boston Legal Services.

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