Supporting Detained Migrants

Between Octo­ber 2014 and April 2018, Cus­toms and Bor­der Pro­tec­tion (CBP) arrest­ed over 17,000 South Asians (12,670 Indi­ans; 1,752 Bangladeshis; 1,744 Nepalis, 659 Pak­ista­nis, 292 Sri Lankans, 2 Bhutanese). These indi­vid­u­als have had large­ly harm­ful inter­ac­tions with U.S. Cus­toms and Bor­der Pro­tec­tion and Immi­gra­tion and Cus­toms Enforce­ment (ICE), mak­ing it clear to SAALT that we had to track both the rise in the num­ber of South Asians cross­ing the bor­der over the last 5 years and their treat­ment in deten­tion facilities.Of the South Asians who end­ed up in deten­tion facil­i­ties, SAALT tracked a pat­tern of abuse includ­ing inad­e­quate lan­guage access, lack of reli­gious accom­mo­da­tions, med­ical neglect, islam­o­pho­bia, and unusu­al­ly high bond amounts. Work­ing with part­ners, includ­ing South Asian Left Activist Move­ment (SALAM), AVID in the Chi­huahuan Desert, and La Resisten­cia, we doc­u­ment­ed and advo­cat­ed against these vio­la­tions of human rights and dignity.

In ear­ly 2019, SAALT shift­ed to invest­ing much more deeply in part­ner­ships with local com­mu­ni­ty orga­niz­ers and orga­ni­za­tions in El Paso, Texas and Las Cruces, New Mex­i­co fol­low­ing the bru­tal force-feed­ing of the nine Pun­jabi asy­lum seek­ers on hunger strike in the El Paso Ser­vice Pro­cess­ing Cen­ter. These nine men had fled polit­i­cal repres­sion by India’s Hin­du nation­al­ist gov­ern­ment, which has a ver­i­fied track record of vio­lent­ly quelling dis­sent and oppo­si­tion. Upon enter­ing the U.S. to claim polit­i­cal asy­lum, they were thrown into deten­tion facil­i­ties and had lan­guished for almost two years with no move­ment on their legal cas­es, forc­ing them to go on hunger strike to gain atten­tion for their stalled cas­es. Local orga­ni­za­tions, AVID (Advo­cate Vis­i­tors for Immi­grants in Deten­tion) based in Las Cruces and DMSC (Detained Migrant Sol­i­dar­i­ty Com­mit­tee) based in El Paso who both pri­mar­i­ly work with detained Lat­inx migrants were the first to be noti­fied about the hunger strike, and reached out to nation­al South Asian orga­ni­za­tions, includ­ing SAALT, to draw greater atten­tion and resources to sup­port these men. In the span of one year, SAALT helped turn these ini­tial part­ner­ships into a suc­cess­ful coali­tion of nation­al and local immi­grant jus­tice orga­ni­za­tions fol­low­ing a vis­it to El Paso to meet local advo­cates and the men on hunger strike. This ulti­mate­ly includ­ed North­west Resis­tance (Resisten­cia) in Taco­ma, Wash­ing­ton and nation­al part­ners — Sikh Coali­tion, SALDEF (Sikh Amer­i­can Legal Defense and Edu­ca­tion Fund), Deten­tion Watch Net­work, and Free­dom for Immi­grants. The coali­tion met reg­u­lar­ly to strate­gize legal, media, and orga­niz­ing tac­tics that would ele­vate abu­sive con­di­tions and force move­ment on asy­lum cas­es. The pow­er­ful local orga­niz­ing efforts ulti­mate­ly led to the release of two of the men. 

ICE Raids reported in Washington, D.C. South Asian Restaurants

Lat­er in 2019, SAALT received com­mu­ni­ty reports of an ICE raid at an Indi­an restau­rant in Wash­ing­ton, D.C. fol­low­ing threats from the Trump Admin­is­tra­tion that it would con­duct a wide sweep of ICE raids across the coun­try. It was report­ed that at least nine South Asian employ­ees were tak­en by ICE to a local coun­ty jail, and even­tu­al­ly all were released. In response, SAALT sup­port­ed three Know Your Rights train­ings in Wash­ing­ton, D.C, Mary­land, Vir­ginia (DMV) host­ed by Jus­tice for Mus­lims Col­lec­tive (JMC) and Restau­rant Oppor­tu­ni­ties Cen­ter-DC fol­low­ing the increased ICE enforce­ment tar­get­ing South Asian restau­rant work­ers in the area. SAALT and JMC also cre­at­ed The South Asian Rapid Response Net­work in response to these raids. It was an unprece­dent­ed list­serve of more than 500 legal and lan­guage vol­un­teers ready to sup­port detained South Asian migrants across the U.S. 

Tamil Asylum Seeker’s Case Goes to Supreme Court

From 2020–2023, SAALT sup­port­ed NCSO mem­ber Mayn­mai through fis­cal spon­sor­ship, a Tamil asy­lum seek­er dias­po­ra sup­port net­work, advo­cat­ing against the Unit­ed States Supreme Court’s deci­sion to deport Mr. Vijayaku­mar Thu­rais­si­giam. Mr. Thu­raisig­giam is a Tamil asy­lum seek­er flee­ing per­se­cu­tion and state-sanc­tioned vio­lence in Sri Lan­ka. This deci­sion high­light­ed the need to defund law enforce­ment while halt­ing depor­ta­tions imme­di­ate­ly. Through a series of author­i­tar­i­an mea­sures which under­mined set­tled law, the Trump Admin­is­tra­tion evis­cer­at­ed pro­tec­tions for all asy­lum seek­ers, plac­ing them at risk for the Administration’s polit­i­cal gain. In propos­ing and enact­ing these mea­sures, the U.S. has been com­plic­it in the over­seas mur­ders of those who were seek­ing safe­ty. Read Maynmai’s memo (avail­able in Tamil here), out­lin­ing the Supreme Court Decision’s deep­er con­text, its grave impli­ca­tions both domes­tic and inter­na­tion­al, and the demands made to counter its impact.

REPORT ABUSE IN DETENTION

If some­one you know is detained in an immi­gra­tion facil­i­ty in the U.S. and expe­ri­enc­ing harm, abuse, neglect, legal chal­lenges, etc. you can directly contact The Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman (OIDO) on their behalf. OIDO is an inde­pen­dent office with­in the Depart­ment of Home­land Secu­ri­ty (DHS) ded­i­cat­ed to exam­in­ing immi­gra­tion deten­tion set­tings to pro­mote and sup­port safe and humane con­di­tions. OIDO case man­agers are present in immi­gra­tion deten­tion facil­i­ties across the coun­try, where they accept com­plaints direct­ly from detainees. 

Anyone can file a complaint with OIDO – a community-based organization, an immigration attorney, a family member, etc. – by clicking here.


HOTLINES & PHONE APPS

  • If you or some­one you know has been arrest­ed by ICE, we rec­om­mend call­ing the Migra (Immi­gra­tion Enforce­ment) Hot­line at +1 (844) 363‑1423 to be con­nect­ed with local resources.
  • If you are in dan­ger of being arrest­ed, or plan on par­tic­i­pat­ing in a protest, we rec­om­mend down­load­ing the Noti­fi­ca app on your phone and adding the phone num­bers of fam­i­ly and friends to send alerts in the case of your arrest.

PREPARING FAMILY MEMBERS AND ALLIES

WHEN ICE APPROACHES YOU OR A COMMUNITY MEMBER

WHAT TO DO IF AT WORK OR IF YOU ARE AN EMPLOYER

BOND AND LEGAL SUPPORT

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