WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) calls on
Congress as it considers critical immigration reform legislation in the
coming days to use this unique opportunity to fix longstanding problems
with U.S. asylum detention policies and practices. Senators Joe
Lieberman (D-CT) and Sam Brownback (R-KS) have proposed a solution that
would ensure that individuals fleeing persecution and seeking safe
haven in the U.S. would be treated humanely and with dignity upon
reaching our shores.

The “Secure and Safe Detention and Asylum Act” (Amendment #3253) includes the following important reforms to the current system:

• Require the construction of less prison-like detention facilities for
  asylum seekers and other migrants that allow for minimal restriction on
  movement; access to social, psychological, and medical services;
  contact visits with legal representatives and family members; increased
  privacy; and separation from criminal inmates
• Mandate the construction of detention facilities that permit families with children to stay together
• Create a program under which asylum seekers and others may be released under enhanced supervision
• Require that procedures governing the transfer of a detainee take into
  account the detainee's access to legal representatives and the
  proximity of the facility to the location of their legal proceedings
• Train personnel to understand and work with asylum seekers, victims of
  torture or other trauma, and other vulnerable populations and to ensure
  that personnel understand that many detainees have no criminal records
  and are being held for civil violations
• Expand Legal Orientation Programs, which consist of live group
  presentations made by non-governmental agencies that inform immigration
  detainees of their rights and educate them about U.S. immigration and
  asylum laws prior to their first hearing before an immigration judge
• Establish an “Office of Detention Oversight” in the Department of
  Homeland Security to inspect detention facilities and review and
  investigate complaints by detainees.

In addition, the Lieberman-Brownback Amendment would require that
interviews of asylum seekers arriving at a US airport or at a border
port of entry be videotaped to ensure that procedures designed to
ensure that asylum seekers can express a fear of persecution are
followed. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom has
found that inspectors often fail to record asylum seekers’ statement
properly and fail to read it back before the sworn statement is signed.
Immigration judges rely heavily on these sworn statements when deciding
whether to grant or deny asylum, and supposed contradictions between
the initial statement and later claims are a frequent justification for
denying asylum.

As Senators Lieberman and Brownback
note, the United States has long recognized that asylum seekers often
must flee their persecutors with false documents, or no documents at
all. The second person in United States history to receive honorary
citizenship by Act of Congress was Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg,
in gratitude for his issuance of more than 20,000 false Swedish
passports to Hungarian Jews to assist them in fleeing the Holocaust.

Although the world has changed since Raoul Wallenberg heroically
rescued thousands of Jews and security concerns are paramount, HIAS is
unwavering in its support of the right of asylum seekers to be treated
with dignity, fairness, and respect as they seek safe haven. Despite
increased security concerns, millions of people across the globe suffer
intolerable oppression and persecution and have no choice but to flee.
“An asylum seeker should never be treated like a criminal,” says Gideon
Aronoff, President and CEO of HIAS. “There is no reason why the United
States can’t create alternatives for asylum seekers that include
release or, at a minimum, keep families together and keep asylum
seekers out of prisons that are meant for criminals.”

HIAS has long supported the U.S. Commission on International Religious
Freedom’s recommendations that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security
develop procedures to ensure that a release decision is taken as early
as possible in the asylum process and that once an asylum seeker has
established credible fear, identity and community ties, and that the
asylum seeker is not subject to any possible bar to asylum involving
violence or threat to national security, the asylum seeker should be
released from detention.

Despite Commission’s recommendations,
which were first made over a year ago, the Department of Homeland
Security continues to detain the vast majority of non-criminal asylum
seekers, as well as other non-criminal migrants, under inappropriate
and potentially harmful conditions in jails and jail-like facilities
where asylum seekers are treated like criminals. While it is within the
authority of the Department of Homeland Security to take the necessary
steps to fix these problems, it has not even begun to do so. The
Lieberman-Brownback Amendment is critical in making these changes
happen.