A 27-year-old man from Guyana is still awaiting deportation after spending the past two years in the immigrant wing of the Suffolk County House of Correction in Boston, costing taxpayers approximately $60 per day.  Earl White, the detainee, decided to accept to government’s order of deportation following 18 months in INS custody.

White was put in INS custody following release from prison under a law that declares any non-citizen who committed an “aggravated felony” must be entered into detention and await a deportation hearing.  White lost his deportation hearing, and despite apparent efforts at rehabilitation, he also lost his appeal.  At this point, after being in INS detention for six months longer than he had served for his crime, he accepted return to his homeland, where he had not lived since he was 14.

One year later, in October 2002, immigration authorities told White’s attorney that they had requested the necessary travel documents from Guyana the previous May and that White would be leaving soon.  After a series of confusing interactions with the necessary immigration departments within the INS, the travel office reported to his attorney that White was booked on a flight.  But the flight took off without him because the authorities could not locate his travel documents.  He is currently still in detention.

White is likely only one of the many detainees that face similar conflicts.  Often either the U.S. has no diplomatic relations with their home countries, or the countries refuse to take deportees.  These problems pose conflicts with the Supreme Court decision in June 2001 that indefinite detention of non-citizens was unconstitutional.

The number of detainees in a similar position may continue to increase as the DHS continues to make efforts to speed up the deportation process for individuals who have violated immigration laws.  The DHS deported 118,686 people from the United States between October 2002 and May 2003, a 26 percent increase over the same period in the previous year.