Since August of this year, members of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus have called for the release of Malik Jarno from a Pennsylvania jail. Advocates for Malik Jarno, a mentally retarded youth from Guinea, state that Jarno has been subjected to “reprehensible mistreatment” by federal immigration officials.

The immigrant, Malik Jarno, now 18, arrived alone from Guinea in January of 2001 at Dulles International Airport in Herndon, Virginia. Malik, who his lawyers say is mentally retarded, has spent all but four of the last 32 months in adult jails. The lawsuit brought by Mr. Jarno’s lawyers, argues that conditions at the Piedmont Regional Jail in Virginia, which is for adult detainees, reflects a lack of training and capacity to deal with detainees, particularly those with special needs. Malik has said that he was beaten by jail guards, sprayed in the face with a pepper solution, and ordered to solitary confinement.

“Piedmont prison guards have engaged in a pattern of abusive incidents against immigration detainees,” the complaint notes. The complaint further mentioned that the INS had been informed of this pattern of abusive behavior, and yet their officials detained Mr. Jarno for approximately seven months. This was despite the fact that the officials knew that Mr. Jarno would be likely to face a substantial risk of serious physical and emotional injury as a result of his placement at this facility.

According to Jarno's defenders, the case  has become a symbol of the hardships that thousands of unaccompanied non-adult immigrants encounter when they arrive in the United States each year. Malik Jarno sought sanctuary from political persecution that led to the demise of his family. His lawyers claimhis treatment by immigration officials represents a miscarriage of justice. His advocates note that the human rights group, Amnesty International, has found that foreign children fleeing violence and persecution in their home countries are often improperly detained for months in bleak detention centers in the United States, without access to lawyers or psychological services.

The INS had initially found that Malik was not a minor, contrary to his birth certificate. But in April 2002, the agency learned from the Guinean Embassy in the United States that the certificate was authentic and moved him to a juvenile shelter. The fact that immigration officials even contacted the Guinean government to authenticate Malik’s birth certificate was in direct violation of immigration procedures intended to protect the identity of asylum seekers, according to Jarno's lawyers.

The Amnesty International report, which surveyed 33 detention centers around the country, found that illegal immigrant children who arrive in this country without caretakers are often strip-searched, shackled and housed with juveniles who have been convicted of crimes. Malik Jarno was detained in adult jails for nearly nine months before an immigration judge conducted a hearing at which the INS said he should be deported. This was despite the fact that Malik has the IQ and developmental capacity of a second grader.

Three Senators and eight members of the US House of Representatives have written on Jarno's behalf to Asa Hutchinson, the undersecretary for border and transportation security at the Department of Homeland Security, and to Eduardo Aguirre, the director of the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services. In their letters they have urged the authorities to grant humanitarian parole to Malik and transfer him to the care of the International Friendship House, a nonprofit home for refugees in York, Pa, that is willing and able to take him. According to Jarno's lawyers, the home has worked with immigration officials in the past to provide housing and services to young immigrants with special needs while their cases were pending.

Jarno's lawyers have argued that legal authorities are increasingly recognizing asylum eligibility to provide protection to individuals with mental disabilities. Such individuals risk persecution on account of their membership in a cognizable, particular social group related to their immutable disability. Such determinations of eligibility for asylum are made on a case-by-case basis.

Jarno's lawyers have argued that their client should be granted humanitarian asylum based on past persecution and a reasonable possibility of serious harm that rises to the level of persecution that would warrant a traditional grant of asylum because he is highly likely to face imminent harm given his mental retardation. However, the lawyers argue now that the immigration judge, the INS, and the Board of Immigration Appeals failed to address this argument.

On August 21, the Fourth Circuit denied Malik Jarno’s request for a stay of removal pending adjudication of his asylum appeal, and he is therefore immediately deportable. Persons close to this case believe that Jarno's survival is in jeopardy if he is sent back to Guinea. Three U.S. senators, Senators Edward Kennedy, Sam Brownback, and Rick Santorum have written a joint letter to Mr. Eduardo Aguirre on September 30, 2003. In their letter they have requested an immediate review of this matter and an appropriate relief for Malik Jarno. Jarno's lawyers are also considering working with a Member of Congress to pursue a special bill that would grant permanent residency to Jarno by a special act of Congress. However, on a handful of such cases are approved by Congress each year.