LAWYERS SEEK THE RELEASE OF 130 INDEFINITE DETAINEES IN CALIFORNIA

Attorneys in California recently appeared before a US District Court to argue for the release of almost 130 immigrants who are being held in INS custody with no apparent hope of release.  The detainees, and the over 3500 others in the same situation, are called “lifers” because the law as the INS currently applies it allows for their perpetual detention.

Lifers are subject to final orders of deportation, but cannot be deported because the US lacks diplomatic relations with their native countries.  They cannot be released because of a 1996 provision prohibiting the release of aggravated felons.  Most lifers are from Cambodia, Cuba (see the story earlier in this issue about Cuban “lifers” who rioted over this issue in Louisiana), Laos and Vietnam.  Under a recently revised INS regulation, these detainees are to receive a review of their custody within 90 of the time the deportation order becomes final, but according to a federal public defender involved in the case, only four of 122 clients had received such a review. 

Last summer a panel of federal judges in Washington State ruled that indefinite detention violated the constitutional rights of the detainees.  That ruling however was binding only in the western part of the state.

A ruling on the California case is expected in mid-January.

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