ICE storm: Influx of detainees in Charleston concerns immigration attorneys

More than 200 undocumented immigrants have been quietly relocated across the country to a jail in North Charleston, South Carolina, a move that some local immigration attorneys are contending was done in an attempt to limit their right to representation and make it easier to deport detainees.

Captain Roger Antonio, the public information officer for the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office, confirmed the arrival of a “large group of immigrants” at the Sheriff Al Cannon Detention Center, where they are being held as part of an intergovernmental service agreement between the sheriff’s office and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Antonio said the immigrants arrived in separate groups over the past several weeks and that the transfer of large groups of immigrants in and out of the facility is “not uncommon,” and the jail has seen similarly large numbers of immigrants come and go in the past.

An inmate search of the jail found that at least 234 ICE detainees were booked at the jail since Dec. 20, two days before the federal government shutdown. 94 arrived on Dec. 21 and an additional 84 arrived on Dec. 27.

Representatives from Mi Maletin, a nonprofit based in Durham, which defends immigrants in removal proceedings, said they traveled to North Charleston upon hearing of the movement of large numbers of ICE detainees there, in an effort to uphold the due process rights of the men and women being held.

“In this case, it is almost certain they would’ve remained unrepresented,” if not for the pro bono attorneys’ arrival, said Damjan Denoble, legal director for Mi Maletin.

Atenas Burrola, the executive director of Mi Maletin, said that the transfer of large quantities of detainees to small, local jails like the one in North Charleston is an unusual event, and she believes this is a new tactic being used by ICE to make deportations easier. She said that every person in ICE custody has a right to counsel, but most detainees are indigent, and there’s no pro bono immigration provider in South Carolina.

“While they were asked if they would like to speak to an attorney, it was a functionally false question,” Burrola said. “There’s little to no chance of that because there are no free [immigration] attorneys in the area.”

The majority of the inmates with whom the group has spoken were brought to the jail from the California-Mexico border, Burrola said, and many have little to no idea where they are, much less the process that they’re going through or what is happening in their case. By the time that Mi Maletin caught wind of what was happening, she said, many of those being held had already been through interviews to determine whether they would be likely to establish eligibility for asylum without having had access to counsel.

All but seven were being held for illegally entering the country, and four of those seven did not have specific charges listed on the sheriff’s office’s website. Of the others, one was being held for domestic violence, another for assault, and the third for driving without a license.

Federal regulations say that while a detainee must be informed of their right to representation, such representation may not come at the government’s expense, although the court must inform detainees of any pro bono legal services available.

What happens next?

As of Jan. 21, Denoble said, Mi Maletin now officially represents 21 of the people being held in the jail and have signed agreements with 29 others, but there are about 100 others currently being held who have not yet been interviewed.

While the detainees are not yet seeking asylum, Denoble said that most are now facing the interview step of proceedings, where they must show they have a greater than 10 percent chance of suffering harm upon returning to their home country.

Of those who have signed representation agreements with the group, Denoble said, all of them intend to apply for asylum if they make it past the interview. If they don’t, he said, they have an opportunity to appeal, which if unsuccessful would trigger an expedited removal order and deportation.

Upon passing the interview, Denoble said, litigants would have an immigration hearing scheduled to take place in the coming weeks or months.

Besides Mi Maletin, a group called the Innovation Law Lab from Portland, Oregon, is also working to get access to counsel for people incarcerated in the North Charleston jail, Denoble said. Innovation Law Lab did not respond to requests for comment before press time.

Antonio, the PIO for the jail, said that neither his staff nor representatives from the Charleston Police Department’s Professional Standards Office have received any complaints alleging a denial of due process to any immigrant detainees and that his office has bilingual staff on hand “to ensure that their needs are met.”

“We have had, and continue to have, a system in place to allow attorneys access to inmates for representation,” he said.

Antonio said his office doesn’t have information about the origin of recently-arrived detainees available at short notice, and local and federal law enforcement agencies don’t generally provide information about where arrests were made.

While ICE media officials were unable to officially respond to requests for comment because of the government shutdown, an official not authorized to speak said that the practice of moving large groups of immigrants is not uncommon.

“ICE manages its detention resources on a national basis and often transfers arriving aliens apprehended at the border to interior locations where we have space for them,” the official said. He said that immigration proceedings for detainees in ICE custody have not been impacted by the government shutdown.

Follow Matt Chaney on Twitter @NCLWChaney