- By Sara Ramey, Esq. on behalf of Mouha (name changed to protect confidentiality)

Note: This is the first time in three years that the Migrant Center has not been able to bring you our monthly Immigrant Voice story directly in the words of the person affected.  Each month the Migrant Center invites an immigrant who is experiencing difficulties or successes in our immigration system to tell their story in their own words directly to you.

The Migrant Center reached out to Mouha to see if he would like to let you, the public, know about the difficulties he is facing due to his prolonged detention as, in prior discussions with him, we determined that it would be valuable for the public to know what he is going through. We still believe this is true and so are sharing his story here, albeit in a different format.

Mouha has been unable to advise us of whether he would like to collaborate with us in this month's newsletter due to the extreme emotional distress he is experiencing in detention. We have had several calls with him and he is so anxious, stressed, and distraught that he cannot focus on our conversation and process and respond to our questions. Instead he repeats that he just wants to get out, even if that means he is deported, and that he feels like he is dying in detention.

Mouha came to the U.S. from Niger in the summer of 2017 and was refused release from detention because he was scheduled for court without going through an asylum screening interview. The government cancelled his interview because they could not find an interpreter. While it is normally a good thing to skip the screening interview as the write-up of these interviews can later complicate someone's case, ICE has a parole memo (Memorandum on Parole of Arriving Aliens Found to Have a Credible Fear of Persecution or Torture) that establishes a policy of releasing immigrants who pass a credible fear interview. Mr. Mouha therefore did not fall squarely under this policy. However, there is nothing in this memo or anywhere else that limits ICE's discretion to release people who do not go through the credible fear interview process and they regularly do so for individuals who are not in expedited or reinstatement of removal. There is no appeal process.

Despite having a strong case Mouha received a final order of removal in July 2018. Nevertheless, two years later he remains detained. The Migrant Center has found a habeas corpus attorney for him. We are waiting to hear if federal litigation will push ICE into doing the right thing and deport or release him without further delay. The Supreme Court in Zadvydas v. Davis said that it is presumptively unreasonable to detain someone after six months of attempting to deport them without success, triggering constitutional violations around the unjustified and illegal deprivation of liberty and due process. It is also well established in international law that prolonged detention can become arbitrary and unlawful in these circumstances, and a violation of an individual's fundamental human rights.

We have offered Mouha the opportunity to speak with a volunteer psychologist who could prepare a letter to support his habeas corpus petition / release on an Order of Supervision, as well as connections to our pen pal and visitation community of volunteers. During our calls, Mouha has been too upset to advise us whether he would like to take advantage of these opportunities. It is important to understand that our team has extensive experience working with people experiencing trauma and we usually have the necessary skills to move forward despite the hardships that the individual is experiencing. This is to say that the level of harm Mouha is living through after three years in ICE custody is extreme.

ICE is aware of the situation as Mouha has repeatedly gone on hunger strike, feeling like he might as well kill himself because that is basically what ICE is doing by not letting him be free. He would rather go home to a situation of danger than languish in jail forever.

Mouha has never had the right to a bond hearing because he did the so-called correct thing and presented himself at a bridge Port of Entry to seek protection. So he remains subject to the whims of ICE with no ability to have this decision reviewed by a neutral judicial body short of the federal habeas corpus process which often takes many months and for which he was only eligible after spending 1 1/2 years in detention.

The Migrant Center continues to offer Mouha a friendly ear, what support we can, and the knowledge that some people in the U.S. do care about him. Unfortunately, until we have more transparency, accountability, and justice in our immigration system our country will continue being complicit in human rights violations with immigrants and their advocates having little power to force the government to do the right thing.

Thank you for listening. These crimes cannot continue in darkness and silence or we will continue to foster a climate of impunity that will permit the continuation of these illegal acts. We hope that by shining light on what is happening in ICE detention, our leaders will understand that something must be done and take action. Nothing less than the moral fabric of our country is at stake.

Join the Migrant Center's petition for Congress to give all asylum seekers the right to a bond hearing. Real change happens when everyday people like you and me come together and stand up for what we believe in. Together we can raise this important issue to those in power and make it part of the national dialog.
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