Immigration Case Review Pilot Program Stirs Hopes, Fears

Bill has lived in the United States for 20 years.  That whole time, he’s been scared. 

“It’s like having one of those big old anvils just right over your head, no matter where you go, it’s always there.  Not too sure when it’s going to fall on you.”

He came from West Africa as a young man, on a visitor visa, fleeing a civil war.  Bill – who declined to give his last name -- built a life in Silver Spring and found work at an area hotel.  Over the years, many of his family members moved here and became American citizens. He says he feels American, too.  But he’s not, quite.

“You  know, rather than trying to concentrate on what I’m supposed to be doing, I’m always worrying about look over my shoulder as to: ‘Who’s there, who’s coming?  When?  How?’”

Fourteen years ago, Bill applied for legal status, and the government moved to deport him.  Coming to the U.S. illegally isn’t a crime, but it’s a deportable civil violation.  Today, the professorial 45-year-old is still waiting as his case crawls through the courts.

“It’s very confusing, stressful, as to not knowing what’s going on.  And with it taking so long, it even adds more to the stress.  Basically, where am I going? Am I staying? Am I going?  It’s like I’m in limbo as to what’s going on?” 

Bill’s case was scheduled to be heard this week in Baltimore, and his lawyer thought he had a good chance of winning permanent residency.  Instead, because of a program being piloted here by the Department of Homeland Security, it is one of 5,000 backlogged cases of non-detained illegal immigrants being reviewed by government attorneys, who are working to distinguish between those who pose a threat to their communities and those who contribute to them.  It’s an important effort, says Bill’s lawyer, Michelle Mendez of Catholic Charities.

“Generally speaking I think that this is a very, very good program.  And I think if it’s carried out correctly it’s a very good thing in general, for everybody, despite the hurdles that some folks are going to face.”
 
Part of the reason it’s so important, says Mendez, is that, like her client, many people caught up in America’s immigration courts have been working here, paying rent, helping family and friends, and abiding by U.S. law for decades.  She says prosecutors, who often have as many as 50 cases a day, rarely see the big picture when considering which to pursue, and how to handle them.

“Because, often times, they are so overworked, they have so many cases, that it’s very different to see the person as a holistic human being, and all the good and the bad. And often times in my opinion most of these respondents have more good than bad.  But it’s hard to see the good, if you don’t do your homework.  And if you don’t have time to do your homework, that’s not necessarily your fault.” 

She hopes this will give them that time.  But Mendez wonders how they’re making tough calls.  If a person served time for a couple of DUIs 20 years ago, but then married, settled down, and became a great father and community member, which weighs more? Those serious convictions or the contributions he’s made since?  The Obama administration has deported more illegal immigrants than any previous one – almost 790-thousand the past two years.  People with DUIs have been routinely deported, no matter what they’ve done since.  Under the review program, Mendez isn’t sure.

“I mean that’s a case that could definitely go either way, and I’m wondering what they’re going to do.”

The program, now being piloted in here and in Denver, is scheduled to go nationwide early next year, to 300-thousand cases in 59 courts. Legally speaking, prosecutorial discretion is not a new idea.  In a memo this summer explaining the program, Homeland Security director John Morton said it should empower overtaxed attorneys to pick their battles, setting aside the vulnerable and harmless:  veterans, kids, pregnant women, the disabled, longtime lawful residents.  This has upset a lot of people. 

Congressional Republicans denounced it as an amnesty.  Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, agents see it as a major departure from the principle they’re operated on for years:  that just being in the country illegally is plenty of grounds for deportation.  Some immigration lawyers, too, are worried by what they’ve heard so far.

“The idea is great.  But as far as how they’re exercising it so far, it doesn’t seem like it’s working out very well.” 
   
Vanessa Allyn, an attorney for Human Rights First, was excited when she heard about the pilot.  Now, she fears it was poorly thought out, and is likely to cause a lot of collateral damage when it’s rolled out nationwide.

Court staff tell her that immigrants without lawyers have been showing up all week, bewildered and upset.  Now, like many of them, Bill won’t get his day in court until 2014.  For two decades, the knowledge that he could be deported any time has kept his life on hold. 

“I mean I would like to pursue school, but without knowing where I’m standing, I have to put that on hold until I get everything sorted out.”

He’d like to buy a house, and start his own tech support business.  He’d like to fall in love, but he has walked away from more than one promising relationship, because he’s afraid women will think he just wants a green card.  Everything, he says, depends on his case.  

“I just want it over and done with so I can know where I stand.  Am I legal, or?  You know?  I just want to know, so at least I can be a bit at ease, rather than constantly worrying as to what’s going on, what to do, and stuff like that.”

He hopes the review will offer him and others a chance to move on with their lives, one way or the other. 

I’m Mary Wiltenburg, reporting in downtown Baltimore, for 88 1, WYPR.