Detention and the Disabled

[groovedaddy]

The Department of Homeland Security has been working to clean up the immigration-justice system it inherited from the Bush administration, a sprawling detention-and-deportation operation plagued by overcrowding, mistreatment and shocking medical neglect. Ongoing scrutiny from legal experts and human-rights advocates shows how much work remains.

A new report from Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union lays out in unsettling detail the burdens faced by a particularly vulnerable group: immigrants with mental disabilities.

The immigration-justice system is notoriously unjust and difficult to navigate. Noncitizens have no right to an appointed lawyer, for example, and most end up fending for themselves in immigration court.

For the mentally ill or disabled, often unable to understand the charges and punishment they face, the experience is even worse, with prolonged detentions and removal without a fair hearing — “deportation by default,” in the report’s words — all too common. Defendants who cannot represent themselves in court — and cannot afford a lawyer or find a family member — end up being represented by an official of Immigration and Customs Enforcement acting as a “custodian.” Some defendants, unsurprisingly, end up in limbo, detained but not deported while awaiting a hearing that may not happen.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/31/opinion/31sat3.html?th&emc=th