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Locked up indefinitely
on a technicality
Immigrants who can't be deported should
be released
Posted on Tue, Jan. 20,
2004 in The
Miami Herald.
Should foreigners who illegally entered
the United States be subjected to indefinite
detention if their country won't take them
back? That is the question that the U.S.
Supreme Court last week decided to consider
based on the case of a Cuban who arrived
here in the 1980 Mariel boatlift.
Though Daniel Benítez spent eight
years in prison for armed robbery and other
crimes, he has since been held three years
in immigration custody with no end in sight.
What's keeping him here is the absence of
a general repatriation agreement between
the United States and Cuba.
Constitutional violation
He and others in this purgatory may not
be choir boys, but they have served their
criminal terms and should not face a life
sentence simply because they can't be sent
back to their country of birth. Indeed,
the Supreme Court said as much in 2001 when
it ruled such indefinite detention unconstitutional
in cases involving two men who had been
legally admitted to the United States.
Both men had committed serious crimes for
which they were deportable, yet neither
could be deported to their homelands ''in
the reasonably foreseeable future.'' The
court ruled that keeping such immigrants
locked up past six months was unconstitutional.
In doing so, it noted that due-process legal
protections apply to "all persons within
the United States, including aliens, whether
their presence here is lawful, unlawful,
temporary or permanent.''
Exclusion unjustified
Yet the Justice Department interpreted
the 2001 court ruling to exclude all those
who entered the country illegally and, thus,
technically aren't here. In fact, they are
here.
Releasing them is no reward -- they have
served their time -- but rather a recognition
that a life sentence, in effect, is not
merited insofar as their criminal behavior.
And unless the Supreme Court says otherwise,
such detainees would never attain legal
residency. They would be allowed to get
work permit, but would remain under permanent
supervision and could be sent back to jail
for violating its terms -- in effect, they
are on probation as long as they are here.
They also would still be deportable should
their home country ever agree to repatriation.
More than 1,100 illegal entrants remain
in immigration custody indefinitely. The
biggest group consists of some 900 Mariel
Cubans who were paroled into the country.
Some committed serious crimes, others nonviolent
offenses. All have served their criminal
terms. It's unjust to keep them imprisoned
indefinitely.
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