Since June, Democratic congressmen in New York City have visited the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office and were refused entry. Whether immigration enforcement is legal and what the detention conditions of the arrested persons are have become the focus of news. This newspaper recently exclusively interviewed Jinshan (pseudonym), a Chinese who was recently released from the ICE detention center closest to New York City. According to his description, most of the detainees in the detention center have criminal records, but there are also innocent arrests, and the number of Chinese seems to be increasing. According to his understanding, the Trump administration is still generally following the legal procedures in deportation matters, and it is not easy to deport at will.
According to reports, the types of detainees in the Elizabeth ICE detention center in New Jersey where Jinshan is located are diverse. In addition to those arrested during immigration enforcement, those who directly apply for political asylum when entering the customs will also be arranged to stay temporarily in the detention center and wait for an interview in the immigration court. Detainees will be issued uniform prison uniforms. Those with no criminal record will wear dark blue uniforms, while those with criminal records will wear orange uniforms.
Earlier this month, Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez said at a press conference that when she visited the Elizabeth Detention Center, she found that only two of the more than 300 detainees had criminal records. Whether this statement is accurate or not cannot be confirmed by the outside world, but Jinshan, who was released shortly before Velazquez’s visit, said that according to his observation, there are more orange prison uniforms than blue prison uniforms in the detention center. Jinshan said that he was assigned to work in the laundry room in prison, so it is easier for him to get first-hand information about the number of prison uniforms.
Jinshan revealed that there is no boundary between detainees with or without criminal records, and they live in the same space. According to his communication with some inmates, most of the orange prisoners are carrying non-violent crimes such as traffic accidents and fraud, and rarely see real “heinous” people. In addition, detainees can also get special tablets to communicate with relatives and friends outside via video.
Jinshan lived in the Elizabeth Detention Center for nearly a year, spanning the two presidential terms of Biden and Trump. He observed that during the Biden era, most of the detainees wore orange clothes; in the Trump era, the number of blue clothes increased, and the number of Chinese people seemed to increase significantly.
Jinshan introduced that he had contacted a decoration team boss from Ecuador who had lived in the United States without a permit for many years and was law-abiding and hardworking. Who would have thought that one of his employees committed a crime, and his address was registered with the company. As a result, in the process of arresting the employee, the innocent boss also became the “result” of ICE’s “collateral arrest”.
It is reported that the unlucky boss chose to self-deport, and the authorities promised that he could return to the United States with legal status in five years and reunite with his children who are already citizens. But for those who are unwilling to leave voluntarily, the deportation procedure must be strictly in accordance with legal procedures to start.
Immigration lawyer Chen Chuangchuang introduced that in cases that do not meet the standards for expedited deportation, there are only two conditions that can constitute deportation: voluntary deportation or deportation order. Even if the person has a criminal record, the immigration court must reject his immigration application and issue a deportation order before he can enter the deportation procedure. After the deportation order is issued, the person still has the opportunity to delay through various appeal procedures. For those who voluntarily deport, they still have the opportunity to regret at any time before boarding the plane.
Although the Trump administration is often criticized by the outside world for not respecting legal procedures, according to Jinshan’s experience in the detention center, the deportation procedure has not yet clearly deviated from the rule of law. For example, some of his fellow inmates had previously signed a voluntary deportation agreement, but when they arrived at Newark Airport, they suddenly changed their minds and asked to apply for asylum according to the law. As a result, the deportation officers could not force them to board the plane and could only send them back to the detention center.
