As part of the 10 year anniversary of
IIRAIRA and in conjunction with the National Day of Action for Immigrant
Justice there will be a one-day fast in Minneapolis,
on Saturday, September 30. The fast will be held at the Federal Court House in
downtown Minneapolis
(3rd Avenue
and 4th Street).
Fasters will begin gathering at 7:00 a.m. and will hold a press conference
there at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday.
This event is sponsored by the Minnesota
Immigrants Rights Coalition
www.mnimmigrantrights.net
fyi...
----- Original Message -----
From: Royal Berg
The following is an op
ed by Ira, which will be published this Saturday.
FASTING FOR THE RIGHT
TO CHALLENGE
GOVERNMENT MISCONDUCT
By Ira J. Kurzban*
On October 1, 2006, at sundown, members of the Jewish faith throughout the
world will begin a one-day fast in compliance with Yom Kippur, the Day of
Atonement. On this day we ask for forgiveness for the sins we have committed
against our fellow men and women.
On the morning of September 30, 2006, however, many of us will
participate
in another one-day fast. On September 30, 1996 the Untied States Congress
passed the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act
("IIRIRA"). As the Congress today considers new legislation
aimed at
immigrants, it should look back at the disaster it created ten years ago.
Although IIRIRA was another piece of legislation that was supposed to stop
"illegal immigration" into the United States, it unleashed, instead,
a
series of bad policy choices that have destroyed families, made it virtually
impossible to permit illegal immigrants to become legal, and rendered our
legal system impotent to stop the worst abuses by government officials who
may now run amok without any judicial oversight.
As I write this
piece, a client from Mexico
is incarcerated at the Krome
immigration detention center in Miami
Florida for many months.
Although he
is a lawful permanent resident for fifteen years, worked two jobs to support
his wife and children who are all United States citizens, and served no time
in prison for a minor drug possession charge, the government under IIRIRA
has subjected him to mandatory detention and will removed him from the
United States without any relief or consideration of his family because his
conviction is considered under IIRIRA an "aggravated felony."
Another
client, a sixty-three-year-old man from Rwanda seeking political asylum,
sits in detention for two-and-a-half years. Under IIRIRA the government's
"discretionary" decision to detain the Rwandan asylum-seeker is not
reviewable in federal court; nor is the decision to subject the Mexican
lawful resident to mandatory detention if it is fact-based.
Similarly, IIRIRA
provides that there is no judicial review of virtually any
action the immigration authorities take. If an applicant seeks political
asylum in the United States but files his application one day late, the
federal courts have been stripped of the right to review whether the denial
was proper even if it is certain he would be executed upon his return to his
country. If a U.S. employer
wishes to bring a world famous concert violinist
or medical specialist to the U.S.
and immigration authorities wrongly deny
his application, the courts have been stripped of the right to intervene
because the denial may be a discretionary decision. If the government
mistakenly determines that a marriage to a U.S. citizen is not valid and
bases it on false or incorrect facts, those "facts" are not
reviewable.
There is no more fundamental principle in our constitutional system then the
right to challenge government authority in court. "No man in this
country,"
the Supreme Court wrote in United
States v. Lee, "is so high that he is
above the law. All the officers of the government from the highest to the
lowest are creations of the law and are bound to it. It is the only supreme
power in our system of government ..."
This week, the
Republican majority will seek to pass legislation that
abolishes the right of habeas corpus for those persons detained at
Guantanamo.
Last year the same Congress abolished habeas corpus for persons
in immigration removal proceedings. Taking away the right of judicial review
is tantamount to ending democracy because if no one may review the
Executive's power, then the President becomes a king. Too many Americans
have lost their lives to preserve freedom in this country to allow unchecked
Executive authority. Whatever one's views may be on immigrants, the right of
judicial review is at the core of our democracy. Join us in fast on
September 30, 2006 to preserve our judicial system and our democratic
institutions and ask that the Congress to stop passing laws that end
judicial review and reverse those that have.
______________________________________
Ira Kurzban is a former national President of the American Immigration
Lawyers Association and is the author of Kurzban's Immigration Law
Sourcebook