Physicians for Human Rights
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Asylum Seeker Released After Years of Indefinite Detention
After five years in detention, asylum seeker Glorismel Centeno Ortiz was finally released on September 29 2011. Centeno spent nearly two years in federal custody for criminal charges that were ultimately dismissed and then another three years in immigration detention. Centeno is one of thousands of immigrants that languish indefinitely in detention for years, waiting for the day they will finally be deported or released.
Short-Term Immigration Detention: Custody May be Temporary, but the Problems are Enduring
Despite repeated calls for reform, the immigration detention web continues to grow in scale and cost, and the majority of immigrants held by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have broken no criminal laws.
Massachusetts Legislature Considers Imposing Fees on Inmates
With budgets in crisis and the recession showing no signs of abatement, Massachusetts is looking for creative ways to cut prison spending. In a recent Joint Committee on the Judiciary session, Republican lawmakers and a group of sheriffs asked the Committee to support a bill that would require Massachusetts inmates to pay for their time in lock up.
Legal and Political Challenges Inhibit Mexican Asylum Seekers
Despite mounting evidence of targeted violence, immigration judges seldom recognize that Mexican nationals have a “well-founded fear of persecution”- the substantive criteria for asylum in the United States.
Troubling Alabama Immigration Law Upheld by Federal Judge
Last week, Federal District Judge Sharon Blackburn declined to strike major portions of Alabama’s extreme anti-immigrant law, HB 56, making Alabama the state with the strictest immigration laws in the country.
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