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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe Case That Made an Ex-ICE Attorney Realize the Government Was Relying on False "Evidence"
https://www.propublica.org/article/laura-pena-gang-database-the-case-that-made-an-ex-ice-attorney-realize-the-government-was-relying-on-false-evidence-against-migrantsThe Case That Made an Ex-ICE Attorney Realize the Government Was Relying on False Evidence Against Migrants
Years after quitting her job as an attorney for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Laura Peña returned to the fight defending migrants shed once prosecuted. Then, a perplexing family separation case forced her to call upon everything shed learned.
by Melissa del Bosque Aug. 13, 5 a.m. EDT
Laura Peña could see that her 36-year-old client was wasting away. Gaunt and haggard after nearly two months in jail, he ran his fingers through his hair and opened his hands to show her the clumps that were falling out. He was so distraught that his two young children had been taken from him at the border, he could barely speak without weeping.
After Carlos requested political asylum, border and immigration agents had accused him of being a member of the notorious MS-13 gang in El Salvador a criminal not fit to enter the United States. But as Peña looked at him, she saw none of the typical hallmarks of gang membership: the garish MS-13 tattoos or a criminal record back home. He was the sole caregiver for his 7-year-old son and 11-year-old daughter. Hed even brought an official letter from El Salvadors Justice Ministry certifying that hed never been in jail. Something else about his case bothered her, too: Shed been peppering the governments lawyers with phone calls and emails for weeks and theyd yet to reveal any evidence to back up their accusation.
Unlike most attorneys working pro bono to reunite families, Peña was familiar with MS-13, because shed pursued the deportation of gang members as a trial attorney for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. She understood how the system worked, because shed been a part of it. Her long tumble of curly hair, which makes her look younger than her 37 years, is paired with a forthright-bordering-on-blunt manner of speaking forged from her years as a prosecutor on the front line of the immigration debate. She was empathetic toward the plight of clients like Carlos, whose last name is not being used for his protection. But she was also unwilling to give any of them false hope. If Carlos was a gang member, his chance for asylum was zero.
There has to be a mistake, Carlos insisted that December day from behind the scratched plexiglass wall in the visitors room at the jail. Please help me. Looking at him, Peña wanted to help. But the system shed once known, as flawed as it was, had turned into a black box she no longer understood, with an ever-shifting array of rules and policies that granted untold discretion to the government. She couldnt even get ICE attorneys to comply with a fundamental tenet of a fair system: providing proof of their case, evidence they could fight against.
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