Asylum-seekers fight for refuge

[struggle4progress]

BY HOWARD MINTZ

Knight Ridder Newspapers


SAN JOSE, Calif. - (KRT) - Each year, tens of thousands of people, many fearing torture or death in their homelands, turn to a little-known federal agency as their last hope to win permission to remain in the United States.

But since the Sept.11 terrorist attacks, this agency, the Board of Immigration Appeals, has been dispensing rapid-fire immigration justice, rejecting the pleas of refugees and other immigrants more than ever.

Post-Sept.11 reforms to this top branch of the immigration system, made in the name of efficiency and national security, have had profound consequences that have little to do with fighting terrorism. Judges, lawmakers, immigration rights lawyers and even members of the immigration system say the appeals board is no longer able to serve as a trustworthy safety net for the very immigrants it was designed to protect.

As a result, unprecedented numbers of board decisions are being appealed to the federal courts, where judges are regularly kicking cases back to the immigration system to start all over. The board's cold shoulder has made immigrants put their lives on hold for years as they fall in love, take jobs and have children, all the while unsure whether they'll be allowed to stay or be forced to leave. <snip>

http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/montereyherald/news/nation/12712172.htm