A View from the Border: Day Four — Pilgrimage to Florence

Here is a description of Day 4 the UC Davis Law Student border delegation.  On this day, the students visited the immigration detention faciulity in Florence, Arizona:

Day Four Pilgrimage to Florence

For some of us, coming to Florence was almost a pilgrimage. Working at the UC Davis Immigration Clinic, we had already heard of the attorneys that relocated to this small desert town in order to represent immigrant detainees. Located about an hour outside of Tucson, Florence is a town built almost entirely around the prison industry. Just across the street from the front door of our hotel room is a barbed wire fence, surrounding the Arizona state prison complex. The Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), a private company with publicly traded stock, also runs prisons here that house inmates from Alaska and Hawaii. Similarly, the DHS contracts with the CCA to run some of the largest immigration detention centers in the country. Like CCA’s private prisons, the immigration detention centers house immigrants from all over the country, meaning that most are completely cut off from their families and communities of support. The government does not have to provide attorneys to immigrants in deportation proceedings, and ninety percent of the immigrant population goes un-served due to poverty. An Immigration Judge pled with the private bar to represent the thousands of people lacking any kind of representation. The Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project was created to respond to this crisis, and to represent as many immigrant detainees as possible. Only a handful of attorneys work at the Florence Project, representing thousands of detainees. The attorneys work in three different detention centers: one in Florence (mostly people who have recently crossed the border), one in Eloy (25 miles from Florence, housing people who have been in the U.S. for a long time, such as legal permanent residents), and a children’s detention center in Phoenix. We were able to meet with the director, Victoria Lopez, and an attorney working in Eloy. We also had a chance to briefly tour the Florence facility, though by unlucky chance there were no cases before a Judge that morning. At the last moment, the guards decided that we couldn’t tour the processing center, where detainees are housed. Still, just walking through the center – really, a prison – was eye opening. Immigration detention is not supposed to be punishment. The immigrants housed are either completely innocent of a crime, or have already served their sentences. Yet there was little to distinguish this cold institution, replete with barbed wire fences, orange jumpsuits, and heavy security, from the sprawling prisons surrounding it. Victoria told us that it was usually so cold that the attorneys could hardly complete their interviews with the clients, and we could only imagine how comfortable the detainees must be in their short sleeved shirts and jumpsuits. Being in this town, whose economy is entirely based on the prison industrial complex, made us question who is benefiting from this system of immigration detention. Who profits from the production of jumpsuits, the many flights carrying deportees to other countries? The CCA gets $70- $80 dollars a day from the federal government for each immigrant detainee it houses. Consider that on any given day there are 1500 immigrants held in detention in Eloy alone, much less those who are detained in centers across the country. Immigrants can expect to spend several months in immigrant detention. Sometimes, particularly if they exercise their right to bring their case in front of a judge, they spend years. In a recent case handled by the Florence Project, a U.S. citizen spent over a year in detention because the translator for ICE confused his date of birth. In cold economic terms, what is the cost of this growing practice of detention? And who is here? The people detained in these facilities tend to be from countries other than Mexico – Central Americans who have committed no crime, but couldn’t simply be put on a bus and dumped in Mexico. Two hundred women are held in Florence, and the majority have no criminal record. Also held in these centers are Legal Permanent residents and other immigrants that may have lived here most of their lives, but who committed some kind of crime. As Officer King’s comments highlighted, immigrants accused or convicted of crimes are one of the most unpopular groups in our country. But these people have families in the United States- often their entire lives are here. The crimes are not always significant, and the category of minor crimes which result in mandatory detention is quickly expanding. The Florence Project has also seen numerous cases of U.S. citizens mistakenly put into deportation proceedings. As lawyers in training, we were intrigued by the way in which the attorneys viewed their role and their mission. They shared the frustrations and the inspirations of their work. It was obvious that they felt overwhelmed by the sheer volume of people whose lives were torn apart by detention and the threat of deportation. And it was clear that despite high levels of success, they could not help everyone. The project had to make a strategic decision, to help as many detainees as possible rather than provide in depth representation to only a few. One interesting way of doing this was to create a pro-se program, where they train detainees on the law so that they can represent themselves. While it’s not a perfect system, seventy-six percent of pro-se cases have been won. One attorney commented that she gets more satisfaction out of someone winning their own case because they get more out of it. It is a powerful experience for many detainees to be able to take control of their own lives and navigate the legal system on their own. In fact, giving these detainees some control over their own lives seemed to be of primary importance to these lawyers. One commented that her goal is to “give them some semblance of control over their own circumstances.” The attorneys also appreciated their role as witnesses to the human condition, as well as just being a friendly face. One lawyer commented that “people want to know that they are not going through this experience un-witnessed. Even if they loose, they are grateful that someone was there.” “Part of the mission”, then “is to bare witness.” After years of bearing witness, we asked, what hope did they have for change at the policy level? Victoria noted that trying to advocate for positive legislative reform for detained immigrants is “like trying to pull yourself out of quicksand.” One commented that she had a lot of hope for the undocumented, but very little for the detained and those with criminal convictions. Those two groups, she noted, were often played against each other. The detained are sacrificed in the compromise if the undocumented are given relief. Still, meeting these amazingly dedicated lawyers, all brilliant young women, gave us some hope and a lot of inspiration. We were grateful for their time, and our introduction to this dusty prison town. I have a feeling some of us will be back soon.

KJ