El Paso Detained Docket: “The Bye-Bye Place”

The American Immigration Council and AILA have filed an administrative complaint calling out practices on the detained docket at the El Paso Service Processing Center. Migrants in this court “face some of the highest obstacles in the nation.”

The complaint notes that this El Paso immigration court has the lowest asylum grant rate in the nation. (I honestly didn’t know that – here I was thinking that “honor” belonged to Atlanta.)

Another problem highlighted in the complaint: “a culture of hostility and contempt towards immigrants.” Just how does that manifest? One example: an immigration judge reportedly described the court as “the Bye-Bye Place,” as in, “You know your client is going bye-bye, right?”

You could easily assign the first four pages of the 24-page report in your class about immigration court procedures or asylum. It would be eye-opening.

-KitJ