Asylum seekers are subject to harsh treatment

Since the end of World War II, approximately 4 million refugees and asylum seekers have found a home in the United States. Asylum is a right of last resort for people who cannot count on their own governments to protect them, and are forced to flee their homelands and seek the protection of other governments. The right to seek and enjoy asylum from persecution is enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Altogether, 145 states, including the United States, have signed this United Nations instrument.

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THE IDEA of the United States as an asylum for the oppressed of the world has exerted a powerful influence on the hearts and minds of Americans. This sentiment is most clearly stated in Emma Lazarus' sonnet The New Colossus, with the words "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free ... ." Lazarus' famous lines have pulled at our national imagination and continue to inspire the way we think about freedom and immigration today. Over the years, the sonnet has become a part of American culture, serving as a call for immigrants' rights. Yet, in light of the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the way we treat those individuals who are most vulnerable leaves little to be proud of.

In 2003, the Immigration and Naturalization Service was merged with the newly created Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and is now known at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). The DHS is now the principal federal agency responsible for border control to include adjudicating refugee and asylum claims. In February of this year the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom presented a report to Congress which found a disturbing trend in asylum practice.

THE REPORT found that current U.S. asylum policy routinely detains and houses asylum seekers with convicted felons until their application has undergone a full range of security checks. Depending on the applicant, this process can last several months, even if the asylum seeker has established a credible fear of persecution has family ties in this country and poses no security risk. At present, the Department of Homeland Security oversees 19 facilities - including six county jails - that house asylum seekers. To reduce the pressure on bed space, the DHS also has instituted a pilot project in which 1,700 asylum seekers not even accused of a crime are now wearing electronic anklets to monitor their whereabouts. Clearly, this is inappropriate for noncriminal asylum seekers.

Most disturbing, however, the U.S. House of Representatives recently passed legislation called the Real ID Act. The bill proposes that an asylum seeker without corroborating documents can be denied asylum. The bill also proposes that suspicious demeanor can also be grounds for denial. But consider the circumstances of a person in this situation: An individual persecuted by her or his government very well might try to leave the country under an assumed name, so having documents could place them at risk. In addition, there may be very little time to go home to gather documents, or it might be dangerous to do so. In the turmoil of escaping, documents can be lost.

GENERALLY SPEAKING, countries practicing human rights violations refrain from documentation of abuses and often use psychological torture which leaves no physical evidence of harm. Further, it can be emotionally and psychologically distressing for an individual to speak to a U.S. immigration official when one has been persecuted by government officials in their home country. This misstep in communication can easily be confused with suspicious behavior, thereby having grounds for denial of the asylum application.

Many asylum seekers now have to endure degrading treatment at the hands of our government, and in some cases face expedited removal back to the countries they are fleeing. Many of these individuals are highly traumatized people who have survived torture and other severe abuses for whom detention, particularly prolonged detention in jails, is particularly harmful. It is gratifying to see a coalition of human rights groups and faith-based communities take a stand against this policy.

TODAY, MANY tens of thousands of asylum seekers to this country have a credible fear of persecution or torture and to treat them as felons goes against the principles for which this country is founded. To be sure, anyone fleeing persecution should go through rigorous security checks and make a substantial case for themselves. Yet, the provisions allowed under the Real ID Act could keep out legitimate asylum seekers and would not necessarily make our country safer. With the recent report by the Pew Hispanic Center that about 11 million illegal immigrants are now in the United States, there is no question that our immigration and border control system are in need of a fix. But targeting asylum seekers is unfair and inhumane.

(Editor's note: The writer is an associate professor of political science at Augusta State University, and a research associate with the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies at The University of California, San Diego.)

--From the Sunday, March 27, 2005 printed edition of the Augusta Chronicle