NEWS: 2000 Immigrants Being Held Indefinitely Must Be Released, page 1

posted on Jan, 13 2005 @ 08:59 AM

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2000 foreign nationals currently being held indefinitely for immigration issues must be released stated the U.S. Supreme Court. Of the 2000 individuals who are being held in detention in locations all over the country, 700-1000 are Cuban refugees from Mariel. Why were they being held indefinitely in the first place you may ask? Because all of these individuals have been convicted of crimes and whose countries refused them after the U.S. attempted to deport them. Judges Clarence Thomas and William Renquist voted against the ruling which ended with a 7-2 outcome.

www.miami.com
The ruling was not a total surprise. Most immigration-law experts had expected the Supreme Court to follow its 2001 rejection of indefinite detention for those who could not be deported because their countries would not take them back.

Despite the 2001 ruling, the government continued to hold the group of Mariel refugees by claiming, under a complicated immigration-law theory, that they had never ''technically'' entered the United States. The government classified those refugees as ''excludable'' and ''inadmissible'' because they had been convicted of crimes and their immigration paroles were revoked.

Scalia, in Wednesday's majority opinion, indicated that the government misinterpreted the high court's 2001 opinion, which said the government could hold deportable foreign nationals for no more than six months.

Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, in a concurring opinion, wrote that the government could detain foreign nationals for more than six months as long as it had "reasonable grounds to believe an alien has engaged in certain terrorist or other dangerous activity.''

In his dissent, Justice Thomas said that migrants deemed ''inadmissible'' do not have the same constitutional rights as other migrants. He also said that the 2001 ruling rejecting indefinite detention was wrong.
Many Mariel refugees were classified as ''excludable'' after the 1980 boatlift from the Cuban port of Mariel, but the majority were paroled, and most obtained permanent U.S. residence and citizenship.

A few, however, were convicted of crimes here and were deemed "excludable.''

One of them was Daniel Benitez, a Hialeah resident, whose case was one of two that the high court reviewed to make its decision Wednesday.

Benitez sought a green card in 1985. He was rejected because he had been convicted of grand theft in Florida. He was subsequently convicted of additional felonies, including armed robbery, armed burglary, aggravated battery and unlawful possession of a firearm.

His immigration parole was revoked in 1993, and he was ordered deported in 1994. But Cuba would not take him back.
''I think this is a victory for Jehovah God, who gave us freedom and the right to be free,'' Benitez, a Jehovah's Witness, told The Herald in a telephone interview from the office of Miami lawyer Emilio de la Cal.

John Mills, a Jacksonville lawyer who argued the case before the Supreme Court, said the ruling "prevents the president and the executive branch from abusing their authority and arbitrarily depriving a human being of his liberty.''

Judy Rabinovitz of the American Civil Liberties Union, who championed the cause of indefinitely detained Mariel refugees, welcomed the ruling.

''It's a vindication of the position we've taken all along, that the government was violating the court's (2001) decision by continuing to detain these individuals,'' she told The Herald.

The government's Department of Homeland Security has yet to announce how it will proceed with releases in the cases affected by Wednesday's ruling. Each case, however, would be handled individually.

Please visit the link provided for the complete story.

While I agree that individuals cannot be held indefinitely in a detention camp and feel that this ruling is correct, I have concerns. I am not clear on the legalities of this issue, but I would hope that even if we cannot deport them to their home countries, we can still deny them citizenship to the U.S. and offer them a solution such as moving into another country who is willing to accept them.

[edit on 1-13-2005 by worldwatcher]

president_bush

posted on Jan, 13 2005 @ 09:59 AM

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Originally posted by worldwatcher
I am not clear on the legalities of this issue, but I would hope that even if we cannot deport them to their home countries, we can still deny them citizenship to the U.S. and offer them a solution such as moving into another country who is willing to accept them.

That´s my boy, a true american Patriot - pass the buck - hell if no one else want´s I´ll personally order them thrown into the sea... hmm, better yet: hey rummy, you still got that bio weapons program going? I got some guineu pigs for you...!!!! hahahahaha!!!1

Muaddib

posted on Jan, 13 2005 @ 11:15 AM

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Originally posted by president_bush
That´s my boy, a true american Patriot - pass the buck - hell if no one else want´s I´ll personally order them thrown into the sea... hmm, better yet: hey rummy, you still got that bio weapons program going? I got some guineu pigs for you...!!!! hahahahaha!!!1

And some members, perhaps more than a few are going to think that this is Bush.......

This is an excellent way of making ATSNN "a respectable news source".....

marg6043

posted on Jan, 13 2005 @ 11:23 AM

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Well I have not problem with them being released but I remember some had mental problems and others were actually criminals now what the administration is going to do with those.

worldwatcher

posted on Jan, 13 2005 @ 11:32 AM

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what do you propose the US govt does with these people. We know it's wrong to hold them indefinitely, probably taxpayer money being used to house and support them, their countries don't want them, so do we just let them go?

knowing how our system is, you know we will never be able to keep tabs on these people to make sure they are not committing crimes, and what if they get released and commit another crime?

Montana

posted on Jan, 13 2005 @ 11:33 AM

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As I understand this, Marg, that's the problem with these last 1000 or so. The immigants who were not criminals were released some time ago. The ones still detained are criminals. Are we supposed to let them free?

I feel they will just be transported to the nearest prison to serve sentences for thier crimes. What then? Do they earn green cards for being in jail?

In my opinion, it's not our job to find a place for them to go. They committed crimes as refugees, it's thier problem where they go.

marg6043

posted on Jan, 13 2005 @ 11:35 AM

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Hey I got an Idea, the govenment should give them some training and send them to Iraq to fight, like that they will get a salary and they will earn their rightfull place as an American citizen.

Actually we should do that will all the people in our jails right now, do some house cleaning.

djohnsto77

posted on Jan, 13 2005 @ 11:36 AM

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So does this ruling mean that any government can empty it's prisons of murderers, rapists etc. and ship to them the U.S. and the U.S. has to release them into our society? If that is true, I think it is a bad ruling.

worldwatcher

posted on Jan, 13 2005 @ 11:38 AM

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hmmm criminals in Iraq...could be a novel idea except for the fact that they might not be too stable and contribute to the negative portrayal of the US military.

unless you send them to...no..I'm not even going to entertain the idea.

worldwatcher

posted on Feb, 17 2005 @ 10:53 AM

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Update:
Freed detainees are left homeless

Celestino Leyva Núñez and Cárlos Bueno Rodríguez say they are Cuban Mariel refugees released under a recent Supreme Court ruling, men who spent long months in detention and were finally freed -- only to become homeless.

Leyva Núñez, 52, and Bueno Rodríguez, 53, said immigration authorities took them by van from a Louisiana detention center to a homeless shelter in New Orleans on Friday afternoon and told them they were free to go.

''They deposited us at the door and gave us no money, no clothes, nothing,'' Leyva Núñez told The Herald in a telephone interview from an immigrant and refugee aid office in New Orleans. Bueno Rodríguez added: ``They just gave us papers and told us that we could apply for work permits.''

Immigration advocates this week claimed federal immigration officials were doing too little to help newly released Mariel detainees adjust to life outside a cell. Federal officials say they've heard only isolated complaints, but they acknowledge that more may come as more Mariel refugees are released in the next few months.

Nationwide, nearly 150 Mariel refugees have been released since Jan. 12, when the Supreme Court ordered new prohibitions against detention for foreign nationals who have been convicted of crimes and have served their sentences, but cannot be deported. About 600 more Mariel detainees and more than 100 non-Cuban detainees are expected to be released later.

Nygdan

posted on Feb, 17 2005 @ 11:12 AM

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So, effectively the court is ordering that these guys be made into citizens, or at least be given permanent residence status, no?

''They deposited us at the door and gave us no money, no clothes, nothing,'' Leyva Núñez told The Herald in a telephone interview from an immigrant and refugee aid office in New Orleans. Bueno Rodríguez added: ``They just gave us papers and told us that we could apply for work permits.''

Just airlift these people back into the country that they came from. The were criminals there, they became criminals in the US, to the point that they lost their immigration status and had to be deported. They're scummy enough that even their home country would rather see them permanently detained in a US prison. And now when the courts order that they be release, they are complaining that they government isn't taking care of them? This is absurd.

[edit on 17-2-2005 by Nygdan]

worldwatcher

posted on Feb, 17 2005 @ 11:14 AM

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It looks that way Nygdan

"They just gave us papers and told us that we could apply for work permits.''

shots

posted on Feb, 17 2005 @ 01:32 PM

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As I recall many were sent intentionally by the Cuban Government directly from its prisons and mental institutions. When the US asked Cuba to return them Castro refused more or less saying they are your problem now not mine.

I think the court had their blinders on when they made this decision, all they have done is ordered criminals back on our streets.

worldwatcher

posted on May, 16 2005 @ 10:20 AM

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follow up:

700 Mariel Refugees Ordered Released; Background Checks Questioned
MIAMI -- More than 700 Mariel refugees have been ordered released from prisons and immigration jails because the United States has no power to deport them to their native Cuba.

But the Miami Beach arrest of one of the newly released men indicates background checks performed before they were let out are not up to snuff.

Police took Roberto Machin into custody in March after finding him asleep on a park bench. A routine check found he was wanted in Tennessee in a 21-year-old murder. He has been sent to Nashville for prosecution.

Complaints about the mass releases from federal custody have been detailed in a pair of letters from Florida state agencies to the Department of Homeland Security.

Immigration advocates also are criticizing Homeland Security for releasing the detainees with little more than the clothes on their backs.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is running background checks belatedly. So far, the agency has found 129 convictions for violent crimes and 35 sex offenses.

Seriously what did the govt expect to happen? Most of these detainees will probably have a difficult time getting jobs, supporting themselves and intregating into the community again...If this is followed closely, you'll probably find a high number of these released detainees end up in jail again.

kenshiro2012

posted on May, 16 2005 @ 10:32 AM

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worldwatcher,
What do you suggest that the goverment do? Train them, Cloth them, Educate them, Feed them, house them, etc. etc. etc. .....?
We are already paying billions of dollars every year to support the illegals that are already here now the illegals that were detained due to them having criminal backgrounds now expect that we not only let them loos back into the populace where they can continue their criminal activity.But now, they want us to take care of all their needs?
Sorry, I for one, would have much perfered that HomeLad (In)Security sent them back to their countries of origion even if the countrys did not want them.

worldwatcher

posted on May, 16 2005 @ 10:42 AM

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I want them to go back to Cuba too, and if Cuba doesn't want them, the US should have arrangements with a 3rd party country who allows them to stay there while they seek asylum from where ever they want to go next.

I am very much for stringent and stricter immigration laws. I believe in Legal Immigration and have a major problem with the U.S. Immigration Policy towards Cubans who arrive here illegally.

We should not be holding these detainees, but we shouldn't be letting them out on our streets, FREE either.

kenshiro2012

posted on May, 16 2005 @ 10:46 AM

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Either option would suit me, or, even if they are actually guilty, prosecute them, imprison them and then send the bill for their keeping to their country.
It would not take too long, before they realize that not accepting them is more economically damaging than receiving them back.
I know, the numbers are small, but the cost (including the illegals already in american prisons) would grow to an intolerable rate for a few of the offending countries. Heck add the cost that INS has garnered by holding them all these years!

[edit on 16-5-2005 by kenshiro2012]

Zipdot

posted on May, 16 2005 @ 11:13 AM

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The home countries don't want them back, right? Well, who cares what they want or don't want?

It's the home country's "I don't want's" versus the guest country's "I don't want's." Man, we oughtta just fly these people over their home countries and push 'em out of the plane with nothing but a parachute, some parachute training, and some pesos or rubles or whatever to get them back into their lives of crime.

If we can't prosecute them for anything, then they need to be Returned to Sender.

Zip

ulshadow

posted on May, 16 2005 @ 11:31 AM

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senting them into iraq will be a good idea but they will do bad stuff and mess up and people going to say, look at how those evil imperalistic americans are lol
but we could sent them to north korea if war starts hehe, they can kill all they want there, even each other.

[edit on 16-5-2005 by ulshadow]

Zipdot

posted on May, 16 2005 @ 11:45 AM

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Wait, wait, wait. I've got a better idea than my last one. They should be released, right? Well let's release em into the Alaska! We'll even give them parkas!

Agattu island, way on the left --

Zip

[edit on 16-5-2005 by Zipdot]