Parents of families separated have been pushed into signing documents they don’t understand or don’t recall signing, according to a new court filing.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed the suit against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that describes the government’s tactics as “coercive and misleading.” In some cases, the migrant parents couldn’t even read the paperwork. But they believed what they were agreeing to would reunite them with their children. Instead, in some cases, they were consenting to being deported without their families.
“Many of these individuals indicated that they felt coerced into relinquishing their rights,” wrote a lawyer with the American Immigration Council. “Still others appeared totally unaware that they had done so. Indeed, some individuals were adamant that they had signed a paper that said they chose to be reunited with their children.”
The attorney, Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, cited a father from Guatemala, who said he only wanted to be reunited with his child and agreed to the paperwork “under enormous amounts of stress and confusion.”
The filing gives numerous other examples. At least two other fathers who both speak an indigenous language signed papers under false pretenses. One “thought he was signing a form that would allow him to be reunited with his son”; the other “had no idea what it said because he is completely illiterate.”
“An immigration officer told one father that he would need to pay at least $500 every time he wanted to see an attorney,” according to the filing.
The parents also allege that they have barely had any contact with their children since they were separated despite ICE claiming otherwise making it more difficult to come to a decision that affects all of their futures.
The ACLU is asking that families receive at least one week of time after they are notified that they are being reunited with their children before they are deported. The ACLU argues:
This waiting period is crucial to ensure that parents have an opportunity to make an informed decision about whether to fight their own removal cases, leave their children (who may have their own asylum claims) behind in the United States, or make some other decision. In short, families will be making life-altering decisions after months of traumatic separation and the fact that the government is trying to shortchange them a matter of days to do so is galling.
A Justice Department lawyer said: “The government takes issue with the assertion that there is a mess on the ground.”
But the efforts are less than organized.
Shalyn Fluharty, managing attorney of the Dilley Pro Bono Project (DPBP), wrote in a declaration in the filing:
Mothers and children are profoundly confused. Most arrive with no documents from any prior proceedings. Mothers are unable to confirm whether they spoke with an asylum officer, or immigration judge.
Mothers report being forced to sign documents in English that they did not understand, and not being given a copy. Some mothers state their legal paperwork was taken away from them, either in transit, or upon arrival to Dilley.
The same is true for children. Most have arrived to meet with us without their own case files. Many say their paperwork was taken away from them when they arrived to Dilley.
Of the parents that have been identified as eligible for reunification 1,637 1,012 have been reunited, the Justice Department shared earlier this week.
