Activists Launch Campaign to Ask U.S. to Respect Immigrant Detainees’ Human Rights
Activists in New York and other cities launch a campaign to ask the U.S. government to respect human rights in its immigration detention system.
Tag: Varick Federal Detention Facility
Freed After Haitian Tragedy, Activist to Demonstrate in the Shadow of Immigration Detention Center
On New Year’s Day, Jean Montrevil was detained in an immigration lockup. Less than a month later, after being freed following the devastating earthquake in Haiti, he will stand outside another jail where immigrants are held to protest the laws that placed him a breath away from deportation.
Ten Immigration Protesters Arrested in Lower Manhattan Demonstration for Arrested Activist
New York police on Tuesday arrested eight clergy members and two community activists who were demonstrating outside a Lower Manhattan immigration detention center against the likely deportation of civic activist Jean Montrevil.
After Years Dreading Deportation, New York Activist is Detained by ICE and Could Be Sent to Haiti
Jean Montrevil, a founder of the local branch of the New Sanctuary Coalition and a legal U.S. resident born in Haiti, was detained by immigration authorities on Dec. 30 during one of his monthly check-ins and is now awaiting deportation at a York, Pa., jail.
As Obama Gets Peace Prize, Immigration Activists Remind Him of Human Rights Issue in the U.S.
On the day that President Barack Obama accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in Norway, pro-immigration activists in New York were ready to remind him of what they consider a human rights crisis in the United States: the condition in which thousands of immigrants are detained throughout the nation.
Held in the Midst of Greenwich Village, Immigrants Lack Access to Counsel, Complain About Threats
By Diego Graglia, FI2W web editor
Varick immigrant detention center in Downtown Manhattan. (Photo: Google Live View)
Most of the thousands of New Yorkers who walk by the Varick Federal Detention Facility every day are probably unaware of its existence, but the immigration jail on Hudson Street in New York City’s Greenwich Village holds thousands of detainees every year.
Over one third of those detainees “had reasonable claims” for being released, but most didn’t have access to legal counsel –not guaranteed to immigrants under U.S. law– and many were shipped away from New York, some before a “volunteer lawyer could finish researching the case,” says a report released Monday by the New York City Bar Association’s Justice Center.
The document (click for pdf) –reported on first by The New York Times— also found that 90% of those who had been granted bond were unable to raise the funds necessary for their release and remained in detention.