Providing Noncitizens Their Day in Court and Other Resources for Immigration Bill Deliberations

For Immediate Release

May 15, 2013

Washington D.C. - As the Senate Judiciary Committee continues its mark up of S. 744, the Senators will soon be called upon to consider amendments within Title Three, relating to interior enforcement issues, which span everything from E-verify to immigration court reform.  Today, our Immigration Policy Center and Legal Action Center release a fact sheet on court reform and highlight several recent reports on broader due process and biometric data issues that help put the committee’s deliberations into focus.

Providing Noncitizens Their Day in Court discusses some of the critical policy proposals found in S. 744 to ensure that everyone receives due process of law and a meaningful opportunity to be heard.  For far too long, immigration courts have failed to provide noncitizens with a system of justice that lives up to American standards of justice.  A noncitizen has not truly had his day in court if he is removed without ever seeing a judge, if he does not have access to counsel and necessary evidence, or if the decision in his case receives only perfunctory review.

Two Systems of Justice is a special report that explores how the justice system for immigrants falls far short of the American values of due process and fundamental fairness. In fact, the immigration system lacks nearly all the procedural safeguards we expect in the U.S. criminal justice system.  Given the high stakes involved in immigration cases and the increasing criminalization of immigration law, the report concludes that we must no longer tolerate a system that deprives countless individuals of a fair judicial process.

From Fingerprints to DNA is a special report that explains the different technologies for collecting biometrics, as well as how that data is collected, stored and used. It raises concerns about data-sharing, legal protection, technological problems, then proposes changes to control and limit the storage of biometrics to benefit not only immigrants, but all people in the U.S.

To view the documents in their entirety, see:
Providing Noncitizens Their Day in Court (LAC Fact Sheet, May 2013)
Two Systems of Justice (IPC Special Report, March 2013)
From Fingerprints to DNA (IPC Special Report, May 2012)
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For more information, conact Wendy Feliz at wfeliz@immcouncil.org or 202-507-7524