¿Por qué no sorprende este resultado?

Prepárese y tome asiento.  Está a punto de escuchar una noticia importantísima:  La operación de Salida Programada del ICE fue eliminada por falta de interés.  ¿Por qué?  Para la enorme sorpresa del ICE, las personas que están indocumentadas en  EEUU y para quienes se ha emitido una orden definitiva de deportación, no quieren dejar  EEUU y no saldrán del país hasta que se les retire a la fuerza.

Explíquenos, por favor, por qué es una sorpresa; nos perdimos algo?  Tal vez, y sólo tal vez, las personas que no tienen nada a que volver en sus países de origen, cuyo salario en EEUU, por más bajo que sea, sirve para mantener a su familia entera en su país natal, no saldrá del país sólo porque así lo quiere ICE. 

La Asociación estadounidense de abogados de inmigración (AILA) resumió así la situación:

Luego de gastar más de 40.000 dólares en hacer publicidad sobre el programa, ICE anunció que un gran total de ocho personas respondió en cinco ciudades en las que se llevó a cabo la “Operación”.  ¿Por qué no sorprende este resultado?  Porque no se brindó incentivo alguno que hiciera que este programa fuese más atractivo que partir por cuenta propia.

“Calificar este esfuerzo como carente de espíritu aún implicaría que el mismo tenía espíritu y, por ende, le daría demasiado mérito a la ICE”, dijo Charles Kuck, Presidente de la AILA.  “Nunca fue más que una táctica de relaciones públicas para que al final la ICE pudiera decir, ‘pero si tratamos, pero nadie se presentó; ahora podemos volver a imponer la ley a nuestra manera’, que es precisamente lo que ahora dicen.  Nunca fue un esfuerzo serio.”

“Si el gobierno hubiese utilizado los recursos y el esfuerzo que puso en esta así llamada operación para mejorar sus condiciones de detención, mejorar las otras opciones de detención, o fortalecer el sistema tribunal de inmigración, se pudiera haber logrado algún progreso respecto a un sistema funcional”, dijo Kuck.  “En vez, la ICE se concentra en tácticas de relaciones púbicas para poder justificar sus tácticas de mano dura que han marcado sus operaciones más recientes.”

Que no se diga, como han dicho los funcionarios de la ICE, que la AILA no quiere que se cumplan las leyes de inmigración.  De hecho, nada podría ser más falso.  Nuestras leyes de inmigración deben cumplirse; cualquier otra cosa constituiría una burla a nuestro sistema.  Pero dicha observancia de la ley requiere prudencia y respeto no sólo por los derechos constitucionales, sino además por los derechos humanos fundamentales de todas las personas individuales.  Sacar a los “fugitivos” no criminales de sus hogares a las seis de la mañana, en calzoncillos, frente a sus hijos que lloran, para poder detenerlos durante 8 semanas antes de proceder a deportarlos, no constituye una observancia humana ni efectiva de las leyes civiles de inmigración.

Al final de cuentas, el problema sigue siendo que los EE.UU. cuenta con un sistema de inmigración seriamente fracturado.  La AILA hace un llamado al Congreso y al gobierno para que preparen una reforma significativa que ofrezca medios seguros, ordenados y racionales para gozar de un estatus legal en el país y, por ende, un prisma enfocado para no permitir el ingreso y sacar a aquellas personas que deben ser removidas de los Estados Unidos.
¡Amén!

Why is this result no surprise?
Hold onto your hats and sit down. You are about to hear earth shattering news: ICE’s Operation Scheduled Departure is being called off for lack of interest.  Why? To ICE’s great surprise individuals who are illegally present in the U.S. and have been subject to a final order of deportation do not want to leave the U.S. and will not leave until they are forcibly removed from the U.S.
Please explain why this is such a surprise; perhaps we’ve missed something? Perhaps, just perhaps, individuals who have nothing to return to in their home countries, whose U.S. salary, no matter how meager, is supporting entire families back home, are not going to just up and leave because ICE wants them to depart.

The American Immigration Lawyer’s Association (AILA) correctly summarized the situation as follows:   

After spending over $40,000 just on advertising the program, ICE announced that a grand total of eight people responded in the five cities in which the "Operation" was conducted. Why is this result no surprise? Because no incentive was provided that would have made this program more attractive than just leaving on one's own.

"To call the effort half-hearted would give ICE half a heart too much credit," said Charles Kuck, President of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA). "It was never anything more than a public relations ploy so that ICE could say in the end 'gosh, we tried, but no one turned up, now we can go back to doing enforcement our way,' which is precisely what they are now saying. It was never a serious effort."

"Had the government applied the resources and attention it gave to this so-called operation to improving their detention conditions, enhancing alternative detention options, or beefing up the immigration court system, some small progress to a workable system might have been made," said Kuck. "Instead, ICE is concentrating on PR ploys in order to justify the heavy-handed tactics that have marked its more recent operations."

Let it not be said, as ICE officials have, that AILA does not want the immigration laws enforced. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. Our immigration laws must be enforced; anything else is a mockery of our system. But, that enforcement must come with forethought and a respect for not only the constitutional rights, but the basic human rights of all individuals. Hauling non-criminal "fugitives" out of their houses in their underwear at 6:00 a.m., in front of their crying children, in order to hold them for 8 weeks in detention before actually deporting them, is not an effective or humane enforcement of the civil immigration laws.

Ultimately, the problem remains that the U.S. has a severely broken immigration system. AILA calls upon Congress and the Administration to formulate meaningful reform that provides a safe, orderly and rational means to obtain legal status and thus a focused prism for keeping out and removing those individuals who should be removed from the United States.

Amen! Hold onto your hats and sit down. You are about to hear earth shattering news: ICE’s Operation Scheduled Departure is being called off for lack of interest.  Why? To ICE’s great surprise individuals who are illegally present in the U.S. and have been subject to a final order of deportation do not want to leave the U.S. and will not leave until they are forcibly removed from the U.S.

Please explain why this is such a surprise; perhaps we’ve missed something? Perhaps, just perhaps, individuals who have nothing to return to in their home countries, whose U.S. salary, no matter how meager, is supporting entire families back home, are not going to just up and leave because ICE wants them to depart.

The American Immigration Lawyer’s Association (AILA) correctly summarized the situation as follows:   

After spending over $40,000 just on advertising the program, ICE announced that a grand total of eight people responded in the five cities in which the "Operation" was conducted. Why is this result no surprise? Because no incentive was provided that would have made this program more attractive than just leaving on one's own.

"To call the effort half-hearted would give ICE half a heart too much credit," said Charles Kuck, President of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA). "It was never anything more than a public relations ploy so that ICE could say in the end 'gosh, we tried, but no one turned up, now we can go back to doing enforcement our way,' which is precisely what they are now saying. It was never a serious effort."

"Had the government applied the resources and attention it gave to this so-called operation to improving their detention conditions, enhancing alternative detention options, or beefing up the immigration court system, some small progress to a workable system might have been made," said Kuck.

"Instead, ICE is concentrating on PR ploys in order to justify the heavy-handed tactics that have marked its more recent operations."
Let it not be said, as ICE officials have, that AILA does not want the immigration laws enforced. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. Our immigration laws must be enforced; anything else is a mockery of our system. But, that enforcement must come with forethought and a respect for not only the constitutional rights, but the basic human rights of all individuals. Hauling non-criminal "fugitives" out of their houses in their underwear at 6:00 a.m., in front of their crying children, in order to hold them for 8 weeks in detention before actually deporting them, is not an effective or humane enforcement of the civil immigration laws.

Ultimately, the problem remains that the U.S. has a severely broken immigration system. AILA calls upon Congress and the Administration to formulate meaningful reform that provides a safe, orderly and rational means to obtain legal status and thus a focused prism for keeping out and removing those individuals who should be removed from the United States.

Amen!