Coalition says Obama administration policies to deal with influx at border is unfair to women and children who flee to safety

A coalition of immigrant rights groups have filed a lawsuit challenging the federal government’s expedited deportation process, claiming that it is unfair to women and children who flee Central America to seek safety in the US.

The groups claim the Obama administration’s new policies have created a “deportation mill” at a new government family detention center in Artesia, New Mexico.

“As the attorneys on the ground in Artesia have told us, the government is implementing a new expedited removal system which presents procedural obstacles that make it incredibly difficult for these women to even articulate their claim,” said Trina Realmuto, staff attorney at the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild.

The National Immigration Project, American Immigration Council, ACLU and National Immigration Law Center filed the suit, MSPC v Johnson, in the US district court for the District of Columbia on Friday. They claim the Obama administration’s policies are unfair and violate the Immigration and Nationality Act and US constitution.

Advocates say women in these facilities do not receive proper counsel or time to file asylum claims, which are known for taking time to process.

As of Wednesday night, 280 women and children had been deported from the facility, according to the Los Angeles Times. The Artesia center opened in June as part of the government’s effort to cope with the recent surge of immigrants from Central America, who are fleeing violence and poverty. Last week, officials released an 11-year-old boy from the facility after an immigration attorney learned that the child is actually a US citizen.

“There is simply no excuse for the system in Artesia, which sacrifices justice for expediency,” said Melissa Crow, legal director of the American Immigration Council.

The suit claims that the women are isolated, given no privacy when seeking council and are intimidated by detention facility officials when they do seek legal help. Mothers must be with children at all times, meaning that their children are present as they recount private incidents, like rape and death threats, to attorneys to explain what that drove them away from their home country.

The isolation has also created obstacles for immigration lawyers. The groups said that from their understanding, there is only one Spanish-speaking attorney within 40 miles of the isolated facility and they do not practise immigration law.

“When I left Artesia and was driving to the airport to fly back to Alaska, I started crying in the car. I do not recall the last time I cried,” said volunteer attorney Daniel Rogers, one of 19 lawyers whose experience at the facility is described in the lawsuit. “Visiting Artesia was a discouraging and depressing experience because my government is crushing the spirits of brave women and their children through a combination of denial of due process and stressful living conditions.”

The Artesia center is run by the Department of Homeland Security, which did not return requests for comment.

Plaintiffs include a Honduran mother who fled repeated death threats, a Salvadorian mother who left with her children because of gang violence threats and a Salvadorian mother who fled with her 10-month-old son after a gang told her she had 48 hours to leave or be killed because she refused to be an informant.

Marielena Hincapié, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center, said she had met with president Barack Obama about the expedited immigration policies. She said that addressing the issues of what is driving people out of their home countries is a separate issue from what happens once they arrive in the US.

“Once those women are here, once these children and families have arrived at our shores we have a duty as a nation, both under domestic and international law, not to return them back to their persecutors,” said Hincapié. “And also, we have to make sure these women and children have their fair day in court.”