Deported Too Soon: Report Says Fed Immigration Authorities are Violating New York Law

Jon Campbell

Immigrant detainees are routinely deported from New York State before all legal remedies have been exhausted, according to a report released this week by the New York University School of Law's Immigrant Rights Clinic and immigrant rights advocacy organization Families for Freedom.

The report documents what the authors say is the frequent refusal by Immigration and Customs Enforcement to allow detainees facing deportation to challenge the convictions that triggered removal, as they're entitled to do under New York law. The process is known as "post-conviction relief," and it's designed for situations where a defendant has been denied a fair trial for a variety of reasons.

Nancy Morawetz, a law professor at NYU who supervised the study, said ICE's practices are thwarting an important safety valve within the criminal justice system.

"Post-conviction release doesn't exist because the criminal courts always get it wrong," Morawetz says. "But the criminal justice system is a very large, complex system where things move very fast," and mistakes are sometimes made. That's why it's important, she says, that defendants are able to turn to the legal system when something goes awry. And that legal system can't protect defendants if it's not allowed to run its course.

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2014/08/deported_too_soon_report_says_federal_immigration_authorities_are_violating_new_york_law.php