USC put into deportation; retaliation by ICE after receiving proof of citizenship

Published 10/22/13 by The Courthouse News Service

  SAN DIEGO (CN) - Immigration officials imprisoned a U.S. citizen for seven months and when she sued for the abuse tried to revoke her citizenship in retaliation, the woman claims in court.
     Sharon Arlanza Yost sued the United States in Federal Court.
     Yost, 33, claims she "automatically acquired U.S. citizenship on April 28, 1993," through her mother, a Filipina who became a U.S. citizen in 1989 after marrying a native-born U.S. citizen, a member of the U.S. Navy who was stationed in the Philippines.
     She claims Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested her on May 14, 2011, and imprisoned her until Dec. 7 that year, "based on their purported, but baseless, belief that plaintiff was a noncitizen subject to deportation from the United States."
     Yost claims she showed ICE agents "documentary evidence" that she is a U.S. citizen: that she had been was lawfully admitted as a permanent resident when she was 11 years and naturalized when she turned 13. But ICE "imprisoned her for almost seven months" anyway.
     While she sat in prison, Yost claims, ICE failed to investigate her claims to citizenship in violation of its own guidelines that require it to conduct an "immediate and careful investigation and analysis" of such claims.
     Nine days after ICE released her, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services "issued a Certificate of Citizenship confirming that Ms. Yost had acquired U.S. citizenship on April 28, 1993 - more than 18 years before she was arrested and detained by ICE," the complaint states.
     Yost hired an attorney and sought compensation under the Federal Tort Claims Act for her 208 days of unjust incarceration.
     Then ICE retaliated, she says: "Following the filing of that administrative complaint, DHS officers re-reviewed Ms. Yost's citizenship status and issued a notice of intent for administrative cancellation of citizenship under 8 U.S.C. § 1453. Presumably, as there is no other reasoned explanation and no valid legal basis for the notice, DHS issued this notice in response to, and in retaliation for, Ms. Yost's filing of a complaint under the FTCA [Federal Tort Claims Act]. That process is ongoing and is not at in issue in this action. However, even if DHS were to cancel Ms. Yost's citizenship certificate, such cancellation 'affect[s] only the document and not the citizenship status of the person in whose name the documents was issued,'" the complaint states, citing 8 U.S.C. § 1453.
     Yost seeks damages for negligence, false imprisonment, and negligent and intentional infliction of emotional distress. She also wants a trial by judge and the "right to conform the pleadings to the proof and evidence presented at trial."
     She is represented by Trina Realmuto with the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild of Boston.
     The ICE Office of Public Affairs responded to a request for comment with what appeared to be a form letter that did not directly address any of the allegations in Yost's lawsuit. 

Immigration Reform and the Federal Prison Population

Immigration Reform and the Federal Prison Population

 

Last night (October 21) I attended a dinner for the Federal Bar Association, and the keynote speaker was US District Judge Tom Schroeder of Winston-Salem.  His main point was that we are on an unsustainable path regarding incarceration rates, and the statistics he gave were sobering, to say the least.  Among them:

 

About ½ of all federal inmates today are Hispanic

4 out of 5 of the Hispanic inmates are there due to non-drug related crimes

Most of those 80% are prosecuted for re-entry violations

It costs some $29,000 per year to house an inmate in federal custody

Federal correction expenses represent the second fastest growing part of the federal budget.

 

He also had a lot of other statistics about unwed mothers and fatherless children, but what struck me was the fact that, if immigration reform is passed, we could quickly erase 40% of the federal Hispanic jail population.

 

It is folly to make it a crime to re-enter the US in order to work and support a person’s family.  That is why the vast majority of the undocumented population is in the US:  working, saving some money, paying taxes, staying out of trouble, and raising their families.   In 1942 Congress recognized that it was vital to US national security to create a visa program (the Bracero Program) to allow essential Mexican workers to enter the US and staff our agricultural industry, our manufacturing industries and other industries that required manual labor.  US-born workers were overseas, fighting in World War II.   The economy, and the war effort, would have crashed without those essential workers.  The Bracero program lasted some 22 years, until Congress revamped the entire immigration system in 1965; unfortunately Congress left out a visa for those workers.

 

Fast forward to today:  it is vital to US national security to create a visa program (the RPI and W visa, as contained in S. 744) to allow undocumented workers to remain here, and for future essential workers to enter the US, so that they can staff our agricultural industry, our manufacturing industries and other industries that require manual labor. 

 

The difference between now and 1942 is that the threat to US security (and world security) was much more visible – the Axis powers.   But it is no less real today, where few if any US workers want to take hard yet important jobs on which our economy depends.   Work that is hard and dirty is no less important or honorable than work done in an air conditioned office.    We simply need to recognize that all work is valuable and reform our immigration laws to acknowledge that fact.

 

Gerry Chapman

Drop the quota, get to work, and pass immigration reform NOW!

Drop the quota, get to work, and pass immigration reform NOW!

 

In 2006, Congress imposed a quota on DHS, requiring that it keep an average of 34,000 detention beds filled per day; today the US deports some 400,000 people a year, an all-time high.

 

To meet that quota ICE has deported hundreds of thousands of mothers and fathers who have committed no crimes or only minor ones, ripping families apart and depriving US citizen children of one or both parents.  A recent report from TRAC Reports, Inc., confirms that in 2013, less than 15% of removal cases brought by ICE have been based on criminal activity.   This reflects a decrease from nearly 30% in 1992.   The figure has been decreasing steadily, and simply reinforces what most people admit:  the great majority of the undocumented population comes to the US to work, save and send money home.   In addition, a great majority of those in custody for criminal violations have broken one law: the one prohibiting illegal entries -- hardly dangerous criminals.   Even so, those who cross without permission now make up over 50% of all deportation cases. 

 

For decades our economy has welcomed manual laborers, while our immigration system has tried to shut them out.   For years various reforms have been introduced in Congress, only to die a slow death due to arguments for increased enforcement first.  Today we have more boots on the ground, more drones in the air, and more deportations than ever before.   Recently we also have seen an uptick in illegal entries, because the economy is starting to pick up again.  More enforcement has not worked; it only has cost us more money.   The winners are companies like Correction Corporation of America who have earned millions a year because the government has outsourced the prison business. 

 

It is time for Congress to reform our immigration laws.   We need a temporary work visa for manual laborers who perform the jobs that US workers either will not or cannot do.  If Congress will create such a visa, then workers who want to enter legally can do so, and the Border Patrol can use its resources to intercept people who want to harm us or engage in the illegal drug or gun trade.

 

We also need to face reality and create legal status for the current undocumented population.   Opponents of reform have said they will debate reform only if it is broken up into bite sized chunks, and not in the form of S. 744 (the comprehensive bill passed by the Senate this summer).  If this is how the House wants to do it, then so be it, but both sides need to stop bickering, get realistic and start working on a practical solution.   For heaven’s sake, do something!  

 

The current system is a disaster; families are hurting, communities are hurting, businesses (other than CCA) are hurting.   All members of Congress can find common ground in legislation that has been introduced in both houses of Congress.   With a good faith effort in Congress, all of us will win.

 

Gerry Chapman