Legal News

Rights organizations demand DHS transparency on "stipulated removal"

By Richard Binder

Today a coalition of immigrants' rights organizations asked a federal judge to compel the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to disclose information about a program under which it removes non-citizens from the United States without hearings before immigration judges.

The Stanford Law School Immigrants Rights Clinic (IRC), together with the National Immigration Law Center (NILC), the ACLU of Southern California (ACLUSC) and the National Lawyers Guild of San Francisco (NLGSF), filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).    

The program, called "stipulated removal," has resulted in the removal of over 96,000 non-citizens since its inception. Stipulated removal allows the Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security to remove a non-citizen, even one with valid defenses against deportation, as long as the non-citizen signs an order. Advocates have expressed concerns that immigrants signing these orders do not realize they are giving up their rights to challenge their deportation.

Read the full article, which contains a link to the complaint, here.  For more information on stipulated removal, see here, courtesy of ImmigrationProf Blog.

Full post as published by Legal Pad | LA on November 12, 2008 (boomark / email).