Do not show up at INS hearings!

[Ivo Skoric]

*2. CONNECTICUT: NEW DETENTION POLICY

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has begun a pilot
program in Connecticut which involves arresting immigrants as
soon as they are ordered deported, rather than allowing them to
remain free while they appeal the immigration judge's decision to
the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA). Under the program,
officials of the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement
(BICE) detain immigrants in court as soon as the judge issues a
deportation order. Twenty Connecticut residents have been
detained under the pilot program since it began on Aug. 1.

The pilot program is scheduled to run until Sept. 30, after which
DHS will evaluate the results and consider expanding the program
to the rest of the country. DHS officials claim the program will
cut down on the number of people who remain in the country after
being ordered deported, but immigration attorneys say it will
have the opposite effect, encouraging people to skip court
hearings. "It's going to have a chilling effect," said Hartford
attorney Daniel Marcus. [AP 9/16/03; New York Times 9/17/03]