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ICE’s “Mind-Blowing” Barriers To Posting Bond Keep Immigrants Locked Inside Coronavirus Hot Spots
By
Matt Katz
Published Apr 24, 2020
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Josh Denmark/DHS
By
Matt Katz
Published Apr 24, 2020
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Coronavirus is tearing through local immigration detention centers, infecting dozens, but some detainees who are winning release on bond and hoping to isolate at home are having trouble getting out of jail. The reason: The only Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in New York City for their families to make bond payments is closed due to coronavirus.
That means immigrants are stuck in ICE detention, often in county jails in New Jersey, while their families travel to Newark or Hartford, where ICE offices are only sporadically open, advocates say. Some relatives of detained immigrants had to make contact with advocates as far away as Minnesota and Texas to file bond payments on their behalf at open ICE offices.
New York City Immigration Affairs Commissioner Bitta Mostofi wants ICE to allow families to post bond payments online or by phone. ICE already offers an online payment service, she said, but only for for-profit bail bondsmen.
“Due to the virtually insurmountable challenges currently faced by those posting bond, I urge you to reconsider existing policies, grant broader access to the online eBonds portal, and institute alternate methods of payment that do not necessitate in-person transactions,” Mostofi wrote in a letter to ICE officials on Wednesday.
The fact that the pandemic is spreading through detention centers—more than 100 ICE detainees have been infected at the six New York and New Jersey facilities—makes her request urgent, Mostofi said in an interview. “It’s really actually mind-blowing that this wouldn’t be something that they would move swiftly to try and address,” she said.
Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez raised the issue in a letter to ICE earlier this month, noting that bond payments are required to be made with a cashier’s check issued by a bank, which is difficult to obtain given the lockdown.
A spokesperson for ICE responded to questions with a link to contact information for a for-profit immigration bond services company.
Since incarcerated people are so uniquely susceptible to the virus because of the inability to socially distance behind bars, hundreds of detainees have been released in recent weeks, either through parole issued by ICE or federal court order. At three ICE facilities in New Jersey, the detainee population has gone down about 20 percent since the start of the pandemic.
Bond, which is set by immigration judges, is another way that advocates hope to lower the imprisoned immigrant population, enable social distancing, and save lives. Since the beginning of the pandemic, 38 detainees have been released through $441,000 in bonds paid for by the nonprofit New York Immigrant Freedom Fund, according to Lee Wang, the group’s director. Wang said the average immigration bond in 2019 for New York immigrants was $8,000—about twice as much as it would be for those charged criminally.
ICE detainees are not locked up on criminal charges; they are generally held to ensure they show up for hearings on civil immigration violations.
“What’s really outrageous is immigration bonds have continued to be so high during this public health crisis,” Wang said. “And there’s no way that immigrant families strapped for money for food and rent can pay this much to get people out.”
That’s where the fund comes in. It relies on small donations to make the bond payments. But when families show up to post bond, they end up “driving from state to state to state to literally find an open ICE office that would accept their money,” Wang said. “ICE is essentially asking families to violate all the guidance about staying at home, not traveling, in order to submit payments to get their loved ones out.”
Some detainees end up waiting for days in jail for bond to be posted. “People are really really desperate to get their loved ones out because it’s a matter of life and death,” she said.
WNYC’s Melanie Marich contributed to this report.
Matt Katz reports on air at WNYC about immigration, refugees, hate, and national security. You can follow him on Twitter at @mattkatz00.
Tagged
COVID-19
coronavirus
ICE
immigration
Matt Katz
Matt Katz is a former WNYC & Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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