Washington, June 20 (UNI) Over 50 people from India are reported to have been incarcerated at a federal prison in Oregon in the US following the Trump administration’s tough 'zero-tolerance' policy against illegal immigration.
The Asia-Pacific American Network of Oregan on Tuesday said that over the last month, 123 immigrants seeking asylum have been detained and transferred to Oregon’s Sheridan federal prison in Yamhill County.
"The majority of the 123 people in the Sheridan prison are South Asian, who speak primarily Hindi and Punjabi, and a few identified as Chinese. These detainees are isolated, have limited access to interpretation, and are at-risk of abuse in their current prison housing arrangement."
The organisation denounced President Donald Trump’s “zero-tolerance” policy that prosecutes and separates families of anyone unauthorised to enter the country, including people leaving their native country as a political refugee to seek asylum protection, as "cruel and inhumane".
It said that the detention involved separating children from parents.
“2,000 kids have been separated from their families, some for 2 months. This is the definition of cruel and unusual,” said Susheela Jayapal, Commissioner-Elect for Multnomah County.
“This policy of family separation needs to end now; and in the meantime, all detainees deserve legal representation and fair treatment, starting with transparency about their children’s whereabouts and humane detention conditions.”
Immigration lawyers told the The Oregonian newspaper that they they had been denied meetings with the Sheridan detainees. The lawyers said they wanted to ensure the immigrants get the due process they are promised by the US Constitution, but US Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel refused them access.
Trump said on Tuesday that he doesn't want to divide families but his hand had been forced by a federal legal code full of loopholes. "As a result of these loopholes, about half a million illegal family units have been released into this country since 2014 at unbelievably great taxpayer expense," he said.
UNI SRJ