Swept Up: The Increase of Collateral Arrests
Observation sketch by Nanci Olsen
The Advocates’ Immigration Court Observation Project draws on the international human rights practice of trial monitoring to identify, bring visibility to, and end systemic human rights violations arising in the context of civil immigration enforcement. Volunteers from this project help bring transparency and accountability to the immigration system by attending trials at the Fort Snelling Immigration Court and documenting issues relating to due process and accountability. These observations help shed light on human rights violations and other abuses that happen in our immigration system.
In the past few weeks, volunteer court observers have raised the alarm
about a worrying increase in collateral arrests. Collateral arrests involve people who are not the intended
targets of ICE agents but were arrested by ICE simply because they were in the wrong place at
the wrong time.
Volunteers have observed testimony about collateral arrests directly from immigrants:
- Multiple people being detained in ICE operations who did not match the name or description of the actual person they were looking for
- A man was arrested at his house when ICE came looking for someone else who didn’t live there and whom the man didn’t know.
- A man who dropped his 6-year-old disabled son at school and was arrested by ICE, who mistook him for someone else
This increase in collateral arrests falls in line with the
recent efforts the Trump Administration has made to attack the rights of
migrants and weaken asylum. These attacks have included stripping away the legal representation of
unaccompanied migrant children, using archaic laws to deport migrants without due process, and attempting to intimidate immigration lawyers.
Protecting these rights remains as important as ever. The Advocates
believe in and fight for immigration systems guided by international human
rights standards and dedicated to the fair and humane treatment of all.
You can learn more about the Immigration Court Observation Project, as well as how to get involved with it, by clicking here. Want to learn more about our work on immigration? Join our Migrant Rights House Party on Thursday, April 24.
