Due process concerns

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NICK EICHER, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: “Alligator Alcatraz.”

As the Trump administration puts into use state-run detention centers for those about to be deported, are the rights of the detainees being respected? And what exactly are those rights?

WORLD’s Josh Schumacher reports.

JOSH SCHUMACHER: Gonzalo Almanza is a lawful permanent resident of the United States.

VALDEZ: His parents won a lottery in Cuba, so they came here April, 1 of 2000. Gonzalo was six years old.

That’s Aschly Valdez. She’s Almanza’s longtime girlfriend and the mother of his child.

VALDEZ: his card is still active. He is, and he was in the process of renewal. He was within time frame.

But in July, Almanza became an inmate at Alligator Alcatraz, a detention facility in Florida’s Everglades region. Like California’s infamous Alcatraz prison in San Francisco, the Florida facility is billed as a place impossible to escape from. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis:

DESANTIS: And one of the reasons why this was a sensible spot is because you have this runway that's right here. you go a couple thousand feet and they can be on a plane and out of here.

Gov. DeSantis has said every single inmate at the facility has deportation orders. But Almanza doesn’t fit that bill.

Almanza does have criminal convictions for theft and racketeering. And those convictions could make him eligible for deportation, but not without going through a certain process.

Anna Weiser is Alamanza’s lawyer.

WEISER: Yes, he could be placed in removal proceedings, but he has to be given proper notice, right? The judge has to oversee his case. He has a right to at least a bond hearing.

But none of those things have happened.

WEISER: We're yet to receive any type of charging document, right? …The government hasn’t provided any type of reason why he’s being held.

So far, Weiser hasn’t even been able to meet with Almanza. She went to Alligator Alcatraz and was turned away after being told she couldn’t meet with her client. She has been able to speak with him on the phone, but only on a recorded phone line. As such, they haven’t been able to talk case strategy.

Almanza’s case embodies a larger set of concerns about Alligator Alcatraz and other facilities like it.

Jennie Murray is President and CEO of the National Immigration Forum. She says the government is not uniformly following due process.

MURRAY: We know it's not across the board, being observed. We do know that, because we are we do have people saying, My client was removed. I was on their case, and I would have been notified if they were, if it had been adjudicated.

But Murray says it’s hard to tell how often that’s happening because information about Alligator Alcatraz has been scant.

MURRAY: We know anecdotally that it's happening, but being able to exhaustively answer, you know, how many people are not getting access to due process and all of those things, it's very hard for our community right now because we don't have the same access as we would have in previous administrations.

In a recent press briefing, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis explained that hundreds of illegal immigrants have been on flights out of his state, and out of the country.

I asked the Department of Homeland Security whether all those people had orders of removal issued by an immigration judge. In response, Deputy Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said, “Fire up the deportation planes!”

According to the law, many illegal immigrants are automatically deportable: if a judge or other immigration authority issues deportation orders, or if they illegally crossed into the United States in the past two years. Hans von Spakovsky is a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation.

VON SPAKOVSKY: If you're an alien who illegally entered the United States and have no right to be in the United States, you shouldn't be surprised if you are then removed from the United States.

Not all illegal immigrants are automatically deportable, though. People who overstay their visas and legal immigrants who commit crimes are typically entitled to a hearing before an immigration judge before they are deported. That includes immigrants like Gonzalo Almanza.

Murray with the National Immigration Forum does acknowledge that the government has broad authority to deport illegal immigrants, especially in light of recent executive orders. But she says deportations also need to be done in a manner that follows the rules.

MURRAY:To live in a country that is, you know, that is lawful and and that we know every individual is protected sort of under the under the rule of law, we are nervous to see any erosion of due process as the administration really seeks to expand expedited removal.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Josh Schumacher.

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