This morning my mother had her initial hearing about her deportation situation.
Today’s process, as I wrote about earlier, is whether or not she goes to jail until the final deportation hearing, which as I found out today, won’t be until this fall some time.
But thats just the icing on the cake.
At 9am she had this initial “hearing” with a DHS Officer at the Philadelphia International Airport (PHL).
This officer, apparently agreed, off the record, that this situation is absurd, and that theres no reason for this to be happening, but… policy and procedure have to be followed.
The “case” was transfered to a higher ranking DHS Officer, in the DHS/INS building at 1600 Callowhill Drive, here in Philadelphia. My mother was allowed to hold on to her cell phone, some writing pads and paper, food, and drink, and a book, and at some point this afternoon is being moved to this DHS/INS building in town.
It is at that point that a decision will be made about how she’s going to live the next few months of her life.
Best case scenario: The DHS Officer this afternoon releases her and says “Just show up at the hearing in the fall”.
Worst case scenario: The DHS Officer reads the law literally, and sends her to a DHS/INS Detention center until the time of her hearing, some time this fall… With no possibility of Bail.
Thats right. Short of some legal action that the lawyer we have can mount, she will be held in a DHS/INS Immigration Detention Facility until the time of her deportation hearing. With out possibility of bail. For the next 2-3 months, depending on how long it takes to get her Deportation Hearing in order.
I’m currently in a high tension zone, sitting at my desk, watching the minutes click by, waiting for my phone to ring.
It will either be my mother, saying that she’s fine.
Or the Lawyer saying that she’s being transported to a detention center somewhere in the area. I’m imagining a huge dormatory structure filled with 58 year old grown up hippies worrying about who’s going to feed their cat that evening…
The law thats involved here, which I have to go and read now, as explained to me by the lawyer, is EXTREMELY flexible, and open to interpretation by the executing agency. Apparently it can be read either as a “Mandatory detention” order for anyone who fits my mothers *sarcasm*EXTENSIVE*/sarcasm* criminal record, or as a set of rules and guide lines to decide IF the person has to be detained.
The law was written to basically allow the DHS/INS agents to come in and pick up anyone they want who isn’t an American citizen if they have any kind of criminal investigation or charges pressed against them, irregardless of double jeopardy or any other rule that protects innocent people against undue arrest or seizure.
My heart is in my throat
I’ll update more as I hear it.
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[...] this year, and for over a year prior, as documented in previous entries about my mother, I had to deal with the United States Govt trying to deport my mother for a crime [...]