ELPASO (TEXAS) NAPA Has Charged That Punjabi detainees in Processing center are Being Treated Like Animals. This is Called a story of Violation Of humanity for which USA is known as a champion of protecting the human rights.
Satnam Singh Chahal executive director of North American Punjabi Association (NAPA) who was here for three days to meet the Indian detainees and U.S.Immigration & Custom Enforcement (I.C.E) authorites in the ELPASO Processing Center to know the issues and concerns of these detainees and to have a meeting with ICE authorities to address their issues and concerns .
In a press release Chahal said that he met with two detainees Sarabjit Singh and Gurpreet Singh and listened their issues and concerns who told that all Punjabi detainees in ELPASO Processing center are being treated like animals. Enough food is not being provided and medical treatment is not being provided to these sick detainees.
After hearing the plight of these Punjabi detainees Chahal said that condition of these Punjabi detainees is very miserable and authorities are leaving no stone unturned to give them unnecessary hard times.. NAPA has sought the intervention of the senior I.C.E. authorities from its Washington Headquarters to stop inhuman attitude of ICE Authorities with these Punjabi Detainees. Chahal said that most all the Punjabi detainees had come through a long and difficult journey e.g. from Punjab to Delhi to Istanbul to Guatemala to Mexico and upon entering the United States, immediately surrendered themselves to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (I.C.E) agency.
Despite that the US Supreme Court’s decision that urge Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to either reject or parole asylum-seekers within 6 months, some of these Punjabi men continued to be detained even after 12-15 months without any indication of being. He was told by detainees that they all had passed their interviews and had established ‘credible fear’ due to their back home government policies. They have all been detained for far longer than the limit. This is not a story of illegal entry into the US Border. This is a story of humanity for which our country is known as a champion of protecting the human rights.
This is a story of those people who do everything correctly, but a system that continues to fail. Many times in America, people think immigration is an issue about others but this is a issue of all those who believe to protect human rights of everybody. We need to fight for a just immigration policy that is kind and sensible.
Chahal further said that the delays in releasing these detainees not only result in inhumane and lengthy detention, but also are extremely costly to taxpayers, who are needlessly made to pay tens of millions of dollars as a result of the government’s failure to provide a timely decision. The federal government spends $119 a day to detain an immigrant.
NAPA also disclosed that they will submit the names of those defense attorneys to concerned Attorney Generals and Bar Associations who had taken lot of money from the relatives of these detainees and doing nothing to take them out even not responding to their phone calls and queries.