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INS Coverage
Detained immigrants at an INS
facility in San Pedro, California face
deportation to home countries they
left as young children. Those pictured
are from the countries of Vietnam,
Laos and Cambodia, all places that
lack sufficient diplomatic relations
with the United States and as a result
do not accept the return of INS detainees.
The INS cannot deport them and
won’t release them. So they remain in
detention indefinitely. Hence their
name, indefinite detainees or “lifers.”
—S.R.
Farhana, a young Pakistani Muslim
woman, came to the United States
in September 2000 fearing for her life.
Because her family believed that she
had shamed them, they beat her, confined
her, and threatened her with
“honor killing.” Determined to flee
Pakistan but with no hope of obtaining
proper identification and travel
documents on her own, Farhana
turned to unscrupulous smugglers who
provided her with false documents
and an airline ticket to the United
States and advised her to file a false
application for asylum upon her arrival.
When she attempted to enter the
country using the false documents,
the INS detained her.
Following the smugglers’ instructions,
Farhana made a false application
for asylum in the immigration
court. But before the judge ruled on her case, she recanted the false claim and made a new application for asylum in the court based on her true
circumstances. In September 2001, following a prolonged and complicated asylum hearing, the immigration judge denied Farhana’s asylum
application, finding that she was disqualified from asylum due to her earlier false application. Nonetheless, the judge was convinced that Farhana
would be persecuted if she were returned to Pakistan and granted her application for withholding of removal.
At this point, the INS continued to detain Farhana at the Wicomico County Detention Center in Maryland. The events of September 11 further
complicated her custody situation: Shortly after the attacks the FBI questioned her several times at length, and the INS chose to appeal the judge’s ruling.
Finally this spring, after more than 18 months in detention, the Board of Immigration Appeals upheld the INS’s appeal of the judge’s grant of withholding
of removal, dismissed an appeal of the judge’s denial of asylum, and ordered Farhana deported to Pakistan. She was deported in June 2002. A Pakistani
interpreter who assisted her lawyer on the case recently expressed that he does not expect Farhana to live more than six months after returning there.
—S.R.
Photos by Steven Rubin.
22 Nieman Reports / Winter 2002