Undocumented Immigrants Rights in the United States

Alessandra Leone
1-13-14
Period 4




About 11.7 million unauthorized immigrants are currently living in the United States.
Unauthorized immigrants might have entered the United States unlawfully, or might have been
admitted on a temporary basis and stayed past the date they were required to leave. The amount
of undocumented immigrants has been steadily increasing since 1990, despite of the policies and
laws enacted to prevent this.

A nation of immigrants is holding another nation of immigrants in bondage, exploiting its labor
while ignoring its suffering, condemning its lawlessness while sealing off a path to living
lawfully. The evidence is all around that something pragmatic and welcoming at the American
core has been eclipsed, or is slipping away. This is not about forcing people to go home and
come back the right way legal paths are clogged or do not exist. Some backlogs are so long
that they are measured in decades or generations. (The Great Immigration Panic)

Many immigrants are lured into the United States with the promise of the American Dream
with a higher life than they are used to living. Several of these immigrants come over the
southern border, from Mexico. These people come to the United States to earn money to support
their families, which they cant do in Mexico. About 52% of the unauthorized immigrants in
2012 were Mexicans. People usually have to wait years trying to come to the United States
legally, due to the long backlogs. This might be one of the factors that influence the rising rates
of immigrants entering the United States illegally. Undocumented immigrants are being violated
of their human rights, by being denied the rights of workers, families, and legal representation.
In industries ranging from construction and food manufacturing to transportation and
janitorial services, unscrupulous employers exploit undocumented immigrants. The most
common violations reported were being given inadequate food or sleep, being forbidden to leave
the workplace, and being threatened by their employers with deportation. The most common
labor abuses reported were being denied pay or receiving less pay than promised, and being
given different work than promised. In some cases, their human rights are not respected by
their bosses, who make them work more than 80 hours a week and pay them less than minimum
wage, Hernandez writes, because they know these immigrants fear deportation and would not
contact authorities." (Illegal Immigration) few actual cases are brought to their attention
because undocumented victims dont come forwardTheyre very fearful of law enforcement
because theyre seen as criminals, de los Rios said. And because of that hostile environment,
they choose not to report these crimes. (Replogle) illegal immigrants are far less likely to
know their rights, far less likely to report crimes against them, and far less able to recover from
being victimized. (Illegal Immigration) In 2008, a group of researchers conducted a survey of
4,387 workers in low-wage industries, 1,711that were illegal immigrants, in three of the United
States largest cities. They found that 26% of the workers were paid below the minimum wage,
and that of those who worked overtime, 76% were not paid the legally required overtime rate by
their employers. 44% of the workers had pay violations in the past 12 months before the survey.
58% of the workers had meal break violations in the past week. Many U.S employers use the
illegal immigration labor to take advantage of the fact that they wont go to the authorities in fear
of being deported. These employers do no respect the immigrants human rights because they
know that the undocumented workers will be far less likely to know their rights and far less
likely to report crimes against them. For example, 51% of the workers in the survey said that
they did not make a complaint to the employer because they were afraid of losing their job,
which indicates that the majority of the workers feared retaliation from their employers. Of the
workers who did complain, 62% experienced retaliation through less pay or worse assignments.
47% of the workers said that their employers threatened to fire them or to call immigration
authorities. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states,
Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions
of work and to protection against unemployment. Everyone, without any discrimination, has the
right to equal pay for equal work. Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable
remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and
supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection. Everyone has the right to rest
and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.
This treatment of unscrupulous employers violates the unauthorized immigrants human rights,
because they do not have fair and or good conditions in their workplaces. The employers also
discriminate when giving pay to workers, and as a result immigrants get less pay. Another
human right the employers are violating is giving the worker less than minimum pay, so that as a
result their families dont have enough money to sustain themselves. The unauthorized
immigrants are being taken advantage of and their human rights are being violated by
unscrupulous employers who threaten to deport their workers if the workers report him to
authorities.
Many unauthorized immigrant parents have U.S born children, and when the parents are
deported back to their countries, the families are separated, many never to see each other again.
On average, 17 children are placed in state care each day as a result of the detention and removal
of immigrant parents, according to ICE. Among children of unauthorized immigrants, an
estimated 4.5 million are U.S.-born; 1 million are
foreign-born and therefore unauthorized. The
number of U.S born children has more than doubled
from 2.1 million in 2000. Families live in constant
fear of deportation, and the children are constantly
worrying their parents will be taken and often feel
angry, helpless, and trapped. Some kids are fortunate
enough to have other family to stay with, while
others get lost in the child welfare system. In some cases, younger children are transferred to
Father says goodbye to his wife and daughter before boarding a deportation
flight chartered by ICE in 2010.
state custody and put up for adoption, never to see their parents again. America's young citizens
are at risk for long-term emotional trauma due to a flawed immigration system. About 5,100 U.S
children in 22 states have lost parents to deportation, and some 15,000 face a similar threat in the
next five years. In an article by CNN, Dr. Luis H. Zayas, Dean of the School of Social Work at
the University of Texas states, The psychological effects on these children left behind include
depression, possible conduct disorders, and having a constant sense of a diminishing and
ambiguous future. No parent should be put through such an anguishing decision of whether or
not to leave a child behind, but most importantly, how will these kids feel about their
government when they grow up?(Rodriguez and Hauser) By splitting apart families, the
government is causing emotional trauma and possibly also anger and resentment in the citizen
children towards the government under which they live. Not only is this bad for the children and
families, it is bad for the society. In the Declaration of Human Rights it states, The family is the
natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the
State. This is a human right that is being violated because families are being forced to separate
by the government.
Undocumented immigrants are not given legal representation for their civil immigration
violations. They are put in civil detention to ensure that they appear at hearings, and to
guarantee that they will comply with the final decision of the court, which is often deportation.
Many also receive neglect and abuse in these facilities, and are deprived of their liberty for
long periods of time. ICE detains about 400,000 immigrants per year, in at least 300
immigration detention facilities across the country, costing taxpayers approximately $2.55
billion every year. Medical care in detention is inadequate, and more than 110 immigrants
have died while in detention, between 2003 and 2012. These immigrants are forced to separate
from their families and jobs for long periods of time. Among those locked up are elderly,
individuals with serious mental and medical health conditions, and lawful permanent residents
who are facing deportation due to old or minor crimes. ICE also detains many people after
court rulings in their favor, people granted refugee status that dont do proper paperwork, and
people such as individuals with disabilities and unaccompanied minors, for whom detention
conditions can be particularly harsh. In 2007, a bed mandate was formed; requiring ICE to
hold an average of 34,000 individuals in detention on a daily basis, and the quota has been
rising steadily since its establishment. Imagine if Congress mandated that an arbitrary number
of jail cells be filled with prisonersregardless of the crime rate. Authorities would be
required to incarcerate people, no matter the circumstances or the affront to human rights.
Thats basically the state of immigration detention in the U.S. (Bloomberg View) Immigrants
may be placed in custody for months or years with no fixed or clear end to their detention.
46% of the immigrants in the facilities are held for 15 days or more, with about 35 detainees
held for more than 75 days. Physiatrist experts say that at 15 days or more, these detainees are
at risk of severe mental harm. Every
day, about 34,000 immigrants are
being held in detention, waiting for
court hearings that determine
whether they will be deported or
not. Recently, it was found that
roughly 300 immigration detainees
are being held in solitary
confinement. As a civil detention, immigrants are not supposed to be punished, only confined
A cell for recreation at the Pinal County Jail in Florence, Ariz., where
immigrant detainees may get an hour a day to pace.
to ensure that they appear for administrative hearings. ICE is clearly using excessive force,
since these are civil detentions, said Dr. Terry Kupers, a physiatrist who studied solitary
confinement at the Wright Institute, And that makes this a human rights abuse. The United
Nations special rapporteur on torture recommended a ban on solitary confinement for longer
than 15 days, because the sensory deprivement could amount to torture. Undocumented
Immigrants are also not given legal representation at their court hearings.
People who are detained do not typically have lawyers because immigration law, unlike
criminal law, does not provide a right to counsel. Immigrant detainees are allowed to hire
lawyers, but more often than not, they cannot afford counsel or are shuffled through the system
before they have a chance to find help. (Immigration Detainees and the Right)
Unlike the U.Ss criminal court system, defendants in immigration court have no
constitutional right to a court appointed lawyer. Many undocumented immigrants cannot speak
English very well; some not at all, and without legal representation they cant defend
themselves in court. Fear and ignorance; along with language barriers and poverty prevent
detainees from securing the legal counsel they need. The Universal Declaration of rights states,
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile. This quote states that
nobody has the right to put you in prison, to keep you there, or to send you away from your
country unjustly, or without good reason. While the United States has a valid reason in
detaining some immigrants to make sure they are at hearings and to guarantee their
deportation, many are being unnecessarily held under custody, at great cost to taxpayers as
well. Paul Grussendorf, an immigration judge, said he saw many immigrants pass before his
bench, and although dozens were qualified to stay in the country, they were ultimately
deported because they lacked legal representation. (Immigration Detainees and the Right)
These immigrants are being sent away from the country unjustly because of the lack of legal
representation. The power of immigrant authorities to detain people is currently too broad. The
undocumented immigrants human rights are being violated when they are being unjustly put
in prison for a long time.
Undocumented immigrants are being violated of their human rights, by being exploited by
their employees, denied the rights of families, and not given legal representation. Several
immigrants are afraid of reporting or protesting against these violations, because they dont
want to draw attention to themselves, and risk being deported. One human right violation that
is being put into practice by employers is exploiting the unauthorized immigrants labor.
Another violation is being denied the rights of families. Every year, thousands of families
separate due to deportation, some to never see each other again. Lastly, the undocumented
immigrants human rights are being violated when they are put into immigration detention,
with no legal representation. Protecting undocumented immigrants human rights is important
because it ensures that they receive humane, decent treatment. If we ignore their human rights,
we are saying that the undocumented immigrants are less than human and undeserving of
respect.