Known as the Intensive Supervision Appearance Program, the initiative has its supporters like Kreuzhagen and immigration lawyers who say it's better than the alternative: long-term detention for their clients.
But many immigration lawyers also find the program to be intrusive, burdensome and humiliating for immigrants, some of whom are seeking asylum from oppressive conditions abroad. Critics contend the program treats many non-threatening immigrants like criminals.
Critics question why some law-abiding immigrants who had been allowed to live and work freely as long as they checked in with immigration officials were told suddenly that they had to wear bracelets.
Through the new program being tested in eight cities--Baltimore, Kansas City, San Francisco, Miami, Philadelphia, St. Paul, Denver and Portland, Ore.--U.S. immigration officials hope to come to grips with the long-dysfunctional immigration system so successfully exploited by the Sept. 11 terrorists, some of whom overstayed their visas with impunity.
No comments:
Post a Comment