INSIDE AMERICA'S GULAG
HOPELESS INS DETAINEES RESORT TO VIOLENCE
The Cuban immigration detainees holding hostages in the hopes of release
from a Louisiana county jail so they can be deported somewhere, anywhere
exemplify shameful history repeating itself. This predictable incident --
and its potential for an ugly ending -- could and should have been prevented
by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service.
Armed with crudely made knives, five INS detainees, now joined by others,
have been holding the warden and two deputies for four days at the St.
Martin Parish jail. Hostage-taking, threats and violent acts by prison
inmates are inexcusable. This tactic is more likely to get them hurt, if not
killed, than lead to any constructive resolution. For the sake of all
involved, we urge the detainees to release the hostages unharmed.
But while their actions are inexcusable, their motivation is understandable.
What behavior should we expect from people denied both justice and hope?
PRISONERS WITH NO HOPE
This was foreshadowed in 1987. Some 2,400 Cuban detainees exploded in the
Atlanta penitentiary and at the Oakdale, La., detention center. They had
arrived during the Mariel boatlift and had served criminal sentences. But
most remained jailed years more. A federal judge ruled that the detainees
had a right to individual release hearings, and a number actually were
freed.
When Cuba agreed to repatriate them in 1987, the Mariel detainees rioted.
Altogether, the inmates held more than 100 hostages for more than a week.
The rampage didn't end until the detainees won a pledge for individual
reviews and the chance for parole. Irresponsibly, the INS and Congress
promptly ignored the lessons of these riots: Prisoners with no hope have
nothing to lose by violence.
Extreme 1996 immigration laws have swamped the INS with growing numbers of
``detainees,'' including those who cannot be deported to homelands that
won't accept them. Yet except for the review program set up only for Mariel
detainees, the INS created no other process to deal with indefinite
imprisonment.
It took a 47-day hunger strike early this year outside the Krome detention
center by parents of Cuban detainees to get the INS to do the just and
logical: to start a review program for all long-term inmates.
Today some 2,400 Cubans -- as well as hundreds of other immigrants from
Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and countries that won't accept repatriated natives
-- are in indefinite INS detention, though all have completed their criminal
sentences. They are America's political prisoners, in our own immigration
gulag. Recognizing the injustice, federal judges have pointedly ordered such
long-term INS detainees released in some areas of the country -- though not
Louisiana or Florida.
The new INS policy dictates that long-term detainees be reviewed every six
months for possible release. But its application varies widely from one INS
district to the next. Stuck in INS prisons and farmed out to county jails in
towns far from relatives and legal help, these detainees have few
opportunities for education or to demonstrate their rehabilitation.
The wonder is there hasn't been more violence. Unjust INS practices breed
increasing detainee desperation. How big a riot do we need before Congress
and the INS recognize that the immigrants' right to due process?
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