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The Guardian: 'Detention Alley': inside the ICE centres in the US south
The Guardian - ‘Detention Alley’: inside the ICE centres in the US south where foreign students and undocumented migrants languish
Oliver Laughland in Jena, Louisiana
Sat 29 Mar 2025 08.00 EDT
Foreign nationals caught up in Trump’s immigration dragnet are transported sometimes thousands of miles away to an isolated network of lockups and courts
Behind the reinforced doors of courtroom number two, at a remote detention centre in central Louisiana, Lu Xianying sat alone before an immigration judge unable to communicate.
Dressed in a blue jumpsuit that drooped from his slight frame, he waited as court staff called three different translation services, unable to find an interpreter proficient in his native Gan Chinese.
Like almost all of the 17 detainees appearing before Judge Kandra Robbins during removal proceedings on Tuesday morning, Lu had no attorney because there is no right to legal representation in US immigration proceedings. He sat silently, evidently confused. A substitute interpreter was eventually found, and began translating the judge’s questions into Mandarin.
“I am afraid to return to China,” he told the court, as he described how he had already filed an asylum application after crossing the border into Texas in March 2024. Lu said he was worried a lawyer had stolen his money and not submitted his asylum claim. Lu, who had only recently been detained, struggled to understand, as the judge asked him to list his country of return should he be deported.
“Right now my order is to be removed?” He asked. “Or should I go to court?”
/snip
Oliver Laughland in Jena, Louisiana
Sat 29 Mar 2025 08.00 EDT
Foreign nationals caught up in Trump’s immigration dragnet are transported sometimes thousands of miles away to an isolated network of lockups and courts
Behind the reinforced doors of courtroom number two, at a remote detention centre in central Louisiana, Lu Xianying sat alone before an immigration judge unable to communicate.
Dressed in a blue jumpsuit that drooped from his slight frame, he waited as court staff called three different translation services, unable to find an interpreter proficient in his native Gan Chinese.
Like almost all of the 17 detainees appearing before Judge Kandra Robbins during removal proceedings on Tuesday morning, Lu had no attorney because there is no right to legal representation in US immigration proceedings. He sat silently, evidently confused. A substitute interpreter was eventually found, and began translating the judge’s questions into Mandarin.
“I am afraid to return to China,” he told the court, as he described how he had already filed an asylum application after crossing the border into Texas in March 2024. Lu said he was worried a lawyer had stolen his money and not submitted his asylum claim. Lu, who had only recently been detained, struggled to understand, as the judge asked him to list his country of return should he be deported.
“Right now my order is to be removed?” He asked. “Or should I go to court?”
/snip
2 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
