Earlier today, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) published a remarkable report that presents medical documentation of former detainees' claims that they endured torture at the hands of US personnel in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantánamo Bay.
The landmark report, Broken Laws, Broken Lives: Medical Evidence of Torture by US Personnel and Its Impact, is a searing indictment of the US government's role in the torture of these eleven men. PHR's work is already receiving significant media coverage, including a feature story by the Associated Press. As stated in the preface to the report by Maj. General Antonio Taguba, who led the US Army investigation into the Abu Ghraib scandal:
[T]here is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes. The only question is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account.
Although high-ranking administration officials have previously tried to downplay the abusive conditions in US detainment facilities, and argued that cases of mistreatment were anomalies, the results of PHR's work clearly discredits such claims.
Farnoosh Hashemian, MPH, PHR Research Associate and lead author of the report said:
These poignant case studies focus on the profound and lasting consequences of cruelty inflicted by US personnel. The detainees suffer permanent hearing loss, persistent and debilitating pain in limbs and joints, major depressive disorder, severe post-traumatic stress disorder, and anxiety disorders, such as panic attacks.
PHR calls on the US government to fully investigate and hold accountable those who participated in sanctioning a policy of torture; to publicly apologize to the men abused in their custody; and to provide remedies to survivors, including medical and psychological treatment.
Thank you for your generous support, which makes PHR's critical work possible.
To download the full report and take action, please visit http://brokenlives.info.
http://hrw.org/reports/2007/us0707/
US: Mandatory Deportation Laws Harm American Families
Legal Residents Often Deported for Minor Crimes
(Washington, DC, July 18, 2007) – The mandatory deportation of legal immigrants convicted of a crime, even a minor one, has separated an estimated 1.6 million children and adults, including US citizens and lawful permanent residents, from their non-citizen family members, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.
" How do you explain to a child that her father has been sent thousands of miles away and can never come home simply because he forged a check? "
Alison Parker, senior researcher with the US Program at Human Rights Watch
Contribute
Also Available in
arabic portuguese russian spanish
Related Material
Forced Apart: Families Separated and Immigrants Harmed by United States Deportation Policy
Report, July 18, 2007
Human Rights Watch Amicus Curiae Brief for the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights
Amicus Briefs, July 18, 2007
Forced Apart Audio Commentary
Audio Clip, July 18, 2007
Free Email Newsletter
US immigration officials have deported 672,593 immigrants because of criminal convictions since 1997, after Congress passed legislation making deportation a mandatory penalty for a long list of crimes, including minor, non-violent offenses committed years before the laws went into effect. Many of those deported arrived in the US as children and were lawful permanent residents who had lived legally in the country for decades.
“The laws are not only cruel in their rigidity, they are senseless,” said Alison Parker, senior researcher for Human Rights Watch’s US Program and author of the report. “How do you explain to a child that her father has been sent thousands of miles away and can never come home simply because he forged a check?”
Prior to 1997, immigrants who committed a crime were permitted to go before an immigration judge, who could exercise his or her discretion in imposing penalties. However, the legislation Congress passed in 1996 precluded immigration judges from considering whether deportation would be excessively harsh in light of the immigrants’ family relationships, community ties, US military service records, or the possibility of persecution if returned to their country of origin. The deportation takes place after the non-citizen has completed the terms of the sentence imposed for the crime.
The 88-page report, “Forced Apart: Families Separated and Immigrants Harmed by US Deportation Policy,” is the first comprehensive assessment of the deportation of non-citizens with criminal convictions and the impact on families and communities in the US. The deportation cases documented in the report include:
• A 52-year-old man who lived in the US as a lawful permanent resident for 40 years, served in the US military, has four US citizen sons, and was convicted of possession and sale of small amounts of drugs;
• A father of three US citizen children convicted of breaking into a car and stealing a $10 bottle of eye drops from a drug store;
• A young man who had lived in the US legally as a refugee from Laos since the age of four.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) data included in the report, 64.6 percent of immigrants deported for crimes in 2005 had been convicted of non-violent offenses, including non-violent theft offenses such as shoplifting; some 20.9 percent were deported for offenses involving violence against people; and 14.7 percent were deported for “other” crimes.
Human Rights Watch used census data on immigrant family size to estimate the number of spouses and children left behind in the US after their spouse or parent had been deported because of a criminal conviction.
Reform of the 1996 laws was not included in the comprehensive immigration legislation Congress considered this year. However, in January 2007, Congressman Jose Serrano introduced a bill (HR 1176), which would allow immigration judges to consider the interests of US citizen children during deportation hearings. The bill would not, however, protect spousal relationships or other links immigrants have to the US, such as longstanding lawful residence or service in the US armed forces.
“Most members of the European Union and other major democracies take family relationships and other links to the country of immigration into account before a final deportation decision is made,” Parker said. “But immigration judges’ hands are tied in the US; there is nothing they can do to protect families or to acknowledge the many contributions non-citizens have made to their communities or the nation.”
Two immigrants deported because of criminal convictions, Wayne Smith and Hugo Armendáriz, have brought a claim against the US government before the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights. Smith and Armendáriz, both of whom have wives and children in the US, lived in the country as lawful permanent residents for 25 and 28 years respectively, before their deportations for drug offenses to Trinidad and Mexico.
A hearing in the case, for which Human Rights Watch submitted an amicus curiae brief prepared by the Stanford Immigrants Rights Clinic, will be held this Friday July 20, at the Inter-American Commission in Washington, DC.
http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGAMR510932007
At least 39 individuals who remain missing are believed to have been subjected to enforced disappearance by the US authorities. The wives and children of other detainees in secret CIA custody have also been held in custody and interrogated, either as potential sources of information or to secure the capture of their husband or father.
Based on research by six leading human rights groups - Amnesty International, Cageprisoners, the Center for Constitutional Rights, the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice and NYU School of Law, Human Rights Watch and Reprieve -, the briefing paper Off the Record provides the most comprehensive account of these 39 individuals' apprehension and detention to date, including four missing detainees here identified for the first time.
Related materials
Press release: Leading human rights groups name 39 CIA 'disappeared' detainees
Report: Off the Record - U.S. Responsibility for Enforced Disappearances in the 'war on terror'
Video: Interview with Rabia Khan, the wife of Majid Khan, transferred to Guantánamo from secret CIA custody
Video: Interview with Moazzam Begg, unlawfully detained in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Guantánamo Bay for 3 years
Feature: USA: Government must end all secret detention and guarantee fair trials
The full list includes cases of nationals from countries including Morocco, Libya, Egypt, Pakistan, Kenya and Spain. They were arrested in countries including Pakistan, Iraq, Iran, Somalia and Sudan, and transferred to secret sites run by the US government.
In many cases, the current fate and whereabouts of detainees included on the list are completely unknown. In other cases, some speculative information has emerged in the press or through research and investigation.
In all cases, the US government’s silence has created grave uncertainty. The US government must end the use of secret detention, clarify the fate and whereabouts of all people who have been secretly detained and allow them access to their families and to adequate legal process.
The US has the duty to detain and bring to justice anyone responsible for crimes but it must do so in a manner that respects human rights and the rule of law.