Days after an advocacy group filed a complaint about two unaccompanied minors from Bangladesh being detained with adult migrants in California, more such cases of Bangladeshi minors are being reported by the US media.
Court documents and complaints filed by advocacy groups suggest that most of these Bangladeshi asylum-seekers were first housed with minors but later moved to adult-only detention centres based on radiographic dental exam—a highly disputed way of estimating age.
According to Vice News, a US-based website, the sweeping action against the group of Bangladeshis raises questions about the Office of Refugee Resettlement’s approach to migrants’ age—a decision that can gravely affect their immigration options.
The website quotes Julie Pasch, a managing attorney at the Deportation Defense Houston, a non-profit providing immigration legal services, saying: “I can't recall in the six years or so that I’ve been practicing immigration law ever seeing such a large group at the same time or such a single focus on one nationality.”
Pasch reportedly said her organisation saw between 20 and 25 Bangladeshi juveniles transferred from the Office for Refugee Resettlement to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which runs adult detention centers, over the course of a few days last October.
All this was done despite the fact that their birth certificates showed them to be minors and the dental tests were inconclusive.
Unaccompanied minors at the border are supposed to go through a different immigration process than adults and have to be kept at a facility for minors or are released to sponsors, who are often family members. They also have different court proceedings and swifter immigration relief.
A complaint filed by South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT), an advocacy group for South Asian immigrants, about the treatment of two minors at the San Diego Detention Centre said: “Even though counsel for both minors stated that they presented abundant evidence showing they are minors, ICE continues to detain them with adults.”
“ICE’s own forensic investigation revealed that the dental record analysis was inconclusive,” it added.
According to the complaint, these minors have been denied parole and bond repeatedly despite evidence demonstrating they are not a danger to the society.
US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) maintains that to determine migrants’ ages, its officers at detention facilities review documents that include biographical information provided by the detainee as well as any biometric information about the individual in Department of Homeland Security systems.
“When there is a question of age, and in accordance with ICE policy, officers seek to authenticate the biographical and biometric information in consultation with the officials at the appropriate foreign embassy,” said ICE spokesperson Lauren Mack in a media statement.
While this focus on Bangladeshi nationals is not clear, the Customs and Border Patrol have stated that 2018 was a record year in terms of the number of Bangladeshis crossing the border without documents.
Most Bangladeshi immigrants were captured trying to cross into Texas from Mexico along the Laredo sector.