No lawyers beyond this point: immigration authorities bar the door

Progressive, The, May, 2003 by Anne-Marie Cusac

WHEN THE BUSH Administration orders male Muslim immigrants to report for what is called Special Registration, it often interferes with their Sixth Amendment right to counsel. The men have to appear at designated immigration offices for fingerprinting, photographs, and questioning, but their interrogators don't want their lawyers around.

Obstructing the right to counsel is "standard operating procedure" in Tampa, Florida, says Mayra Calo, an immigration attorney there. "They allow the attorney in for the first phase of Special Registration," which involves filling out forms and some basic questioning, says Calo. But if there is a problem with the person's immigration status, the authorities transfer him to a separate area for questioning. "I wouldn't mind if they were going to fingerprint them and book them," says Calo. "But that's not happening. They interrogated my client. I even had one client who was questioned by the FBI back there without me. If you're taking my client to a closet, I want to be in there. Otherwise, why hire an attorney?"

B. John Ovink, another Tampa lawyer, had a similar experience. He accompanied one of his clients to the federal immigration office, and after the authorities found a problem with the man's papers, the trouble began. "They said, 'OK, we'll send him in to investigations, but you can't be there,' "Ovink recalls. "I said, 'What?' They said, 'You can't be there.'"

Ovink says immigration authorities have deprived his clients of access to counsel three times. "Every time I insist on getting access, and every time I'm denied," he says.

John C. Miotki, yet another Tampa attorney, took a Moroccan client in to the local immigration office. When the officials decided there was a problem with his client's status, "I requested to accompany him," says Miotki. But they kept him out. "The pretext given at the time was that it was a secure area and that there was no room for an attorney." Miotki says immigration had never before prevented him from accompanying a client.

This is not a local Tampa story. This is happening all over the country.

In Los Angeles, says Faith Nouri, who heads the Special Registration committee of the L.A. County Bar, denial of the right to counsel occurs "whenever we take clients."

Julie Dinnerstein, an attorney based in New York City, says agents at the district immigration office there have denied her access to her clients "at least a dozen times" since the Special Registration process started. In one case, denial of access to counsel had potentially severe repercussions. "They denied him bond and had him sign a paper waiving aside his right for a bond redetermination hearing, which is a significant legal right," she says. Dinnerstein's client also signed a paper waiving his right to delay his deportation hearing. "Waiving your right to a hearing, that's a huge civil liberties issue," she says.

The Bush Administration's Special Call-in Registration Program requires males over the age of sixteen from twenty-five predominantly Muslim countries to make an appearance at designated immigration offices. The controversial program has led to deportation proceedings for approximately 5,400 of the more than 41,000 who have registered across the country. More than 1,700 have been detained.

Sabena Khan accompanied her husband, Jahangir Ahmed, a Pakistani national, to Special Registration in New York on February 14. They took lawyer Krishna Vempaty with them. But, says Khan, after her husband filled out papers, the immigration authorities transferred him to "the investigations unit" on the tenth floor. The lawyer "went with him to the door, but after that, he wasn't allowed in." Neither was Khan. "I was absolutely nervous and scared beyond belief because it's so arbitrary," she says. "It's totally in their hands at that point. I didn't know if I was going to see him again."

Khan's husband recalls what happened next.

"They said, 'Bring all your paperwork, and we're going upstairs,'" Ahmed says. "'We're not going to let your attorney come, but you bring your papers yourself.'"

After a long wait, says Ahmed, the officials took him into a room filled with computers and desks, where immigration agents sat questioning people. Ahmed says the agent did fingerprints of all five of his fingers, then proceeded to interview him, asking when he had arrived in the United States, when he had gotten married, and where his wife was. Ahmed says the agent also made a point of asking his wife's nationality and race.

Ahmed had to remain in that room for six-and-a-half hours. Khan and Vempaty stayed in the waiting room. Eventually, Ahmed was let go because the couple had brought with them a letter that listed an interview date for his work authorization.

Vempaty confirms that he was denied access to his client and calls the government's action "really not fair."

Johanna Habib, a lawyer with the Arab American Family Support Center in New York, says that she and other lawyers from her organization tried repeatedly to accompany their clients who were being interrogated. "We sort of stopped trying because they just weren't letting people up there," she says.