Kerry Bretz Immigration Law Blog on Lawyers.com

A few weeks ago, U.S. Immigration and Customs and Enforcement (ICE) announced a plan to terminate its detention operations at the Varick Street Facility by the end of February. The facility, which is at 201 Varick Street, New York, NY, will continue to operate as a processing center.  That facility is said to house about 300 detainees at a time. A recent report in the New York Times said more than 11,000 men pass through this facility each year. These men are mostly longtime residents of New York.  ICE’s plan calls for the transfer of these immigration detainees to the Hudson County Jail in Kearney, New Jersey, where they will be kept separated from local criminal inmates.

ICE officials see the plan as having important benefits. First of all, from a budgetary point of view, ICE officials have calculated that the daily cost of maintaining these detainees will be reduced by more than 50%.  Secondly, this would serve the goal of bringing all immigration detention operations into conformity with national detention standards in that the transfer of the detainees to the Hudson County Jail will provide access to outdoor recreation space and better visitation services not available at the Varick Federal Detention Facility. While cost savings for ICE and quality of detention life are significant issues, I believe this plan will be disadvantageous for New Yorkers housed in New Jersey jails in terms of legal representation and family access.
It has been reported the transferred detainees will continue to have their cases heard at the Immigration Court at 201 Varick Street, New York, NY.  This will be convenient for the detainees' New York families, friends, and attorneys.  However, this means ICE will have the extra expense of transporting the detainees between New Jersey and New York for their court hearings.  This expense, together with van fleet maintenance, will partially offset the cost savings of housing them in New Jersey.  Another issue is ICE’s reliability in producing detainees for Varick Street hearings.  It should be noted that ICE has been transferring detainees from Varick Street to various county jails in New Jersey for years.  For many of these detainees, their immigration court venue remained at 201 Varick Street.  During those years, we and other green card attorneys in New York City have often appeared at that court, only to find that ICE had failed to bring our clients from New Jersey for the hearing.  Whenever this occurs, it is an inconvenience for us, a disappointment for their families, and a waste of resources by ICE. 

Attorneys, relatives, and friends, will have to go to the extra trouble of journeying to New Jersey for visits. This means extra cost in time, money, and inconvenience that otherwise would not be incurred if an immigration detention facility were in New York City. Notwithstanding the “better visitation services” touted by ICE, the distance and cost of traveling to New Jersey raises the possibility that family visits for the detainees may become fewer and farther between.

This article was provided by Mr. Kerry Bretz of Bretz & Coven, located 305 Broadway, Suite 100, New York, NY 10007-1109.  Bretz & Coven is a respectable firm aiding clients with New York City immigration help.