Prof. Ana Pottratz Acosta Quoted by MPR News About ICE Detainee Flights

Professor Ana Pottratz Acosta, visiting assistant professor and director of the the Immigration & Human Rights Clinic of the James H. Binger Center for New Americans, was quoted by MPR News about the increasing number of ICE flights with detainees aboard leaving MSP airport. In addition, the secrecy surrounding the ICE flights has made it difficult for immigration attorneys to know where their clients are, and moving people detained by ICE in Minnesota out of state is a relatively new practice. Prof. Pottratz Acosta, said people detained by ICE over the last week are being flown out of Minnesota within 24 to 48 hours of their arrest. She said, “If this process is happening within 24 or 48 hours, that doesn’t leave a whole lot of time to fix any mistakes. If you’re moving people very quickly and [detainees] don’t have a way to contact family members or someone they know to try to get evidence of their status in the country, I’m afraid it’s going to inevitably lead to erroneous deportation of U.S. citizens or people who have a right to be in the United States.” She said the main mechanism to get somebody out of detention is through filing a writ of habeas corpus, a court order that forces law enforcement to produce someone they are holding and justify their continued confinement. She said, “If somebody is transported from Minnesota to Texas or to Louisiana, for example, it kind of gets tricky with filing the habeas because it then becomes a question of jurisdiction.”