A new federal policy of immediately deporting certain illegal immigrants caught near the border fails to protect the basic rights of asylum-seekers, said the chairman of the U.S. bishops' Committee on Migration.

In a statement issued Aug. 11, Coadjutor Bishop Thomas G. Wenski of Orlando, Fla., migration committee chairman, said the U.S. bishops "have consistently opposed the use of expedited removal as a violation of the basic human rights of refugees and asylum-seekers and the norms of international law."

Bishop Wenski said expanding the use of expedited removal could cause more bona fide asylum-seekers to be returned to their home countries, "resulting in further harm to them and possibly to their death."

Asa Hutchinson, U.S. undersecretary for border and transportation security, announced Aug. 10 that his department would begin using its authority known as expedited departure to immediately deport people from more distant countries caught within 100 miles of the U.S. borders with Mexico and Canada. Until now, expedited departure has been used only at formal ports of entry, such as airport checkpoints and official border crossings.

The new policy would not apply to Canadian or Mexican citizens, who generally accept voluntary deportation, Hutchinson said. Nor would it apply to illegal immigrants who have been in the United States longer than 14 days.

Of the one million illegal immigrants caught nationwide since October, more than 57,000 came from countries other than Mexico --- mostly from Central and South America. Of those non-Mexican immigrants, about 3,000 came from 140 countries outside the Western Hemisphere.

Hutchinson said the point of expanding expedited removal is to cut down on both a backlog in processing asylum claims and in the costs of detaining would-be asylees and handling their cases.

Because of limited space to hold them, "approximately 28,000 were given a notice to appear in immigration court," he said, "and of the 28,000 that were given a notice to appear in immigration court over 90 percent failed to show."

In downtown Los Angeles, Claretian Missionary Father Arnold Abelardo, associate pastor at Our Lady Queen of Angels Church (La Placita), decried the new deportation plan saying, "This policy is directly contradicting international law. Basic human rights gives a person the right to be heard."

La Placita, recently declared a sanctuary for all immigrants, runs the "Centro San Juan Diego Del Immigrante," a center that addresses the particular needs of immigrants, both legal and illegal, in the L.A. area.

"Government officials all the way up to President Bush admit there is something wrong with immigration policy. If this is the case there should be a moratorium on deportation. We need to sit down and discuss what is a humane and fair immigration policy," said Father Abelardo.

Bishop Wenski also pointed to the possible human rights violations of the policy. "The policy will not protect the basic rights of victims of persecution," he said. "Many such victims are fearful and traumatized when they enter the United States and are unable to articulate their fear of persecution upon apprehension."

Other people may be unaware of their right to ask for asylum, Bishop Wenski said. "An entrant who might have a valid claim of asylum will not have the opportunity to express their fear and could feel intimidated by the presence of Border Patrol agents."

"This new policy represents a conflict of interest for Border Patrol agents," said Bishop Wenski. "They should not be given the task of an adjudicator, who is trained to ascertain whether an entrant should receive the protection of U.S. asylum law. The training of a law enforcement official and an enforcement agency is to enforce the law, not interpret it."

---CNS