Marshallese Deportations Increasing

Marshallese residents of Springdale gather at the federal detention center in Oakdale, La., earlier this year where they were being held for deportation proceedings after being convicted of crimes. Standing: Riem Simon, left, Fred John, Jamie Langrus, James Annam and Dewey Gold. Kneeling: Dennis Jinna. John remains in Oakdale. Simon, Langrus, Annam and Jinna were deported. Gold was released and returned to Springdale.

Marshallese residents of Springdale gather at the federal detention center in Oakdale, La., earlier this year where they were being held for deportation proceedings after being convicted of crimes. Standing: Riem Simon, left, Fred John, Jamie Langrus, James Annam and Dewey Gold. Kneeling: Dennis Jinna. John remains in Oakdale. Simon, Langrus, Annam and Jinna were deported. Gold was released and returned to Springdale.

Sunday, December 2, 2012

— A knock on the door. An arrest. Incarceration hundreds of miles from home where no one speaks your language but fellow inmates.

Marshallese people living in Springdale who have been convicted of a crime face this predicament in increasing numbers, said Carmen Chong Gum, the Marshallese consulate general in Springdale.

By the Numbers

Criminal Aliens Deported

Number of criminal aliens removed from the United States

-2007: 102,024

-2008: 114,415

-2009: 136,343

-2010: 195,772

-2011: 216,698

Source: Homeland Security Immigration and Customs Enforcement Division website

Natives of the Republic of the Marshall Islands live in the United States as resident aliens. Resident aliens can be deported after being convicted of a felony or of a misdemeanor that fits the definition of a crime of moral turpitude. Their first stop in the process is usually the federal prison in Oakdale, La., to await a deportation hearing.

Fred John, 34, is in the prison. His wife, Rosina Jekkar, 30, a 12-year old daughter, and 5 and 6-year-old sons remain in Springdale. Jekkar said through a translator the family would remain in Springdale until John’s status is decided. Jekkar is working to support the family with relatives watching the children when they aren’t in school.

If John is deported, the family will move back to the Marshall Islands to be with him.

“I would like to stay in Springdale,” Jekkar said. “But we will go where ever he goes.”

The families of some other deportees have decided to remain in Springdale, Chong Gum said. The availability of jobs and education for the children can be a deciding factor, she said.

“The deportations separate families,” Chong Gum said. “Once someone is deported, they have to wait for 10 years to apply to come back. The application costs $500, and you don’t get that back.”

The number of Marshallese who have been deported isn’t available from the federal Department of Homeland Security. However, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a division of Homeland Security, has stepped up its effort to deport aliens with criminal records, according to its website. An alien is a person who isn’t a citizen of the country, but is here legally. The deported Marshallese fall into that category.

In 2008, Homeland Security through Immigration Enforcement deported 114,415 across the nation. By 2011, the total grew 89 percent to 216,698, according to the website.

The 2011 total is 55 percent of all the people ICE removed from the United States, according to the website. Other categories include: repeat immigration violators, 20 percent; border removals, 12 percent; immigration fugitives, 5 percent; and all other removals , 9 percent.

ICE tries to identify all aliens in jails and prisons in the United States, according to its website. Deportation proceedings are prioritized using a risk-based approach, based on their perceived threat to the community.

“ICE remains committed to maximizing the removal of those who post the greatest threat to public safety or national security,” reads a statement on the website.

Kathy O’Kelley, Springdale police chief, said the decision to begin deportation proceedings doesn’t come from her department.

“The Enforcement and Removal arm of ICE gets a copy of our booking report every morning,” O’Kelley said. “That is our involvement.” Enforcement and Removal is separate from the ICE 287(g) program in which Springdale participates, O’Kelley said.

ICE can pick people up months or years after an offense, Chong Gum said.

“They come by their home or work and take them away,” she said. “The family doesn’t know where their people are going.”

Almost all go to Louisiana, Chong Gum said. They are incarcerated a long way from their home with no access to someone who speaks their language, she said. If they want a lawyer, they have to hire one themselves. It’s not like criminal court, where a public defender is appointed.

“You can’t find a lawyer who speaks Marshallese,” she said. “You have to have an interpreter, and there is not any there.”

Officials from ICE didn’t respond to questions about interpreters. Marshallese interpreters are difficult to find, said Ernest Cate, Springdale district judge. His court uses the only Marshallese court interpreter in the state, he said. The interpreter has flown to Colorado for a court case there and has been asked to come to Washington state to interpret, he said.

The type of criminal offenses that result in deportation confuse some in the Marshallese community. Gomez Zackious, a Springdale police officer whose father was Marshallese, said he has looked at the records of those who were deported and those who were released in Louisiana.

“I’ve seen people come back who had more serious crimes on their records than those who were deported,” Zackious said.

One man who returned showed several appearances in juvenile court, according to records, but the severity of the crimes and any convictions aren’t available. Typically in the United States, juvenile records are sealed.

An immigration judge decides who leaves and who stays after a hearing.

Riem Simon, a former Springdale resident who was deported, is in the Marshall Islands campaigning for his government to help those under the threat of deportation, according to a report in the Marshall Islands Journal. He was held in Oakdale with other Marshallese men from Springdale.

The Republic of Marshall Islands can’t interfere with the laws of the United States, Chong Gum said, just like the U.S. can’t interfere with Marshallese law. Charles Paul, the Marshall Islands ambassador to the United States, didn’t return phone calls made over several days to his office in Washington.

Simon, in the newspaper story, said drinking alcohol has led to many of the arrests, which he calls minor. However, a check of police records for the men incarcerated with Simon show arrests for aggravated assault, second- and third-degree battery, possession of a controlled substance and endangering the welfare of a minor.

Simon was arrested in Springdale for third-degree battery, public intoxication and felony hot check violations. He was convicted of violation of the Arkansas Hot Check law.

Out of the six Marshallese men who were in Oakdale with Simon, four were deported, one was released and one, John, remains, Chong Gum said. Alcohol was involved in almost all the cases, according to police descriptions of the crimes.

John was convicted of possession of methamphetamine, according to Washington County Circuit Court records. Drugs were found in a car John was driving, said Jekkar, but it wasn’t his car and he didn’t know the drugs were there.

John and another Marshallese man were arrested with drugs found under the other man’s seat, according to police arrest records. Both men were charged with drug possession, since neither claimed possession. John pleaded guilty under a plea-bargain for a lesser sentence, according to court records.

“Our people do not know how serious these crimes are considered in the U.S.,” Chong Gum said. “They need to learn they may be forced to leave the country if they are convicted.”

Those living in the area should be aware of the laws, said Springdale Mayor Doug Sprouse.

“Our residents have to deal with our laws no matter where they are from,” Sprouse said. “If you live in the U.S., you obey the laws of the land.”