美国可以越过移民监狱——走向正义
想象一下在国外寻求安全，而不是被拘留并被迫在一场高风险的法律战中为自己辩护——独自一人。法学教授 César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández 解释了美国的庇护程序如何变成我们今天所知道的，并提出了一个可能导致该国摆脱其迷宫政策的问题：代替投资更多的钢门和铁丝网，如果移民法被注入了支持和正义？
Outside of Philadelphia, there is an old nursing home that peaks out from behind lush trees. Instead of caring for the old, these days, it detains the young. Kids who came to the United States with their parents. Inside its hallways, a little boy named Diego went from diapers to detention. When he was just one year old,Diego's mother, Wendy, decided that life in Honduras was too dangerous for them to stay. Like people from all over the world have done for generations, Diego and Wendy turned to the United States for safety.
在费城郊外， 有一座古老的疗养院，从茂密的树木后面拔地而起。如今，它不再照顾老人，而是拘留年轻人。 随父母来到美国的孩子。 在它的走廊里， 一个名叫迭戈的小男孩从尿布变成了拘留所。在他一岁的时候， 迭戈的母亲温迪认为洪都拉斯的生活 对他们来说太危险了，不能留下来。 就像世界各地的人们世世代代所做的那样， 迭戈和温迪为了安全而转向美国。
If you are in the United States and you are afraid for your life,federal law is clear that you can ask for asylum. It does not matter where you came from or how you got here. Diego and Wendy did just that. Within a few days, they found themselves inside that Pennsylvania immigration prison. Two among half a million people who will be locked up every single year, while the government decides if they will be allowed to stay in the United States.
如果您在美国并且担心自己的生命， 联邦法律明确规定您可以申请庇护。 你来自哪里或如何来到这里并不重要。 迭戈和温蒂就是这么做的。 几天之内， 他们发现自己进入了宾夕法尼亚州的移民监狱。每年将有50 万人被关押，其中有两个人将被 政府决定是否允许他们留在美国。
Instead of a fair match between a prosecutor and a defense attorney, imprisoned migrants usually walk into court alone. It's a high-stakes legal battle that they are forced to fight with their hands tied behind their backs. As the courts deliberate, the days pass. From your community to mine, today, someone is locked upwho has not been accused of any crime. Often, they haven't seen a judge or even a lawyer. And yet, in most immigration prisons that I have visited as a lawyer or a researcher, the steel door is closed shut with the clink of confinement. For the sake of votes, politicians claim people like Diego and Wendy are dangerous, or dishonest. For the sake of profits, private corporations run prisons to house them.
被监禁的移民通常独自走进法庭，而不是检察官和辩护律师之间 的公平竞争。这是一场高风险的法律斗争，他们被迫双手反绑在背后。随着法院的审议，日子一天天过去。从你的社区到我的社区，今天，有人被关押，但没有被指控犯有任何罪行。通常，他们没有见过法官甚至律师。然而，在我作为律师或研究人员访问过的大多数移民监狱中，铁门随着监禁的叮当声而紧闭。为了选票，政客们声称像迭戈和温迪这样的人是危险的，或者是不诚实的。 为了利润， 私人公司经营监狱来安置他们。
It seems unimaginable today, but we haven't always locked up migrants who are waiting for the government to decide their fate.At one time, the United States stood on the verge of abolishing immigration prisons. "This was the sign of an enlightened civilization," the Supreme Court wrote in 1958. We were so close.But politics and profits pushed us in the opposite direction. With the support of Republicans and Democrats, today, we lock up men, we lock up women, and we lock up children.
今天似乎难以想象， 但我们并不总是关押 等待政府决定命运的移民。 有一次， 美国站在废除移民监狱的边缘。 “这是开明文明的标志，” 最高法院在 1958 年写道。 我们是如此接近。 但是政治和利润把我们推向了相反的方向。 在共和党人和民主党人的支持下， 今天，我们关押男人，关押女人，关押儿童。
But in our past, I see hope for the future. We can take clear steps toward abolishing immigration prisons.
但在我们的过去，我看到了对未来的希望。 我们可以采取明确的步骤来废除移民监狱。
Most people think of Ellis Island as the place that welcomed generations of newcomers to the United States. It did that, but it was also an immigration prison with an ironic view of the Statue of Liberty. By the 1950s, the Ellis Island facility needed to be repaired, replaced or discarded. The government of the war hero turned Republican president, Dwight Eisenhower, decided to shut it down. But then, starting in the late 1970s, the United States built the largest immigration prison system in the world.Republicans and Democrats worked together, pointing to the prison's barbed wire to uphold the law to protect you ... from me.When Haitians started arriving in large numbers in the 1970s,Carter turned to detention. In the 1980s, Reagan followed by jailing Cubans and Central Americans. George H. W. Bush turned to the military base at Guantanamo, Cuba, to jail migrants.President Clinton left them there.
大多数人认为埃利斯岛 是欢迎一代又一代新移民来到美国的地方。它做到了， 但它也是一个移民监狱 ，对自由女神像具有讽刺意味。到 1950 年代，埃利斯岛的设施需要维修、 更换或丢弃。 战争英雄的政府变成了共和党总统 德怀特·艾森豪威尔， 决定关闭它。 但随后，从 1970 年代后期开始， 美国建立了世界上最大的移民监狱系统。 共和党人和民主党人一起工作， 指着监狱的铁丝网来维护法律，保护你…… 不受我的伤害。 当海地人在 1970 年代开始大量抵达时， 卡特转向拘留。 在 1980 年代，里根随后监禁了古巴人和中美洲人。 乔治·H·W·布什转向古巴关塔那摩的军事基地， 关押移民。 克林顿总统把他们留在那里。
This isn't a partisan issue. This is a profits issue. To local governments and private businesses, immigration prisons are a financial spigot. The two largest private prison corporations in the United States, CoreCivic and the GEO Group, get about half of their money from the federal government. With that, they hire people in out-of-the-way locations, where decent-paying jobs are hard to come by. Down in South Texas, head north from the border, and eventually, you will catch the sharp stench of onionsfilling the air. The local economy of Raymondville -- that's the county seat of Willacy County -- it runs on produce -- on produce and on prisons. Tucked behind a state jail, the Willacy County Detention Center houses federal immigration prisoners in large canvas tents. A few years ago, this facility shut down, after inmates rebelled. And when that happened, I was not surprised,because back when I used to represent clients there, stories of rape, harassment and abuse were common. Eventually, the county lost a few hundred jobs. Even the Walmart shut down. But then, in the summer of 2018, when the refurbished prison was ramping up to reopen, the county's elected officials celebrated.Why was the county so interested? It owned the prison, and the private company just ran it. Having prisoners on the inside meant that the private company could hire guards, and it could hire nurses, and it meant that the county could pay its bills.
这不是党派问题。 这是一个利润问题。 对于地方政府和私营企业来说， 移民监狱是一个金融龙头。 美国最大的两家私人监狱公司CoreCivic 和 GEO Group 从联邦政府获得了大约一半的资金。 有了这个，他们在偏僻的地方雇用人， 那里很难找到体面的工作。 在德克萨斯州南部，从边境向北行驶， 最终，您会闻 到空气中弥漫着洋葱的刺鼻恶臭。 雷蒙德维尔的地方经济—— 那是威拉西县的县城—— 它依靠农产品—— 农产品和监狱。 威拉西县拘留中心隐藏在州监狱后面， 将联邦移民囚犯安置 在大型帆布帐篷中。 几年前，在囚犯叛乱后，这个设施关闭了。 当那件事发生时，我并不感到惊讶， 因为当我曾经在那里代表客户时， 强奸、骚扰和虐待的故事很常见。 最终，该县失去了数百个工作岗位。 连沃尔玛都关门了。但随后，在 2018 年夏天， 当翻新的监狱加速重新开放时， 该县的民选官员庆祝了这一点。 为什么县城如此感兴趣？ 它拥有监狱，私人公司只是经营它。 里面有囚犯 这意味着私人公司可以雇佣警卫，也可以雇佣护士， 这意味着该县可以支付账单。
With support from Washington down to Willacy County, it's a good time to be in the business of locking up migrants. But we can't forget that these are people who we're talking about, from kids who are too young to be asked their opinions, to adults with longtime ties to the United States.
在从华盛顿到威拉西县的支持下， 现在是从事关押移民业务的好时机。 但我们不能忘记，我们正在谈论的就是这些人， 从年龄太小而无法被征求意见的孩子， 到与美国有着长期联系的成年人。
Diego and Wendy were stuck inside that old nursing home turned prison, waiting for the legal process to slowly grind forward. Just one when he arrived, Diego was three by the time he got out.Eventually, he won his legal case to stay in the United States, but not before 650 nights passed.
迭戈和温蒂被困在那个由养老院变成监狱的老房子里， 等待法律程序慢慢推进。 他到达时只有一岁， 迭戈出来时才三岁。 最终，他赢得了留在美国的法律诉讼， 但不是在 650 晚过去之前。
And yet ... others are not so lucky. Kamyar Samimi ... had a green card and 40 years in the United States, when one day, ICE showed up at his door and took him down to a private prison in suburban Denver. Within 13 days, he was dead. The government never got around to deciding if he should be deported.
然而…… 其他人就没那么幸运了。 Kamyar Samimi ... 拥有绿卡并在美国生活了 40 年， 有一天，ICE 出现在他家门口 ，将他带到丹佛郊区的一所私人监狱。 13天之内， 他就死了。 政府从来没有决定是否应该将他驱逐出境。
In this topsy-turvy world, we feel better when we lock up kids with their mothers, or when people don’t meet the same end as Mr. Samimi. Is this really the best that we can do?
在这个乱七八糟的世界里，当我们把孩子关在他们的母亲身边， 或者当人们的结局与萨米米先生不同时，我们会感觉更好。 这真的是我们能做的最好的吗？
The path to a world that's free of immigration prisons does not begin by pretending that migrants are perfect. It starts with a reality check. Immigration law tells us that migrants are aliens.But we all know that migrants are not aliens. Migrants are just people. And like most people, most of the time, migrants are profoundly ordinary -- ordinary people asked to do the extraordinary: wage your final fight to stay in this country while you are locked up far away from family, your friends -- where lawyers are hard to come by. To fix this and move toward a world without immigration prisons, let's stop paying CoreCivic and the GEO Group to lock up migrants, and let's start paying lawyers to defend them.
通往没有移民监狱的世界的道路 并不是从假装移民是完美的开始。它从现实检查开始。 移民法告诉我们移民是外国人。 但我们都知道移民不是外星人。 移民只是人。 和大多数人一样， 大多数时候，移民是极其普通的—— 普通人被要求做非凡的事： 当你被关在远离家人和朋友的地方——律师所在的地方，为留在这个国家而进行最后的斗争 很难得。为了解决这个问题并走向一个没有移民监狱的世界，让我们停止支付 CoreCivic 和 GEO 集团来关押移民， 让我们开始付钱请律师为他们辩护。
Having a lawyer just means that the courts are more likely to reach a fair and a just conclusion. And when it comes to important legal questions, let's be honest, what's more American that a fight between lawyers?
拥有律师只是意味着法院更有可能 得出公平公正的结论。 当涉及到重要的法律问题时， 老实说， 比律师之间的斗争更美国化的是什么？
And we've done this in the past. The government has run several pilot projects. Every time, support has proven enough to get migrants out of prison, to keep them on top of their court dates and away from trouble. But we've never let these projects grow.Politics and profits have always stamped out the promise of freedom. We can lock up migrants, but we don't have to. Instead of hoping that barbed wire and steel doors will guide us out of the labyrinth of immigration law, we could invest in justice. We could make sure that every migrant has a fair chance of putting their best legal case forward. Because immigration prisons don't get us out of a problem. Immigration prisons are the problem.
我们过去也这样做过。 政府已经开展了几个试点项目。 每一次，支持都被证明足以让移民出狱， 让他们保持在法庭日期之上，远离麻烦。 但我们从未让这些项目发展壮大。 政治和利润总是扼杀 自由的承诺。 我们可以关押移民， 但我们不必这样做。 我们可以投资于正义，而不是希望铁丝网和钢门 能够引导我们走出移民法的迷宫。 我们可以确保每个移民都有公平的机会提出他们最好的法律案件。因为移民监狱不能让我们摆脱问题。 移民监狱是问题所在。
They blind us to the past, when we did things differently, and they distract us from the moneymaking tentacles that tie our future to the prison gates.
当我们以不同的方式做事时，它们使我们对过去视而不见，它们分散了我们对 将我们的未来与监狱大门联系在一起的赚钱触角的注意力。
Well, the thing is, liberty is too precious for any of us to lose itbecause politicians want votes and private corporations want money.
好吧，问题是， 自由对我们任何人来说都太宝贵了，不能 因为政客想要选票 而私人公司想要钱而失去它。
