Mass Detentions: Long Day's Journey into Night (Shusterman)
 

Yesterday afternoon, the INS in Los Angeles announced to a group of
relatives waiting to bond out male relatives who had been arrested after
reporting for Special Registration, that those males being held on bonds of
under $5,000 would be released without bond later than afternoon.



The INS has been holding hundreds of men from Muslim countries (Muslims,
Christians and Jews) in detention in a prison in Lancaster.



Throughout yesterday afternoon, their release time was postponed and again
postponed. At 6:00pm, we were informed that the men were being loaded into
buses at Lancaster and transported back to the INS office in downtown Los
Angeles for release.



After numerous calls to the INS, at around 10:00pm, we heard from our
client. He informed us that the INS had released him and his fellow
"inmates" at the bus station

in Lancaster, a rather remote area.



Fortunately, he was able to get a ride back to Los Angeles with another man
who had access to an automobile. He arrived back in Los Angeles after
midnight, told his family that he did not want to talk about what he had
observed while in detention, and as of now (10:00am) is fast asleep.

*********************

Carl Shusterman served as a Trial Attorney for the U.S. Immigration Service
(1976-82) before entering private practice. He heads a four-attorney firm
specializing exclusively in immigration law. He maintains an extensive
website entitled "Immigration: A Practical Guide to Immigrating to the U.S."
containing over 1,000 articles on all phases of immigration law. He is the
author of SHUSTERMAN'S IMMIGRATION UPDATE, a free, monthly e-mail newsletter
on immigration laws and procedures. You can subscribe online at
http://shusterman.com/subscribe.html