Deportation Risks Among Mentally Disabled

There are reports recently that people with mental disabilities face being locked up wrongfully at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and unjustly deported from the United States because they cannot represent themselves.

One report was presented by Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). It shows how mentally disabled people are unable to speak against deportation, or prove that they are US citizens. Many of them do not understand that they do not have the right to court-appointed lawyers. Some of them cannot even say their names, much less understand what deportation is about.

In 2008, roughly 57,000 people, or 15 percent of those removed from the U.S. had mental problems. People who are detained as illegal aliens do not have the right to a court-appointed lawyer, and there may be no way to check whether they can speak for their own cause to receive a fair deportation hearing.

Many of these people in question cannot afford to hire a lawyer on their own. Many people with mental disabilities are locked up in immigration jails for long periods of time as court officials fail to continue with court proceedings involving detainees who are unable to speak for themselves.

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