The detention of a pregnant South African woman at a Las Vegas airport has placed renewed attention on what happens when US immigration authorities arrest someone accused of overstaying their authorised period of stay.
According to 8News Now, Nqobile Malangeni was detained on July 31 at the Harry Reid International Airport as she prepared to board a JetBlue flight to Connecticut.
Malangeni lives in Connecticut with her fiancé, a former member of the US armed forces. She travelled to Las Vegas for a vacation to celebrate her birthday on July 27. Footage of her arrest by ICE agents has been shared across US media broadcasters.
In the footage, Malangeni is surrounded by ICE agents who tell the pregnant woman they had a final order of removal against her as she had overstayed her authorised period of stay. Malangeni is being held at the Henderson Detention Center in Nevada.
Malangeni is not the first South African to be detained by ICE agents. In January, ICE agents arrested Jacobus Lodevickus Janse Van Rensburg, who authorities said was in the US illegally.
At the time, Janse Van Rensburg was facing multiple criminal charges, including aggravated assault with a weapon, assault, and driving under the influence (DUI). Officials identified him as an undocumented immigrant at the time of his arrest.
ICE agents took Janse Van Rensburg into custody following his encounters with local law enforcement.
So if you’re thinking of overstaying your welcome in the US, here is what you need to know about the process once detained by ICE agents.
Booking and processing
As per ICE regulations, once detained by agents, an individual has their fingerprints, photographs, and personal belongings taken.
An interference check is then done. This means an individual’s information is run through federal databases to check immigration and criminal history.
Thereafter, ICE deportation agents will interview the individual about their background, entry date, and family ties.
Detention and legal rights
Once an individual has been processed, they may be moved to a local county jail or a federal immigration detention centre.
Individuals in ICE custody do not have to answer questions about their birthplace or citizenship; however, it is important that individuals do not lie or show false documentation. Any individual detained has a right to call a lawyer; the US government does not provide a free public defender for civil immigration cases.
An ICE agent or immigration judge may set a financial bond, which would allow an individual to be released while the case is pending.
Removal proceedings
An individual may be served with a notice to appear. This document outlines why the government believes an individual should be deported, and this document would also provide the first immigration court date.
An individual will either fight their case before an immigration judge, seek relief such as asylum or cancellation of removal, or face a final removal order which would lead to deportation.
The deportation process
According to ICE regulations, by law, the government has a 90-day removal period from the date the removal order becomes final to physically deport the individual.
ICE must secure valid travel papers or emergency passports from the deportee’s home country embassy or consulate.
The home country must formally agree to accept the citizen back. If a country refuses to co-operate or delays the paperwork, ICE cannot hold the individual indefinitely and may have to release them under supervision.
The detained individual can try to halt the process at the last minute by filing a motion to reopen the case or request a stay of removal based on extreme humanitarian circumstances. If no stay is granted, the deportation process will proceed.
ICE agents will escort the individual to a commercial flight or a dedicated charter flight to transport them back to their country of origin.
Who foots the bill for deportation?
According to ICE, the US taxpayer bears the majority of the financial burden for deportation.
Government funding is drawn directly from the federal budget allocated to the Department of Homeland Security. The total expense per person varies depending on how long the individual is detained and their destination country. According to the American Immigration Council, the physical transportation and flight costs alone average billions of dollars annually when executed at scale.
US taxpayers also foot the bill for the daily operational costs of keeping people in custody, which averages hundreds of dollars per day, per bed, across national facilities.
In complex cases involving third-party country agreements, the US government has paid millions of dollars in direct diplomatic aid to specific nations to incentivise them to accept deportees.
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