NYC Sentinel

By Jeremy B. White

At a pro-immigrant rally in East Harlem last Thursday, Jose Tirso described in halting Spanish how a misdemeanor may get him sent back to his native Dominican Republic.

In 2003 Tirso, 53, was serving time in Rikers Island for marijuana possession when he was told he had a “visitor” waiting to see him in the jail’s gym. But instead of his family, Tirso found Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents.

Tirso, a frail man shielded from the chill wind by a light brown sweatshirt, fought back tears as he spoke of being held for nearly a week past his release date and of not being provided medication for a heart condition. He is still fighting deportation proceedings initiated when ICE agents interviewed him.

Tirso is one of the more than 13,000 foreign born inmates at Rikers who have been swept up in immigration dragnets over the past five years. The issue of federal immigration agents targeting foreign-born inmates at Rikers has become a top priority for immigrant advocacy groups.

These groups are carefully eyeing Dr. Dora Schriro, who replaced Martin Horn as commissioner of the New York City Department of Corrections on Monday, as a potential ally in their battle to bar ICE from city jails.

At the heart of this issue is the overlap between New York City jails, whose inmates face criminal convictions, and ICE, a federal agency that detains who may be deported. Schriro has overseen systems that detain immigrants as well as prisons that house convicted criminals.

Schriro began her career as the Assistant Commissioner at the City Department of Corrections under former mayor Ed Koch, and later oversaw the state detention systems for Missouri and for Arizona. Her work in Arizona earned her an “Innovations in American Government” award.

She also advised Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano on detention and removal, and directed for a short time ICE’s office of Detention Policy and Planning, an agency created in August to help overhaul the sprawling immigrant detention system.

“I’m cautiously optimistic about what Ms. Schriro can accomplish,” said Michelle Fei. director of the Immigrant Defense Fund.  “My understanding is that she does have a great background on immigration and how that interacts with the criminal justice system.”

Schriro has said that she resigned her post with ICE and moved to New York to be closer to family. She is not yet accepting calls from reporters, according to DOC spokesperson Steve Morello.

Caroline Isaacs, director of the Arizona branch of the pro-immigrant American Friends Service Committee, said that Schriro developed a reputation as a pragmatist during her time in Arizona. Isaacs described Schriro as “polished,” someone who “likes to look at the research of what’s going to be efficient and cost effective.”

Schriro, Isaacs said, was fairly progressive compared to her predecessor, Terry Stewart. She encouraged “sensible reform and humane treatment” and allowed advocacy groups an unprecedented level of access to Arizona prisons. But Schriro was an often inscrutable figure whose decisions could be difficult to predict, Issacs said.

“She played everything close to the chest and wouldn’t necessarily implement the reforms we were pushing for,” Isaacs said.

Isaacs cautioned against predicting too much based on Schriro’s tenure in Arizona, noting that “what’s progressive in a state like Arizona is going to be so foreign to people in New York.” Riker’s Island contains 10 separate jails, with three other facilities in the greater city; in Arizona, Schriro was responsible for 10 prison complexes and an array of private institutions that contracted with the state.

New York immigration advocacy groups are especially critical of the Criminal Alien Program, a program that gives ICE access to DOC records listing place of birth for people incarcerated in New York City prisons.

Here’s how it works: after ICE finds that an inmate was born somewhere other than the United States and could therefore be subject to deportation, it dispatches agents to interview that inmate.

Although these interviews are voluntary, immigrant advocates say that most inmates are unaware of this and may unwittingly give information leading to their detention. Inmates – including some who are U.S. citizens – can be transferred to remote facilities in Texas and Louisiana, sometimes without having yet been convicted of a crime.

“People at Rikers who are arrested for minor charges, people who are wrongfully arrested, people who have served their convictions – all of those get wrapped up into the Criminal Alien Program and then as soon as they enter into Rikers are sent down this road to deportation,” said Fei.

Fei said that, in interviews, inmates have described ICE agents using coercive methods such as threatening to detain their families if they did not cooperate. A recent agreement between advocacy groups and Horn has committed DOC to provide inmates with more information about their rights related to ICE, and Fei said advocates would be looking to Schriro to ensure that she upholds these reforms.

Todd Clear, a professor at CUNY’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said that Schriro will have the power to do “a wide variety of things”, including controlling how undocumented immigrants are transferred from New York jails to the immigration detention system and determining their access to outside resources.

“As long as they are in New York state custody,” Clear said, “she has very substantial discretion about what kinds of programs she can provide them.”