Queens assemblyman visits detainees at Albany County jail

Questions system; sheriff defends handling of situation

Assemblyman David Weprin on Monday visited the Albany County jail, where scores of undocumented immigrants are detained.

Weprin, who chairs the Assembly Committee on Correction, questioned the ongoing detention of immigrants who have demonstrated a “credible fear” and been deemed eligible for asylum, and of others who have asked to be deported.

“We have concerns with the whole process and why these detainees are being held for so long,” the Queens Democrat said at press conference at the Capitol.

The 1,040-bed jail was at capacity in June after taking in 330 detainees, though that number has declined to 250 in recent weeks as many were transferred to the Buffalo Federal Detention Facility in Batavia, where the nearest immigration court is located.

The number of detainees in Albany recently rose to 270, and the jail will accept 50 more detainees from the South, who were displaced by Hurricane Florence on Friday, according to Sheriff Craig Apple.

Apple said that the immigrants are kept in an air-conditioned facility and the county is paid $119 a day to house them. Every detainee has representation, whether through a local legal aid organization or through a privately retained attorney. All are well fed and provided with medical aid, he said.

“We are making the best of a horrible situation and we are restoring dignity to people,” he said. “I don’t think anyone can house them the way we are housing them, to be honest.”

Volunteer attorneys from the Capital Region have offered to represent detainees to ensure a better outcome in their upcoming hearings, but the commute to Batavia has posed challenges.

In Batavia, the detainees appear before a judge and learn whether they will be granted asylum or will be deported. Many come from a detention center on the southern U.S. border, near San Diego, Calif. Many arrive in Albany terrified and disorientated and in poor health.

Some have been charged with illegal entry, even if they came through a legal port of entry. More than a dozen detainees have been separated from their children, according to attorneys who spoke with the Times Union.

Weprin said he met detainees who had been living and working in the United States — including some who owned their own businesses — but had never encountered immigration issues before.