The Criminal Character of the Civil Immigration Law System

By Sean R. Olender, Esq., and Jonathan C. Dunten, Esq.

July 2009

Tens of thousands of immigrants are imprisoned in federal government detention centers across the United States. Arrested by local police officers on “civil” charges, and without any effective means to challenge the reasonableness of their arrests, these individuals are often spirited half way across the country by the federal government to become what are in growing numbers, America’s “disappeared.”