This report provides an overview of the impacts of the U.S. asylum system on disabled children and adults; explores legal issues at the intersection of immigration and disability; and offers recommendations for applying existing disability civil rights protections, such as the ADA, to assist disabled asylum-seekers through the process of gaining permanent legal status.
Black Mesa Ai Disabled
An estimated 12 million people24 with disabilities were forcibly displaced25 worldwide in 2020 alone. The actual number is likely even higher, but because data collection instruments tend to ignore disabled status or are not accessible to all disabled people,26 there are no inclusive, reliable data about this particularly vulnerable population.
During conflicts, overstretched and under-resourced humanitarian aid groups are often forced to abandon disabled people in chaotic evacuation operations. For example, during the Syrian civil war, nearby fighting trapped 148 mostly disabled and elderly civilians for days in a nursing home with only five caretakers.35 Eleven people died from gunfire or a lack of medication before relief agencies could reach them.36 As the Russian war against Ukraine continues, smaller organizations such as Fight for Right37 are largely alone in their efforts to support disabled people on the ground, including facilitating evacuations38 for people trapped in their homes.
Many asylum-seekers are forced to take perilous journeys in their search for protection, and those risks are often exacerbated for disabled asylum-seekers. For example, asylum-seekers may rely on the aid of predatory smugglers in order to reach the United States. In 2019, Border Patrol officers rescued41 two physically disabled Honduran men who were thrown into the Rio Grande River by their smugglers.
Even when disabled asylum-seekers can substantiate that they belong to a particular social group due to their disability, they must also prove that the treatment they face amounts to persecution. Despite persecution being central to the definition of a refugee, there is no single definition of persecution in U.S. asylum law.56 Thus, asylum officers, immigration judges, the BIA, and federal courts draw from past decisions, international human rights law, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) when evaluating whether someone has experienced persecution.57
However, the legal threshold78 for substantiating a CAT claim is higher than that for an asylum claim. A claimant must show that they could face torture, which is a more severe harm79 than persecution. Protection under the CAT only allows for withholding or deferral of removal, neither of which provide a pathway to permanent legal status, and leaves open the possibility that the claimant could be ordered to be removed to a third country. As with asylum claims regarding disability, some courts have granted80 CAT protections to disabled asylum-seekers, and others have not.
Asylum-seekers have the right to remain in the United States while their claims are being processed, but they do not117 have the right to be free from immigration detention during that time. This has serious implications for disabled asylum-seekers who may face discriminatory treatment in detention.
To protect their clients from discriminatory treatment, many immigration and disability rights lawyers rely on Section 504118 of the Rehabilitation Act, which covers a majority of immigrant detention centers that are privately owned or operated.119 Section 504 has been used as a basis to support the right to reasonable accommodations in detention, as well as to prevent the placement of disabled people, including children, in solitary confinement120 or higher-security121 detention facilities instead of in integrated settings.
Although the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is mandated to comply with Section 504 and the ADA (depending on the type of detention facility), by creating disability access plans124 for each of its agencies, the implementation of such plans is still a major concern. There is a lack of well-funded, proactive enforcement mechanisms for both the ADA and Section 504, meaning that disabled asylum-seekers experiencing discrimination and ableism must undertake costly litigation to access accommodations and legal protections.
One investigation125 by Disability Rights California into the Otay Mesa Detention Center found that ICE lacked protocols for disabled asylum-seekers and immigrants to request accommodations. In another instance, an investigation by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) found that ICE outright ignored accommodation requests. According to the investigation, Fabian Vazquez,126 an immigrant with a hearing disability detained at the Aurora Contract Detention Facility, had to wait months before ICE provided him with a set of hearing aids despite requesting them as soon as he entered detention. During this time, he was reportedly not able to communicate with his attorney. In addition, the ACLU found that ICE officers forced Vazquez to take visits in a loud room, effectively preventing him from communicating with his friends and family.
In recognition of these failings, in April 2022, ICE released a new directive130 regarding the detention, monitoring, identification, transfer, and release of immigrants and asylum-seekers with serious mental disabilities. While this effort does not provide for the release of all disabled detainees, mechanisms including communication between ICE and legal representatives and the creation of safe release plans represent an important step toward addressing the disproportionate ways that detention negatively affects disabled immigrants and asylum-seekers.
Many disability and immigrant rights organizations are fighting to raise awareness and increase protections for disabled people in immigration detention who wish to seek asylum in the United States. The ADA recognizes disabled people as a protected group and affirms their right to be free from discrimination because of their disabilities. There is a large opportunity for disability and immigration advocates to work together and learn from each other, including by exploring the applicability of the ADA, along with other legal protections, for disabled asylum-seekers. The U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and federal policymakers should also take note of the evidence of discrimination and the unique challenges disabled asylum-seekers face as their protection claims are considered.
Combined with the group-based protections enshrined in asylum and refugee law, the ADA could contribute to the potential for building an immigration system that affords disabled asylum-seekers both dignity and due process as they seek humanitarian protection.
The maps in this mod are gorgeous! One of my main quarrels was with the optimization but playing this mod with the steam version of black mesa seems to fix that. The one thing this team really needs though in my opinion is a modeller. The ported low poly half life source models just looks out of place next to all of the gorgeous hd textures and black mesa content. Also the gonarch is missing.
DaVinci Resolve Update Notification: intel hardware accelerated decode and encode have been disabled as the current intel graphic driver is not compatible with DaVinci resolve. please update your drivers to enable this feature.
Allowing a live-in aide for a disabled tenant is both a HUD and fair housing requirement. Knowing what a live-in aide is and how to accurately qualify alive-in-aide for your community will simplify the certification process.
In HUD Section 2020 PRAC and Section 811 housing communities, adult children of disabled and elderly tenants are not eligible to move into a housing unit unless they will fulfill the services of a live-in aide and meet the necessary criteria. 2ff7e9595c
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