SAN DIEGO, Calif. — The Biden administration has enacted a policy that keeps Russian asylum seekers in detention preventing them from being released into the community while migrants from other countries continue to be let out with ankle bracelets, a new lawsuit alleges.
“This is a policy that's affecting thousands and thousands of asylum seekers, not just the 276 that we represent,” said San Diego immigration attorney Curtis Morrison.
Morrison said the internal policy violates a directive that requires migrants to be screened and released from custody if they aren’t deemed a risk to the community.
“It's also problematic because it's not who we are as a country that we treat people differently because of their nationality.”
He said his clients include asylum seekers from post-Soviet countries who speak Russian and noted they have a legal right to request asylum.
“A lot of these people are trying to get away from Putin, so he doesn't kill them or they're trying to get away from Russia so that they don't have to fight Ukraine.”
Morrison filed two lawsuits on behalf of his clients against the Department of Homeland Security and President Joe Biden.
Justin Berkowitz said he’s been trying for months to get his Russian girlfriend Anastasiia, 22, released from the Otay Mesa Detention Center near the San Diego Mexico border.
We are not using her last name because she fears she may be killed if she is deported.
Berkowitz said his girlfriend, who he met online four years ago, is an anti-war protester who fled Russia after her mother was murdered earlier this year. Berkowitz said she was taken into custody after arriving at the San Ysidro port of entry in July with him.
“She's mentally devastated. Every day she's calling me crying,” he said.
In court documents, Morrison alleges the government has “embarked on an unlawful scheme of indefinitely detaining Russian asylum seekers across the country” as part of an effort to “deter other Russians from seeking refuge here.”
In Anastasiia’s case, ICE wrote in September on a form that she didn’t show a valid ID and failed to prove she wasn’t a danger to the community.
Berkowitz said she provided a Russian passport and isn’t a threat to the United States.
“This girl, she has the biggest heart,” he said.
The Department of Homeland Security didn’t return two requests for comment.
