Reform needed in immigrant detentions, report says
A new report calls for changes in the nation’s growing immigration detention system, where Texas provides more than a quarter of beds for those charged with violating civil immigration laws.
Detention Watch Network, a coalition of advocacy groups, said changes didn’t go far enough or weren’t implemented after a critical 2009 review by President Barack Obama’s administration. The review followed publicity about poor medical care, abuse and even deaths in facilities that now serve more than 33,000 daily.
“Ironically, people in criminal custody have access to more due process protections, to attorneys, and there are standards to how facilities should be run, at least on paper,” said Andrea Black, a lawyer and executive director of Detention Watch.
Among problems cited in the report are the 2009 death of a Mexican immigrant at the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Ga., of a heart infection; the solitary confinement for months of a Tanzanian immigrant with “serious emotional health problems” at the Houston Processing Center; and the solitary confinement for 30 days of a Mexican immigrant for “misbehaving” at the Polk County Jail in Livingston, about an hour north of Houston.
The report selected 10 facilities, including two in Texas, that highlight problems around the nation and called for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to begin steps to close them or cease contracting with them. The Texas facilities are the Polk County Jail and the Houston Processing Center.
ICE every year incarcerates more than 400,000 immigrants, including legal permanent residents, those seeking asylum and survivors of domestic violence and human trafficking, the report noted. “Immigrants in ICE custody are technically in civil detention, meaning that they are locked up to ensure that they show up for their hearings and comply with the court’s decision, not because of any crime,” the report said.
ICE spokesman Carl Rusnok said the agency plans to meet with Detention Watch to discuss the report, which will be released Thursday. He says the agency has done significant work in increasing federal oversight, improving confinement conditions and prioritizing the health and safety of those in custody.
At the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington group that wants less immigration, legal policy analyst Jon Feere agreed that detainees should be treated “as humanely as possible.”
But detention is valuable as it ensures immigrants show up for court, Feere said. “If one wants less detention, one should support less immigration and secure borders. I don’t see Detention Watch doing any of that.”
Half of detention bed space now comes from private corrections facilities, the report said. In North Texas, the ICE regional office in Dallas contracts with the Rolling Plains Correctional Facility in Haskell, about 200 miles west of Dallas.
Incarceration “just to make sure people show up for their court hearing” can cost up to $160 a day, Black said. There are alternatives to lockup that cost $12 a day, she said. “We are throwing huge amounts of money at this. It is crazy.”
At Polk County, 280 people signed up to speak to a team led by Bob Libal of Grassroots Leadership in Austin. The group spoke to 60. Alleged problems included work programs paying $1 an hour, expensive phone calls that provided few minutes, and the use of solitary confinement and the signing of an English-only document agreeing to it by a man who couldn’t understand the document.
“It is really at a point that ICE can’t maintain a system so large and have it truly be a civil system,” Libal said.
Detention Watch Network, a coalition of advocacy groups, said changes didn’t go far enough or weren’t implemented after a critical 2009 review by President Barack Obama’s administration. The review followed publicity about poor medical care, abuse and even deaths in facilities that now serve more than 33,000 daily.
“Ironically, people in criminal custody have access to more due process protections, to attorneys, and there are standards to how facilities should be run, at least on paper,” said Andrea Black, a lawyer and executive director of Detention Watch.
Among problems cited in the report are the 2009 death of a Mexican immigrant at the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Ga., of a heart infection; the solitary confinement for months of a Tanzanian immigrant with “serious emotional health problems” at the Houston Processing Center; and the solitary confinement for 30 days of a Mexican immigrant for “misbehaving” at the Polk County Jail in Livingston, about an hour north of Houston.
The report selected 10 facilities, including two in Texas, that highlight problems around the nation and called for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to begin steps to close them or cease contracting with them. The Texas facilities are the Polk County Jail and the Houston Processing Center.
ICE every year incarcerates more than 400,000 immigrants, including legal permanent residents, those seeking asylum and survivors of domestic violence and human trafficking, the report noted. “Immigrants in ICE custody are technically in civil detention, meaning that they are locked up to ensure that they show up for their hearings and comply with the court’s decision, not because of any crime,” the report said.
ICE spokesman Carl Rusnok said the agency plans to meet with Detention Watch to discuss the report, which will be released Thursday. He says the agency has done significant work in increasing federal oversight, improving confinement conditions and prioritizing the health and safety of those in custody.
At the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington group that wants less immigration, legal policy analyst Jon Feere agreed that detainees should be treated “as humanely as possible.”
But detention is valuable as it ensures immigrants show up for court, Feere said. “If one wants less detention, one should support less immigration and secure borders. I don’t see Detention Watch doing any of that.”
Half of detention bed space now comes from private corrections facilities, the report said. In North Texas, the ICE regional office in Dallas contracts with the Rolling Plains Correctional Facility in Haskell, about 200 miles west of Dallas.
Incarceration “just to make sure people show up for their court hearing” can cost up to $160 a day, Black said. There are alternatives to lockup that cost $12 a day, she said. “We are throwing huge amounts of money at this. It is crazy.”
At Polk County, 280 people signed up to speak to a team led by Bob Libal of Grassroots Leadership in Austin. The group spoke to 60. Alleged problems included work programs paying $1 an hour, expensive phone calls that provided few minutes, and the use of solitary confinement and the signing of an English-only document agreeing to it by a man who couldn’t understand the document.
“It is really at a point that ICE can’t maintain a system so large and have it truly be a civil system,” Libal said.
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