Immigration was one of the most hotly debated topics in the 2016 presidential election. It’s been the subject of polls, speeches, proposals and endless conversations.
Yet, for all the talk about our nation’s policies, one aspect of immigration in the United States has largely been absent from our debates. Few Americans realize the appalling conditions of our immigrant detention system.
As bad as things are in our jails, state prisons and federal prisons, things are significantly worse in many of our immigration detention centers, including the facilities that hold migrant families and the prisons that hold people for immigration offenses.
Immigrants in Privately Run Prisons
The prisons that house illegal immigrants are plagued by questionable deaths, woefully inadequate medical care, abuse, neglect and overcrowding. While reformers are sounding the alarm about the human rights violations in our system, the problems could likely get even worse, in large part due to a lack of public awareness and a misunderstanding about our treatment of immigrants.
One of the most widely held myths about immigrant detainees is that they are largely made up of criminals that pose a public threat. In reality, many of those housed in immigration detainee facilities don’t have criminal backgrounds. Many of them were detained for being immigrants (or more specifically, for “immigration offenses”), not for committing a violent crime or drug offenses.
There is also a culture of secrecy in the way that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement handles detainees. Most of what we know about immigration detention comes from scant media reports, not from publicly available data. Part of the secrecy stems from the use of privately run prisons and detention centers, a major component of our overall detention practices. As criminal justice advocates have noted in the use of privately run facilities, these institutions have less accountability and, not surprisingly, higher rates of abuse and injustice.
Private prisons have been scrutinized for their treatment of prisoners in the United States, to the point that the Justice Department announced in 2016 that it would decrease its reliance on private prisons for incarceration of inmates. Yet, ICE might be doing the exact opposite. As the Washington Post reported earlier this year, it seems like the United States might just be shifting its reliance on private prisons from housing American prisoners to housing immigrants, despite the fact that these institutions are more likely than state-run facilities to be host to abuse and neglect.
Families are Held in Detention Centers – Run by Private Companies
There is also a major concern in the United States over the two detention centers in which we place migrant families who cross our border. Thousands of families, including women and children, are placed into detention centers at our borders every year. ICE estimates that the cost of housing a woman or child is roughly $300 a day. These facilities are also run by the same private-prison operators that have come under fire for their questionable practices regarding treatment of immigrants and convicts.
It’s clear that we have yet to figure out how to deal with immigrants in the United States. As our lawmakers seem poised to become “tougher” on immigration and detention rates are likely to increase in the coming years, we should urge for more transparency and better living conditions in the facilities that will house the men, women and children who come into our country. Regardless of your stance on our nation’s immigration policy, we can likely reach a consensus that no one in the United States – citizen or not – should be subjected to conditions that violate basic and fundamental human rights.
If you (or a loved one) have been arrested in Kentucky or in the Lexington area in particular, call my office at (859) 685-1055 for a free consultation. Our lawyers specialize in helping defendants fight back on assault charges, misdemeanors, domestic violence, property crimes, drug charges and more, call today.