Immigration detention in the United States
The United States government holds tens of thousands of immigrants in detention under the control of Customs and Border Protection (CBP; principally the Border Patrol) and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Immigrants are detained for unlawful entry to the United States, when their claims for asylum are received (and prior to release into the United States by parole), and in the process of deportation and removal from the country. During Fiscal Year 2018, 396,448 people were booked into ICE custody: 242,778 of whom were detained by CBP and 153,670 by ICE's own enforcement operations.[1] A daily average of 42,188 immigrants (40,075 adult and 2,113 in families) were held by ICE in that year.[2] In addition, over twelve thousand immigrant children are housed by facilities under the supervision of the Office of Refugee Resettlement's program for Unaccompanied Alien Children.[3] Prior to referral to these other agencies, the CBP holds immigrants at processing centers; between mid-May and mid-June 2019, it held between 14,000 and 18,000 immigrants.[4]
Mandatory detention was officially authorized by President Bill Clinton in 1996, with the enactment of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty (which gave the Attorney General discretion to extend detention) and the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility acts. From 1996 to 1998, the number of immigrants in detention increased from 8,500 to 16,000[5] and by 2008 this number increased to more than 30,000.[6][7] According to the Global Detention Project, the United States possesses the largest immigration detention system in the world.[8] In 2003, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) was created under the Department of Homeland Security. ICE enforces the United States' immigration and customs laws, uses investigative techniques to apprehend and detain those suspected of violating them, and then deports many of these individuals. The Office of Detention and Removal Operations (DRO), housed within ICE, oversees the detention and deportation of immigrants taken into custody by ICE. Currently, ICE detains immigrants in over 200 detention centers (including privatized facilities), in state and local jails, in juvenile detention centers, and in shelters.[9]
Several human rights organizations, including Amnesty International and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and a series of reports made by The New York Times have cited concerns with ICE's management of these detention centers. Reports refer to instances of human rights abuse and inadequate or unprofessional medical care in these detention facilities. Such reports have also publicized the death of several immigrants in detention and have accused ICE of covering up this information. ICE, in response, has released a list of 166 people who died under ICE detention between 2003–2016. ICE has publicly stated that the agency provides "state-of-the-art medical care" and "do[es] everything possible to maintain the best quality of life for the detainees in…custody."[10] In May 2008 the Detainee Basic Medical Care Act of 2008 (H.R. 5950) was introduced to the United States Congress by Representative Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), though no further steps have been taken to enact the bill.
History[edit]
Immigration detention in the United States began in the 1890s at Ellis Island. It was used as a permanent holding facility for foreign nationals throughout the Second World War, but fell into disuse in the 1950s. In the 1980s, Ronald Reagan reacted to the mass migration of asylum seekers arriving in boats from Haiti by establishing a program to interdict them (i.e. stop and search certain vessels suspected of transporting undocumented Haitians).[11] As the number of undocumented immigrants who were fleeing economic and political conditions increased, President Bush Sr attempted to find a regional location to handle the influx. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees arranged for several countries in the region—Belize, Honduras, Trinidad and Tobago, and Venezuela—to temporarily provide a safe haven for Haitians, however the Coast Guard was quickly overwhelmed, and by November 18, 1991, the United States forcibly returned 538 Haitians to Haiti.[12] These options also proved inadequate for the sheer numbers of Haitians fleeing their country, and the Coast Guard took them to the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo, Cuba, where they were pre-screened for asylum in the United States.
Criticisms[edit]
Human rights[edit]
In addition to their condemnation of the conditions at immigration detention centers, various human rights groups and news sources have also criticized the high costs necessary to sustain ICE's detention infrastructure.[7] ICE's annual budget is roughly 2.5 billion for its detention and deportation duties. President Obama's fiscal year 2017 budget request would reduce the bed quota to 30,913 detention beds: 29,953 adult beds at an average rate of $126.46 per day and 960 family beds at an average rate of $161.36 per day.[59][60] Through fiscal year 2016, the bed quota remains at 34,000.[59][60]
It has been reported that only a small percentage of the population of detained immigrants have committed crimes. However, of the 32,000 immigrants in ICE detention on January 25, 2009, 18,690 had no criminal convictions, including illegal entry.[61]
Immigration detention under Obama[edit]
The Obama administration promised to overhaul the immigration detention system and transform it into one that is less punitive, more centralized, and more transparent.[7] However, immigrant rights groups raised concerns about ongoing abuses against detainees. ICE officials were pressured to increase detention and deportation quotas to fulfill the agency's annual goal. A 2010 memo issued by James M. Chaparro, the chief of ICE's Detention and Removal Operations, "congratulated agents for reaching the agency's goal of '150,000 criminal alien removals' for the year ending Sept. 30" but "instructed agents to pick up the pace of deportations by detaining more noncitizens suspected only of unauthorized residence."[92] Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano also publicly endorsed the Secure Communities deportation initiative, which had "rapidly expanded" under the Obama administration, expressing a hope in 2009 that the program would expand to all of the United States by 2013.[93]
In late February 2013, ICE announced that it has released "several hundred" detained immigrants from deportation centers ahead of budget cuts; the release of the detained immigrants was praised by Human Rights First, and criticized by Republican Representative Bob Goodlatte.[94] The White House and the Department of Homeland Security distanced itself from the decision to release the detained immigrants with White House Press Secretary Jay Carney calling those released "low-risk, non-criminal detainees".[95] The Associated Press reported that the official in charge of immigration enforcement and removal operations resigned due to the release of the detained undocumented immigrants,[96] but ICE stated that the official had retired and that his departure was not connected to the release.[97] Those released were told they were bonded and released, with ICE officials saying that the released immigrants remain in deportation proceedings.[98] In March 2013, the Department of Homeland Security announced that the number released was more than 2,000 in the states of Arizona, California, Georgia, and Texas; the department also stated it plans to release an additional 3,000 in March 2013.[99] The Politico reports that the cost of housing detained immigrants cost about $164 per day per person.[100]
In 2014, the Obama administration constructed detention facilities to hold children who had crossed the border.[101] These facilities were later used by the Donald Trump administration.[102]
In a memo made public in 2015, officials issued guidance for ICE personnel directing staff to house transgender immigrants in sex-segregated housing that corresponds with their gender identity.[103]
In 2015, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights did a report entitled With Liberty and Justice for All: The State Civil Rights in Immigration Detention Facilities, which was critical of conditions at immigration detention facilities.[104] One Commissioner filed a lengthy dissent.[105]
Immigration detention under Biden[edit]
In May 2021, the unprecedented surge of unaccompanied minors at the US-Mexico border reached more than 21,000 children. The children are being temporarily housed in shelters in Dallas and San Antonio, Texas, as well as the Long Beach Convention & Entertainment Center in California under the care of the Department of Health and Human Services. The time the children spend in government custody is lessening, to 30 days from 42 days under the Trump administration.[116]
Beginning in February 2021, the administration awarded nearly $3 billion in contracts to private entities to provide accommodations for unaccompanied children. Over $2 billion was in no-bid contracts to three organizations: Deployed Resources, LLC of Rome, New York; Mobile, AL-located Rapid Deployment Inc.; and Family Endeavors (AKA Endeavors) of San Antonio. Deployed Resources will be paid up to $719 million to manage a Donna Texas 1500 beds emergency refuge for children. Rapid Deployment has been awarded two contracts for $614 million to run a Fort Bliss, Texas site that could become the largest in the country as it expands to 10,000 potential beds. Family Endeavors has previously received $87 million from ICE to house migrant families in hotel rooms and could be paid up to $580 million to manage a crisis intake facility in Pecos Texas.[117]
Transgender immigrant issues[edit]
ICE detains an average of 65 transgender women every day.[118] Although it hasn't become public knowledge until recently, it has been recorded that transgender detainees face many hardships while held in private detention centers.[119] Transgender detainees have reported that many of them have requested hormonal treatment, yet were never provided with such access to hormones while in private detention centers.[119] The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has conducted a thorough investigation on the living conditions of these private institutions, and have suggested that transgender detainees who had previously been subjected to hormonal therapies, should be allowed to continue these hormonal therapies while in detention centers.[119] The SPLC also found that transgender detainees are especially vulnerable to receiving a lack of both mental and medical care while being held within these private facilities.[119] Furthermore, transgender immigrants held within some of these private detention centers, such as Prairieland, are specifically housed in a separate facility from all other immigrants, in order to remain under watchful protection.[120] This visible segregation has resulted in many transgender immigrants wondering if such a specific housing unit causes more harm than good.[120] Even with the availability of a separate transgender unit, some transgender detainees request to be placed with the male population, as they fear that stigma may possibly arise as a result from being separated from the normal population.[120] Investigations of the conditions under which transgender detainees live in has resulted in an overwhelming plea for reformation, suggesting that these individuals do not receive adequate protection, care, and housing[119] After investigating the conditions under which transgender detainees live in within these facilities, the SPLC generated a series of potential improvements that can be made to better provide for the safety and comfort of these transgender individuals.[119]
Many transgender detainees not only report a lack of provided hormonal care; they are subjects of abuse by other detained immigrants and the guards of these private facilities.[120] Detainees who identify as LGBTQ are found to be 15 times more likely to be sexually assaulted than their heterosexual, non-transgender counterparts.[121] The gender gap leads to humiliation, isolation, and physical and verbal abuse. This isolation is only extended as transgender inmates must choose between a prison, dominated by men, near their friends, family, home, lawyer and resources and a prison without these critical resources but specified to a prison built and dedicated to the LGBTQ community (even though there is speculation that creating this specialized facility and environment leads to further stigmatization and abuse).[120] Moreover, Inmates are further isolated in their choice between living with males or living in solitary confinement, those who choose to live with their male counterparts are for the most part physically and verbally abused, while those who choose solitary are held for prolonged periods (weeks or months at a time):[122] Human Rights Watch reported that a transgender woman from Mexico had been held in solitary confinement for about 18 months before being deported.[122] These extended periods in Solitary confinement are justified by the prison system under what they call, "protection." Human Rights Watch found a public address to the United Nations General on Torture, which stated that: "'[I]ndefinite and prolonged solitary confinement, in excess of fifteen days, should also be subject to an absolute prohibition,' due to its scientifically proven negatives effects on the mental health of those who are subjected to such forms of isolation".[122] The Human Rights Watch continues with their report that provides further details of abuse suffered by transgender women in detention facilities across the country.[122] At the end of the report, Human Rights Watch also provided recommendations to Congress, the Department of Homeland Security, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on how to improve the safety of transgender individuals in detention. They asked Congress to bar ICE from holding transgender women in men's facilities and to bar ICE "from placing any immigration detainees in administrative segregation for indefinite periods as a form of protection or for any other reason." Additionally, they asked the DHS to expand and improve upon the 2015 Transgender Care Memorandum.[122] Many LGBTQ activists and supporters comment that they shouldn't or don't have the right to detain those in the at-risk LGBTQ community until they have the capability to detain those included in this group without infringing on their human rights or jeopardizing their safety.[120]