Detention
Private Prison Company Expands Immigration Reach with $11 Million Contract
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) recently announced a pilot case management program as an alternative to holding mothers and children in detention. The annual $11 million contract was awarded to Geo Care LLC, a subsidiary of the Geo Group—the second largest private prison company in the U.S. that operates… Read More
U.S. Commission on Civil Rights Releases Scathing Report and Calls for End to Family Detention
This week, the drumbeat to end family detention got louder when the United States Commission on Civil Rights (the Commission) released a report which focused on conditions in immigration detention centers and family detainees. The report—sent directly to the President, the Vice President, and the Speaker of House—contains numerous… Read More
Five Families Released After Prolonged Detention
On Friday evening, just before the Labor Day weekend, the government released five mothers and their five children, ranging in age from three to seventeen years old, from the South Texas Residential Family Detention Facility in Dilley, Texas. These families, who sought refuge in the United States after fleeing violence… Read More
ICE’s Transfer of Transgender Women to Remote Detention Facility Raises Grave Concerns
Earlier this summer, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), announced new policies regarding transgender adult detainees in its custody—policies that were intended to provide a “respectful, safe and secure environment for all detainees.” While some of the announced policies were well-received, many advocates identified serious shortcomings, including the continued allowance… Read More
Newly-Released Government Docs Reveal Dangerous Flaws in Immigration Detention Contracting
The National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC) released government documents this month that expose the severe lack of accountability in the immigration detention system. NIJC’s Immigration Detention Transparency and Human Rights Project publicly posted 90 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) contracts and inspections from 2012 after a four-year legal… Read More
Government Ordered to Promptly Release Children From Family Detention
In a decision issued Friday, a district court in California ruled yet again that the government is violating a long-standing settlement agreement protecting the rights of children in immigration detention. Advocates for immigrant children went to court in February to argue that the government’s family detention centers violate the… Read More
Government Doubles Down on Locking Up Immigrant Mothers and Children
The government continued to defend its widespread detention of asylum-seeking women and children in documents filed last week in the Flores case. Advocates went to court in February to argue that the government’s family detention centers violate the long-standing Flores v. Reno settlement agreement, which set minimum standards… Read More
ICE’s Computerized Detention Decision-Maker Can’t Work Because of Mandatory Detention Laws
In January 2013, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) implemented the “Risk Classification Assessment” (RCA)—a computerized tool that analyzes evidence and recommends whether to detain or release immigrants facing deportation. Yet ICE still detained 80 percent of its arrestees in FY 2013, in a detention system that… Read More
Insider Speaks Out Alongside Formerly Detained Mothers Seeking Protection in the U.S.
At a congressional briefing held earlier this week, Dr. Olivia López spoke out about her experiences as a former social worker at the Karnes family detention center alongside formerly detained mothers, advocates and members of Congress. Dr. López felt compelled to resign from her position in April after her… Read More
Judge’s Order in Flores Should Signal the End of Family Detention
A federal judge issued an order in the Flores case that should go a long way to ending the government’s practice of detaining children and their mothers in unlicensed, secure facilities in Dilley and Karnes, Texas. Since the summer of 2014, the government has detained thousands of women and children fleeing violence in Central America. The longstanding Flores settlement guarantees minimum standards for the detention, release, and treatment of children in immigration detention. These standards, the court concluded, are not being met. Read More
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