Detention
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
Evidence Shows Asylum Seekers Appear for Court with Alternatives to Detention and Legal Assistance
When thousands of Central American families fled violence to the United States last year, the Administration responded by opening family detention centers, which are detaining mothers and children as their asylum-based claims work through the court system. Family detention has since led to complaints of psychological harm, suicide attempts, protests and hunger strikes by detainees, and lawsuits over lack of due process, all at exorbitant cost. Yet a new paper by the American Immigration Council and Center for Migration Studies, A Humane Approach Can Work: The Effectiveness of Alternatives to Detention for Asylum Seekers, suggests that U.S. detention of asylum seekers is not only harmful, but unnecessary. Read More
A Humane Approach Can Work: The Effectiveness of Alternatives to Detention for Asylum Seekers
For decades, the U.S. refugee protection system has been a symbol of the nation’s generosity and openness to the world’s persecuted. Yet since Congress’ enactment of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRIRA), asylum seekers arriving at the United States-Mexico border have been subject to mandatory detention… Read More
New Memo on Detained Transgender Immigrants Does Not Go Far Enough
U.S. Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) will shift its policies regarding transgender adult detainees in its custody according to a memo released last week. While the changes seem positive, they still fall short according to LGBTI and immigration advocates. Read More
Why Our Humanitarian Obligations to Children Crossing the Border Still Matter
Last summer, the flow of Central Americans seeking refuge in the United States—many of them children—reached its height. One of the government’s first responses to the increased numbers was to reinstitute family detention, with the opening of a makeshift facility in Artesia, New Mexico, one year ago tomorrow. Today, the… Read More
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