Detention
Private Prison Industry Lobbies for Detention of Immigrants
Since 2009, Congress has instructed the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to maintain 34,000 beds in immigrant detention facilities across the country, a policy known as “the bed mandate.” This mandate costs the American taxpayer $5.05 million per day–or $159 a day per immigrant detainee. A new… Read More
Faith Leaders Visit Immigrant Detention Center as Mothers Begin Hunger Strike
Faith leaders from around the country visited the Dilley family detention center in Texas just days before mothers in the Karnes detention facility, another Texas family detention center located less than 100 miles from Dilley, began a hunger strike. Shortly after their visit last week, the clerics declared… Read More
Government Claims Children in Family Detention Centers Are Not Entitled to Protections
The outcry against the detention of children and women seeking protection from violence continues. Just yesterday, over 95 national and local civil rights, human rights, immigrants’ rights, and religious organizations sent a letter to President Obama outlining the mounting criticism of family detention and urging the Administration to follow… Read More
Court Orders DHS to Stop Detaining Mothers and Children to Deter Future Immigration Flow
In June 2014, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) began implementing a border security policy of detaining nearly all mothers and children fleeing violence and persecution in Central America. DHS vastly increased its detention capacity for families to “send the message unequivocally that if you come here you… Read More
The Detention of Children and Their Families is Still Unjust and Still Against the Law
Detaining immigrant children is nothing new. In 1997, the government settled a lawsuit, Flores v. Reno, about the inhumane treatment of immigrant children held in detention. The settlement agreement said officials would follow a set of minimum national standards for the detention, release, and treatment of children subject to immigration… Read More
New York Times Exposes ‘Shame of America’s Family Detention Camps’
The New York Times details the government’s dangerous and expanding practice of detaining women and children who have recently crossed our southwest border in the magazine’s cover story this weekend “The Shame of America’s Family Detention Camps.” The facility the Times describes in Artesia, New Mexico, has since been… Read More
A Compelling Case Study in Family Detention and Pro Bono Counsel
When the family detention center in Artesia, New Mexico, was hastily propped up by the U.S. government in order to detain and rapidly process women and children for deportation, immigration rights advocates raised alarms. Over the course of several months, as an uptick in families and unaccompanied minors appeared at… Read More
New Family Detention Facility Opens in Dilley, Texas, Despite Due Process Problems
The Department of Homeland Security opened the largest immigrant family detention center in Dilley, Texas this week. The privately owned facility is designed to house 2,400 people—mostly women and children—who are caught crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. The opening of this detention center reflects the administration’s continuing commitment to its flawed… Read More
DHS Announces the Transfer of Immigrant Families from Artesia to New Facility
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced today that it plans to close the detention facility in Artesia, New Mexico, where immigrant mothers and children currently are jailed. The closure of Artesia comes with the opening of a permanent, drastically larger family detention center in Dilley, Texas. Rather than be… Read More
Department of Homeland Security Doubles Down on Family Detention
Washington D.C. – Today, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced plans to close the detention facility in Artesia, New Mexico, where it detains mothers and children. Unfortunately, the closure of this facility does not mark the end of a dark chapter in our country’s immigration history. Instead it signifies… Read More
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