America's Voice Blog

Posted 03/25/09 at 03:53pm

Amnesty International Shines 1000 Watt Bulb on Immigrant Detention Crisis

detention crisisA scathing report by Amnesty International USA shines a 1000 watt light bulb on a pressing human rights crisis: the appalling conditions and lack of due process that undocumented immigrants, some legal immigrants, and asylum seekers are dropped into when they are detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agency. 

Tyche Hendricks, from the San Francisco Chronicle, describes it this way:

The system is attracting increased attention in part because the number of people in detention has grown exponentially in recent years and in part because of dozens of in-custody deaths and a lawsuit over the treatment of children.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano last month ordered her department to examine all aspects of Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations and hired a special assistant, Dora Schriro, to oversee detention and removal conditions.

Hendricks continues:

The Amnesty International report, "Jailed Without Justice: Immigration Detention in the USA," noted a variety of concerns over due process and the conditions of detention:

  • People in immigration custody don't have the same guarantees as criminal detainees to challenge their detention before a court, make a phone call or obtain legal representation.

  • Detainees can be transferred from one facility to another, sometimes in another state, with no notice given to their families or attorneys.

  • Two-thirds of people in federal immigration custody are housed in state or county detention facilities, usually alongside criminal detainees, even though violations of immigration law are considered administrative, not criminal, and asylum seekers have committed no violation.

  • Immigrants are subject to excessive use of restraints such as handcuffs, waist chains and leg restraints.

"In the criminal justice system, anyone arrested is assumed innocent, but in the immigration system, they're put in detention, and then it's the individual's burden to prove they shouldn't be detained," said Sarnata Reynolds, an author of the report. "That's why you'll see long periods of detention, because it's an incredibly high burden."

Both the Amnesty report and a study released last week by Human Rights Watch faulted ICE for failing to provide adequate medical and mental health treatment to detainees. Human Rights Watch, which focused on women's access to health care, emphasized problems with prenatal care and care for survivors of sexual violence.

Schiriro herself has a piece in USA Today in which she responds to these concerns.  In it, she writes:

Secretary Napolitano and I share a sense of urgency about this work, and I will present her with my preliminary findings and recommendations for measurable improvement as soon as possible. I have always believed that how we treat those who are in detention for whatever reason reflects who we are and what we believe as a nation; we must transform a detention system that has been a source of outrage into a reflection of our best selves. The opportunity for meaningful reform is ripe. Secretary Napolitano is committed to measurable, sustainable progress. ICE pledges to ensure this happens.

Deaths in detention are a moral outrage.  Let's hope that Schiriro and Napolitano address this immediately.  One more death is unacceptable.

To see the Amnesty International report, go here.

For the Human Rights Watch report, click here.

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