Plans for Detention Reform Underway

America's Voice Blog

Posted 10/06/09 at 03:11pm

Plans for Detention Reform Underway

The Obama administration today revealed their plans for the anticipated immigration detention make-over -- much-needed reform of a system that is itself primarily based on a broken immigration system.

This is, no doubt, a step in the right direction. The New York Times reports:

Ms. Napolitano and Mr. Morton say that they want to make the system more efficient, more accountable and less costly. The whole point of detaining immigrants, after all, is to quickly figure out which ones should be deported and to deport them, not to let them languish and certainly not to inflict punishment or undue suffering.

That sentiment was not exactly embraced during the Bush administration, which took a hard line against undocumented immigrants. And their staunch position on the issue also resulted in human rights abuses, such as not providing immigrant detainees with basic medical care, and by oftentimes housing immigrant detainees with dangerous criminals.

Such abuses will now be remedied, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Besides providing immigrant detainees with medical care – a basic necessity that should have never been denied in the first place -- DHS is also making plans to house immigrant detainees, “categorized by risk:”

Former hotels, nursing homes and other sites would be used to hold nonviolent, non-criminal immigrants as part of a larger plan to reform immigration detention, according to documents obtained Monday by The Associated Press. The alternative sites are intended to cut the costs of detaining immigrants, which reached nearly $2 billion in 2008.

The goal of all of this, according to Janet Napolitano, DHS Secretary, is “to make immigration detention more cohesive, accountable and relevant to the entire spectrum of detainees we are dealing with.”

DHS and Secretary Napolitano should be commended for tackling this controversial and abusive detention system. However, what we need is comprehensive immigration reform that takes this and all other immigration related problems into account...

Oh, and we need Secretary Napolitano to at least start talking about it.