08/18/09 Yet another reason many advocates are outraged with the current immigration enforcement system. Today, the New York Times reports that one in every ten immigration detainee deaths goes unreported on the ICE "death roster," with the grisly death total now at 104 - a significant increase from the 90 that were reported to Congress in the Spring.
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08/06/09 Today, the Department of Homeland Security announced changes to detention policies that have been in place since 2006. According to the New York Times: "Details are sketchy, and even the first steps will take months or years to complete. They include reviewing the federal government's contracts with more than 350 local jails and private prisons, with an eye toward consolidating many detainees in places more suitable for noncriminals facing deportation - some possibly in centers built and run by the government."
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07/30/09 Today, Senators Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) introduced two bills which seek to improve deplorable conditions in immigration detention and prevent U.S. citizens from being locked up by mistake.S. 1550, the "Prevent Detainee Deaths and Abuse Act" and S. 1549, the "Protect Citizens from Unlawful Detention Act," would drastically improve the plight of detained immigrants and even U.S. citizens. These bills would require that immigration jails meet minimum standards like ensuring that U.S. citizens aren't mistakenly detained, children are considered for humanitarian release, and detainees have access to adequate medical care and legal counseling. These are pretty basic standards, but ones that our Bush-era enforcement regime have consistently failed to meet, and the Obama Administration hasn't acted on either.
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07/30/09 What's that line about things getting worse before they get better? We can only hope (oh, wait, someone already owns that one...) or should I say, make the case loudly, that this is the case over at DHS. Nina Bernstein of the New York Times reports this week that the Department of Homeland Security, led by Janet Napolitano, has declined to make the growing detention industry in the United States legally accountable. The good news today: "Senators Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-MA), and Edward Kennedy (D-MA) took action today to reform the Department of Homeland Security's ever-growing immigration detention system."
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07/16/09 Watch Congressman Jared Polis (D-CO) give a a one-minute floor speech today on the urgent need to reform our immigrant detention policies and our nation's currently unjust immigration system. Rep. Polis is quickly becoming a strong and passionate champion for real, humane, and sensible immigration reform. Watch it:
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07/06/09 Here's the latest blatant example of the system's decadence, from a piece in the New York Times on immigration detention, entitled, "Piecing Together an Immigrant's Life the U.S. Refused to See." It details the untimely death of Tanveer Ahmad in a substandard immigration jail: "When the 43-year-old man died in a New Jersey immigration jail in 2005, the very fact seemed to fall into a black hole..."
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04/23/09 The New York Times has a poignant piece about family separation today, separation that is occurring across our nation as a result of our broken immigration system. It details the story of Encarnaci�n Bail Romero, a mother who was locked up after an immigration raid in Carthage, Missouri, and her two year old son, Carlos. An immigration lawyer, Christopher Huck, argued: "In many cases, what state courts want to do �conflicts with what federal immigration agencies are supposed to do... then things spiral out of control, and it ends up in these real unfortunate situations."
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09/29/08 The bill does not call for an end to immigration raids, although we all know the Administration's raids policy is not going to fix illegal immigration or get the system under control. As Secretary Chertoff's remarks last year betrayed, these raids are more about cowboy politics than effective policy. No, the Menendez-Kennedy bill is simply about reigning in the way Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) handles its business. It is a very modest measure that asks ICE to exercise a bit of humanity, and a bit of common sense, as it goes about its campaign of immigration enforcement.
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