Detention within American borders
I was glad to read this great article today about America’s little known immigrant detention system, and simultaneously was shocked at the statistics.
According to an official Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) database, almost 19,000 immigrants out of a total 32,000 who are currently detained within the U.S. “had no criminal conviction, not even for illegal entry or low-level crimes like trespassing.” More than 400 of those with no criminal record had been imprisoned for at least a year; a dozen had been held for at least three years, while an immigrant from China had been behind bars for over five years.
The U.S. Supreme Court had ruled in 2001 that immigrants had to be either deported or released within 6 months of having their case decided. But this deadline is often ignored. And moreover, since 2003 especially as a reaction to the war on terror, Congress doubled the funds used to detaining immigrants.
But what is perhaps most unsettling is that a large number of these prisoners are not illegal immigrants. In fact, many are asylum seekers who had come to the U.S. to escape persecution in their home country, or even longtime residents who are well on their way to becoming permanent residents. One detainee was an honors student who spent almost two years in prison just because her parents’ asylum claim had been denied years before. She had done absolutely nothing wrong, but the system failed to recognize her parents asylum claim and she ended up being punished unnecessarily for years.
Many other detainees are immigrants who cannot be deported because their home countries won’t accept them, or people who have been caught in the complex legal system without a lawyer to fight for their release or provide them with advice.
Apparently the ICE believes that detaining immigrants helps ensure that they attend court hearings and leave the country when they are ordered to do so. The ICE apparently also uses detention as a tactic to force the immigrants into compliance; after people have been detained for months, they have little motivation and energy to continue fighting the charges against them. Detention is used to pressure the detainees and force them to give in quickly. But detaining immigrants indefinitely without even granting them access to a lawyer or to a fair trial is a high price to pay for ensuring they attend court hearings. It is a violation of their basic constitutional rights and civil liberties, and officials should attempt to avoid such detention at all costs rather than use it as a “terror tactic” to implement their policies. This shows just how much America’s criminal justice and immigration systems are in need of critical reform.
It’s also a reminder that although there are high profile situations taking place constantly in human rights law, most recently with the ICC’s arrest warrant for Al-Bashir as well as the debates surrounding Guantanamo Bay, we must not forget that people are being detained and mistreated right here in the United States. It is a reminder to remember the human rights abuses going on daily behind the scenes, right in our backyards - and to not forget them in the face of the more publicized issues we hear about everyday in the news.
Breakthrough is a great organization working to raise awareness of “homeland guantanamos” - the harsh immigrant detention system within the U.S. Click here to check out their campaign.
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