Federal Judge Calls Immigration Detention Policy “Unlawful”

A federal judge stated that an immigration detention policy intended to deter illegal immigrants is “likely unlawful.” U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg wrote that the use of immigration detention facilities to influence other undocumented immigrants away from entering the country violated current immigration statutes. The decision stems from a lawsuit brought against the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office. The lawsuit alleges that the policy of holding families, including small children, at detention centers violates their civil rights.

Details of the Immigration Detention Policy

Last summer, ICE agents faced a wave of undocumented immigrants at the U.S./Mexico border. Many of these undocumented immigrants either included families with children or unaccompanied minors. The agency coped with the deluge of undocumented immigrants by establishing immigration detention center in Texas, New Mexico and Pennsylvania. Attorneys for ICE maintain that the immigration detention centers led to a steep decrease in immigrants attempting to cross the border, including a 45 percent drop in the number of unaccompanied minors.

Advocates Fight Immigration Detention Centers

The holding of children and families in these immigration detention centers has caused some immigrant advocacy groups to speak out against the practice. Andrea Cristina Mercado, co-chair of the immigration reform advocacy group We Belong Together, told reporters that “the only satisfactory step would be …ending family detention immediately.” She also labeled the practices at the immigration detention centers, which include detaining children as young as two years old, “shocking and abhorrent.”

Immigration Detention Facilities “Prison-Like”

University of Texas law professor Barbara Hines, who has sued the government on behalf of immigrants, called the former Hutto immigration detention center in Texas “prison-like”. Professor Hines successfully argued for the closure of the Hutton immigration detention center in 2009, but stated that the new centers are remarkably similar in their dismal conditions. She called it a “shocking” move that President Barack Obama authorized the opening of new immigration detention centers and stated that the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, will “not…be able to argue that there is a difference” between the closed Hutto center and the new detention facilities.

ICE Looks at Immigration Detention Changes

Judge Boasberg’s pending decision and the outcry of immigrant advocates have forced ICE officials to reconsider some of their immigration detention policies. The agency has assembled a panel to review their immigration detention practices and examine conditions at the detention facilities. The facilities include three privately-operated centers in Texas, for which the federal government pays $267 per detainee per day. These private facilities have come under scrutiny due to recent news of female detainees staging hunger strikes to protest inhumane conditions.

Source: LA Times

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