The Detention Watch Network Welcomes Shift in Immigration Detention Policy, Cautions the Need for Greater Reform
 
August 11, 2009 (Washington, DC)   FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Andrea Black, 520-240-3726; ablack@detentionwatchnetwork.org
 
Washington, DC – The Detention Watch Network (DWN) welcomes the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) announcement that it intends to take concrete steps to address the poor conditions in detention facilities and the lack of federal oversight of the current detention system.  In response to sharp criticism from advocacy groups, community organizations, and government officials the agency has announced the creation of the Office of Detention Policy and Planning (ODPP) within DHS, as well as a series of immediate actions it intends to take, including the creation of two advisory groups comprised of local and national organizations, the appointment of 23 detention managers to work in the largest detention facilities, and the employment of experts in health care administration and detention management.
 
“While we are encouraged by the Administration’s acknowledgment that there is a critical need for detention reform, to adequately address the myriad complaints aimed at the detention system, and to achieve the reform the Administration seeks, DHS must do more than improve the existing detention system, it must fundamentally reexamine its reliance on detention as a cornerstone of immigration enforcement,” said DWN Steering Committee Chair Michele Garnett McKenzie of The Advocates for Human Rights.
 
The United States estimates it will detain over 440,000 people this year in immigration detention, including thousands of asylum seekers.  Detained immigrants are often held in remote locations far from their families and have no right to government appointed counsel. Detainees, including children, pregnant women, the elderly, mentally ill and longtime lawful permanent residents, languish in a vast detention system that lacks enforceable standards of care and any independent oversight. 
One of the most critical changes proposed by DHS is discontinuing the detention of families and children at the T. Don Hutto Family Residential Facility in Taylor, Texas. The Hutto facility was the target of lawsuits brought earlier this year on behalf of 26 immigrant children detained with their parents at the facility as a result of the substandard conditions inside the detention center.  However, the agency will continue to detain families at the Berks Family Residential Center in Pennsylvania.  “Given the enormous toll that detention has on families, and children in particular, we remain deeply concerned about the continued use of the Berks facility and with how the government will implement these changes.  We hope that the government will work with NGO’s and communities to make secure release options and community-based options available,” said Michelle Brane of the Women’s Refugee Commission and DWN Steering Committee member.
While the announcement from DHS is a welcome shift in policy, recent actions taken by the agency have been cause for alarm.  Last month, Secretary Janet Napolitano announced that the agency was expanding the widely-criticized 287(g) program.  The program, authorized in 1996 and broadly implemented under the Bush Administration, relinquishes, with no meaningful oversight, immigration enforcement power to local law enforcement and corrections agencies and has spawned pervasive racial profiling and other human rights abuses.
 
“There are grave human rights concerns associated with targeting people of color and then locking them up for months, or even years, without essential due process safeguards,” said Andrea Black, network coordinator of the Detention Watch Network.
 
Detention Watch Network (DWN) is a coalition of community, faith-based, immigrant and human rights service and advocacy organizations and concerned individuals working to reform the immigration detention and deportation system so that all who come to our shores receive fair and humane treatment.
 
For more information and an interactive map of ICE detention centers, go to www.detentionwatchnetwork.org

Friday, September 4th, 2009