Washington, DC - In response to news that the Trump administration has declared millions of immigrants ineligible for a bond hearing, Silky Shah, Executive Director of Detention Watch Network issued the following statement:
“Let’s be clear about what this new policy means: millions of undocumented immigrants in the US could be denied due process rights and can be detained indefinitely. This is tragic, infuriating, and yet another example of how Trump is using immigration detention as a testing ground for authoritarianism.
“More than 57,000 people are now in ICE custody, the highest number in history. Trump's cruel detention expansion is exacerbating inhumane conditions, with increasing reports of death, medical neglect, overcrowding, lack of food, and rampant transfers that sow confusion and cut people off from their loved ones and support networks. What we’re seeing now is a heightened degree of cruelty as Trump will stop at nothing to dehumanize and vilify immigrants. People in immigration detention are describing it as ‘hell on earth’ because it is.
“Detention facilitates deportation, and expanding detention is key to Trump carrying out his cruel, multi-layered, mass detention and deportation agenda. It’s important to remember that the expansion of detention is not a done deal. Advocates across the country have fought to shut down facilities in their communities and block the opening of new ones, and we can do it again. Nationwide protests have once again illuminated that people do not want ICE agents and detention centers in their communities. Immigrants are vital contributors to local communities – neighbors, friends, coworkers, caretakers and more.”
A short history of mandatory detention:
Mandatory detention first became law in 1988 with the passage of the Anti-Drug Abuse Act, which stated that immigrants with certain crimes could be denied a bond hearing before a judge and were required to be detained. Congress expanded this significantly in 1996 to apply to a broader scope of crimes and to both residents and nonresidents, including recent arrivals who may or may not have been seeking asylum. After 1996, the detention system doubled in size.
In January of this year mandatory detention expanded yet again with the passage of the Laken Riley Act, which passed with bipartisan support days before Trump took office. The policy change reported yesterday threatens to massively expand the number of people that will be denied the opportunity to seek bond. These new policies together with the massive funding bill that Congress just passed, skyrocketing ICE’s budget to make it the largest interior law enforcement agency in the country, enable a historic expansion of immigration detention.
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