Analysis

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operates a system of approximately 200 immigration jails across the country, depriving thousands of people of their liberty. Over the last three decades, the ICE detention system has grown drastically as Congress has continued to massively fund immigration enforcement agencies and multiple presidential administrations have increased their reliance on detention. During this time, advocates, people in detention, and journalists have documented the extensive history of abuse, neglect, and death inside ICE detention centers, leading to a consensus that…

Under existing federal law, people who are applying for visas or to become lawful permanent residents or citizens already face extreme bars based on interaction with the criminal legal system. If a person has any of a wide range of criminal convictions, arrests, or sometimes even if the government just has “reason to believe” they have committed certain crimes, they are disqualified and are not be allowed to immigrate or to attain status. For example, currently anyone with any drug offense is typically ineligible for a green card, even if they are otherwise entitled to one, as is anyone with…

Regardless of where someone is from or why they migrate to the United States, everyone deserves to be treated with dignity and respect. Detention is inhumane, morally and financially costly, and completely unnecessary. Despite efforts to roll back some of the previous administration's cruelest policies, the Biden administration has targeted and detained newly arriving migrants in record numbers. As of July 8, 2021, there are over 27,000 people in detention, up nearly 90 percent from the beginning of the year. The majority of those detained are newly arrived migrants and a significant portion…

Across the country different types of facilities are opening for unaccompanied children arriving at the border. In some instances, local governments are coordinating with federal agencies to use stadiums and convention centers to hold children. In other instances, the administration is using military camps and bases. There are two types of facilities we are currently seeing an expansion of: “influx facilities” and “emergency intake sites.”

On January 26th President Joe Biden signed an executive order to begin phasing out the use of privately operated prisons by the Department of Justice (DOJ), a move that the Obama administration announced near the end of its term but was never realized. While this is a welcome first step, the executive order does not address the use of private detention by the Department of Homeland Security. Extending the order to include DHS should be the next step, but ending the use of private detention alone is not enough. Immigration detention is cruel and unnecessary no matter who owns or operates it.

On February 18, 2021, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Acting Director Tae Johnson issued a memo establishing guidance regarding the interim enforcement and removal guidelines issued by Department of Homeland Security Acting Secretary David Pekoske on January 20. This updated guidance significantly broadens the scope of the earlier enforcement priorities issued by DHS, putting many more people at risk of detention and deportation. Detention Watch Network welcomes the Biden administration’s efforts to end the Trump administration’s cruel, xenophobic and racist immigration policies, but…

For the last four years the immigrants’ rights movement has been on the defensive. We focused on organizing and fighting back against Trump’s never-ending attacks against immigrants, including growing the detention system to the largest it has ever been with over 50,000 people caged by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the summer of 2019. With the leadership of President Joe Biden, we have an opportunity to advance a new strategy to demand urgent change for a more just and equitable society, including freeing all people from immigration detention. Make no mistake, any actions that…

No matter where someone came from or how they arrived in the United States, their life is of value and worthy of dignity and respect. Fairness, freedom, and opportunity should be at the core of our immigration system, but our existing system does not uphold these values. Instead, people are separated from their loved ones, deprived of their liberty, and lives are put in jeopardy by our punitive border policies. This system relies on deterrence and incarceration to punish people for migration. President Joe Biden must implement border policies that decriminalize migration, demilitarize…