There are alternatives that have succeeded in several European countries
The United States adopts a harsh and unjustified immigration system
Conditions of detention are inconsistent with American principles.
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Migrants who died in custody due to a lack of health care.
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There are currently more than 25,000 immigrants incarcerated in US detention facilities, while thousands more are waiting in Mexico for a chance to cross, at which point most of them will be summarily incarcerated. It is a policy of deterrence with detention, to make life so unpleasant that migrants choose to go home on their own, or not at all. I interviewed hundreds of people who had spent months or even years in the US detention system while their cases were heard in court, and were confused about how to stay in prison for so long.
International law considers detention a measure of last resort, and America's own policies reserve it for people who pose a threat to public safety, but immigration and customs judges and officers can adjudicate these cases without having to provide much detail.
Every year tens of thousands of people are arrested without warrants, or any evidence that they would disappear into the country if released.
Like thousands, Maxime learned that his request for parole had been denied in a routine memo sent to one of his lawyers.
The memo says that the Mexican immigrant "has not been sufficiently proven that he is not dangerous and can escape."
A few weeks after he was taken to the hospital, Maxim's lawyers, once again, tried to obtain parole.
One wrote that "his continued detention and lack of proper medical treatment puts him at risk of dying in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody, which I suppose all sides want to avoid."
Once again, the request was rejected without justification.
The reason for imprisoning immigrants is due to the pernicious myths that made these people - especially the poor and non-white - dangerous criminals.
These days, people are being held for much longer than before.
In 2015 the average stay in custody was 21 days, and in 2020, despite the serious threat of an outbreak of the Corona virus, that number jumped to 59 days.
Many immigrants spend years in detention centers while waiting for their cases to be heard by the courts.
alternatives to detention
It shouldn't be this way. There are many alternatives to detention, that we can use, that have proven successful all over the world, even here in the United States. We can protect human rights and human life, reduce costs to taxpayers and make sure people attend their immigration procedures. Spain and Belgium, for example, provide group homes, where migrants receive social work support and have their basic needs met while seeking immigration status. In Spain, they can stay in these homes for up to six months; If it takes longer for their case to be resolved, the social worker helps them find other accommodation and a job to pay for the rent. In Sweden, asylum seekers are given private apartments, daily subsistence allowances and work permits, on the condition that they regularly check with nearby immigration authorities so that their cases can be considered.
A woman, from Salvador, who lives in Belgium, told me that she went to this country because she knew from friends and family what was waiting for her in the United States.
She now takes French and vocational skills for free, while her daughter goes to public school.
“In the United States, I know I will be in custody, and no one will support me,” the woman said.
And if these alternatives to detention models sound like a fantasy in a social spending-sensitive country like the United States, in 2016, the Obama administration tried an initiative similar to the Belgian system, a program that provided social services and referrals to eligible families.
According to the Niskanen Center, “the program achieved 99% compliance with check-in processes and 100% compliance with court sessions.”
One such strategy is often temporary release from detention on bail or a humanitarian pardon, in both cases people being held are released to live with sponsors - family members or friends in general - and asked to communicate regularly with an immigration officer, either by phone or in person Sometimes they are given an ankle bracelet for electronic monitoring.
In an early study by the Government Accountability Office, 99% of participants enrolled in the Immigration Department's Comprehensive Alternatives to Detention Program, from 2011 to 2013, attended their trial dates.
Several years later, President Donald Trump falsely claimed that less than 1% of immigrants appeared for trial after being released from detention, but government data approaches 83%.
As of August, approximately 117,000 people are registered with the Alternatives to Detention Program.
And in 2017, the Trump administration shut down the program as part of a broader effort to ramp up detention and enforcement efforts.
However, even during the Trump years, the United States used other alternatives to detention that could be easily and quickly implemented on a large scale.
humanitarian issue
While ending immigration detention is first and foremost a human rights issue, it is also an economic imperative.
Since the creation of the Department of Homeland Security in 2003, the federal government has spent about $333 billion on immigration enforcement.
In 2018, it spent $3.1 billion on detention alone.
While it costs taxpayers about $134 a day to keep someone in a detention center, alternatives, such as case management and electronic monitoring, cost an average of about $6 a day.
It is clear that, in the United States, current alternatives to detention are far from perfect in terms of human rights.
Many people are released from detention with inconvenient and socially humiliating ankle bracelets.
In rural locations, they must travel hundreds of miles, each week, with limited transportation or limited funds, to meet with immigration officials or, in rare cases, with caseworkers who do not always provide support or assistance, but these alternatives could be greatly improved and better monitored. , at a fraction of the human and economic cost of maintaining a sprawling network of detention centers.
The United States, a country whose founding principles are rooted in freedom and protection from tyranny, invented immigration detention, a very costly innovation of human life, human psyche, patriotism, and taxpayers.
And it's a practice that, given all of these alternatives, we never need to follow in the first place.
Yet the humanitarian crisis continues to unfold in detention centers across the country, as migrants struggle behind bars to find the legal advice or medical care they need to survive.
In a 2018 report, Human Rights Watch analyzed the deaths of 15 Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees between 2015 and 2017, and found that inadequate medical care contributed to more than half of the deaths.
They might still be alive today had they been released into an alternative programme.
Lorne Markum ■ Immigration and Detainee Reporter
Spain and Belgium, for example, provide group homes, where migrants receive social work support and have their basic needs met while seeking immigration status.
Since the creation of the Department of Homeland Security in 2003, the federal government has spent about $333 billion on immigration enforcement, and in 2018 it spent $3.1 billion on detention alone.
25,000 immigrants are incarcerated in US detention facilities.
59 days average stay booked in 2020.
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