Social Work 400: Social Problems and Social Work Today

"Detained immigrants facing deportation in the United States, including legal permanent residents, refugees, and undocumented persons, are being transferred, often repeatedly, to remote detention centers by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Transfers separate detained immigrants from the attorneys and evidence they need to defend against deportation, which can violate their right to fair treatment in court, slow asylum or deportation proceedings, and prolong the time immigrants spend in detention. With close to 400,000 immigrants in detention each year, space in US detention centers, especially near cities where immigrants, their families, and attorneys live, has not kept pace. As a result, ICE has built a system of detention, relying on subcontracts with state jails and prisons, that cannot operate without transfers. This report shows that between 1998 and 2010, 1 million immigrants were transferred 2 million times. Forty-six percent of transferred detainees were moved two or more times: in one egregious case, a detainee was transferred 66 times. On average, each transferred detainee traveled 370 miles, with one frequent transfer pattern (from Pennsylvania to Texas) covering 1,642 miles. Such long-distance and repetitive transfers can render attorney client relationships unworkable, separate immigrants from evidence they need in court, and make family visits so costly they rarely, if ever, occur. An agency charged with enforcing US laws should not establish a system of detention that is literally inoperable without widespread, multiple, and long-distance transfers. ICE would reduce the chaos and limit harmful human rights abuses if it worked to emulate best practices on inmate transfers set by state and federal prison systems. Transfers do not need to stop entirely in order for ICE to respect detainees' rights; they merely need to be curtailed through the establishment of enforceable guidelines, regulations, and reasonable legislative restraints."--Back cover.