The U.S. government detains over 280,000 people a year – more than triple the number of people in detention just nine years ago – in a hodgepodge of over 400 facilities at an annual cost of more than $1.2 billion.
Did you know?
- Immigrants in detention include families, both undocumented and documented immigrants, many who have been in the US for years and are now facing exile, survivors of torture, asylum seekers and other vulnerable groups including pregnant women, children, and individuals who are seriously ill without proper medication or care.
- Being in violation of immigration laws is not a crime. It is a civil violation for which immigrants go through a process to see whether they have a right to stay in the United States. Immigrants detained during this process are in non-criminal custody. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the agency responsible for detaining immigrants.
- The average cost of detaining an immigrant is $95 per person/ per day. Alternatives to detention, which generally include a combination of reporting and electronic monitoring, are effective and significantly cheaper, with some programs costing as little as $12 per day. These alternatives to detention still yield an estimated 93% appearance rate before the immigration courts.
- Although DHS owns and operates its own detention centers, it also “buys” bed space from over 312 county and city prisons nationwide to hold the majority of those who are detained (over 57%). Immigrants detained in these local jails are mixed in with the local prison population who is serving time for crimes.
- About half of all immigrants held in detention have no criminal record at all. The rest may have committed some crime in their past, but they have already paid their debt to society. They are being detained for immigration purposes only.
- Torture survivors, victims of trafficking, and other vulnerable groups can be detained for months or even years, further aggravating their isolation, depression, and other mental health problems associated with their past trauma.
- As a result of this surge in detention and deportation, immigrants are suffering poor conditions and abuse in detention facilities across the country and families are being separated often for life while the private prison industry and county jailers are reaping huge profits.
- The system is set to triple again even without new legislation. Already 6,300 additional beds have been added in 2007. This includes a jail in South Texas used to detain families instead of allowing their release on bond.
Check out our stories of immigrants in detention and use the detention map to find local detention centers near you.
Did you know?
Over the past decade US policies have been stealthily and systematically enmeshing immigrants in the criminal justice system and the War on Terror, and they are using detention and deportation as critical tools.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement or (ICE) is part of The Department of Homeland Security. It is the second largest law enforcement agency in the country with vast resources and infrastructure including as many guns as the FBI. ICE is in charge of the investigations, arrests, detention and deportation of non-citizens both at the border and throughout the interior of the country.
The recent impact of ICE enforcement includes:
- A 7 fold increase in worksite arrests between 2002 and 2006. The number of investigations has doubled just in the last year. A new trend is to use “identify theft” charges to put immigrants in the category of “criminal alien” to make it easier to deport them.
- Triple the number of “Fugitive Operations Teams” and the development of other specialized operations. ICE claims these are focused on specific groups but they are often used as a pretext for wide scale arrests in apartment complexes, workplaces, and public spaces.
- More than 186,600 immigrants were deported in 2006, a record for the agency and a ten percent increase over the previous year.
- In total, 1.6 million immigrants have been deported since 1994.
- The Washington Post recently calculated that “with roughly 1.6 million immigrants in some stage of immigration proceedings, the government holds more detainees a night than Clarion Hotels have guests, operates nearly as many vehicles as Greyhound has buses and flies more people each day than do many small U.S. airlines.”
More detailed information is available in the document Tracking ICE’s Agenda
