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A report on what tougher detention policies mean for illegal immigrant families. |
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 This report from the Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security assesses DHS’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement program for detaining and removing illegal aliens apprehended in the United States and at ports of entry. It is based on interviews with employees and officials of relevant agencies and institutions, direct observations, and a review of applicable documents.
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 The recent increase in family detention represents a major shift in the U.S. government’s treatment of families in immigration proceedings. Prior to the opening of the T. Don Hutto Residential Center, the majority of families were either released together from detention or separated from each other and detained individually. Children were placed in the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) Division for unaccompanied Children’s Services, and parents were detained in adult facilities. Congress discovered this and took immediate action to rectify it, in keeping with America’s tradition of promoting family values. It directed ICE to stop separating families and either to place them in alternative programs or to detain them together in nonpenal, homelike settings. Such Congressional directives were intended to preserve and protect the role of the family as the fundamental unit in our society. However, the Department of Homeland Security chose to develop a penal detention model that is fundamentally anti-family and un-American. In the following report Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service and the Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children examine the implications of this expanding penal approach to family detention in order to inform the development of policy and practice that serves the best interests of children and families. Their investigation arrives at disturbing results.
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The standards, collated and published by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), specify the living conditions deemed appropriate for detainees. This manual provides uniform policies and procedures concerning the treatment of individuals detained by the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement of DHS. |
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 The Power of Love is the story of two immigrant parents who were arrested and detained in a federal detention center for more than a year. This is a powerful testimony written by a mother, separated from her children, of her difficult experience in an immigration jail. Available from the Ecumenical Program in Central America and the Caribbean at http://www.epica.org/. |
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 This study examining the health status of detained asylum seekers found that the mental health of asylum seekers interviewed was extremely poor and worsened the longer that individuals were in detention. These findings support assertions that detention has a harmful impact on the health and well-being of asylum seekers. |
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 This report examines changes in U.S. law, regulations, policies and practices--many initiated in the name of advancing security--that are affecting asylum seekers who are detained in U.S. jails and detention facilities.
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This Amnesty International Report examines the problems of children in immigration detention in the United States before and after recent legislative changes intended to ameliorate concerns raised by advocates. An overview of international and U.S. standards is presented, as well as an overview of the existing detention system used to house unaccompanied children in the hope that lessons can be learned and immediate steps taken to remove children from facilities that are clearly inappropriate to their needs and fail to ensure they are treated humanely, with dignity and respect. |
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 This CLINIC At-Risk Immigrant report addresses the growing population of immigrant detainees, including asylum seekers, children, indefinite and mandatory detainees, and those subject to removal from the U.S. based on secret evidence. For more information or to order a copy of the report, click on the title.
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 This report represents the findings from a multi-state assessment of secure juvenile facilities used by the INS to detain children. Conducted in August 2001, the assessment covers facilities in Texas, California, Oregon, and Washington. The researchers found a disturbing lack of regard for the rights and needs of children asylum-seekers and other young newcomers.
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This report outlines the sources of authority for detaining immigrants, provides statistics on the detained immigrant population and discusses proposed legislation that would affect immigration detention. |
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 Michael Welch offers a comprehensive review of the devastating impact of U.S. anti-immigrant laws and policies since 1996, and a compelling explanation for how a nation of immigrants could adopt an 'us versus them' attitude toward newcomers. According to Don Kerwin, Executive Director of Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc., “this book should be required reading for policy makers and citizens concerned about our nation's just treatment of immigrants."
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 Drawing on his ten years' experience working and visiting immigration prisons, as well as extensive interviews with detainees, Mark Dow reveals the harsh conditions that exist in the prisons that are immigration detention centers. His book exposes brutality, indifference by government officials, and the forced medication of detainees, and brings to light realities such as illegal beatings and inhumane conditions inside U.S. immigration prisons. Chapter 7 of the book is available online (click here).
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- Unchecked power of the INS shatters American dream
(2000) Part 1 of the series "Liberty's Heavy Hand" by Kim Christensen, Richard Read, Julie Sullivan and Brent Walth of The Oregonian. An investigation by The Oregonian finds disarray in the agency that devastates lives across the United States
 Murder suspects have more rights than many people who encounter the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service - and not just the 1.6 million the agency catches trying to sneak across the Mexican border each year. While its role as protector of the nation's borders shapes the INS' most visible and enduring image, its heavy hand falls on people most Americans will never see (click here for more). |
