There (click here) was much controversy last week about federal officials releasing hundreds of immigrants from detention centers ahead of the looming budget cuts. But the real issue should be that U.S. taxpayers foot the steep bill to detain more than 30,000 people every day — not that a group of immigrants who pose little threat to public safety were transferred out of federal facilities last week.
Whatever the circumstances surrounding the move out of Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention, the result is smarter enforcement that could save the federal government tens of thousands of dollars per day, if not hundreds of thousands, based on data from the president’s most recent budget request.
We are all for detaining criminals. But those now on supervised release are the kind of people who should never have been in detention in the first place. Miguel Hernandez, for example, had been detained after being pulled over for not using his car’s turn signal. Not exactly a criminal offense....
The Trump Administration, it's Republican Congress have done a 180 degree turn when it comes to detained immigrants. Oh, yeah, these are the most dangerous people in the country.
May 6, 2010
Human Rights Watch (click here) calls upon the US Congress and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) to appropriately limit the US government’s broad and relatively unchecked power to detain immigrants. Each year ICE detains hundreds of thousands of immigrants. In 2009 ICE held between 380,000 and 442,000 people in some 300 US detention facilities, at an annual cost of $1.7 billion. These people are not imprisoned as punishment for criminal offenses. Instead, they are detained for civil immigration violations, held administratively as they wait for a court hearing or pending their deportation.
Many will be deprived of their liberty for months, some for years. And many are being held unnecessarily, at great cost to themselves, their families, and US taxpayers.
At least since 1996 ICE has enjoyed relatively unchecked powers to sweep non-citizens into detention. These powers include detaining non-citizens who have committed crimes, but already served their sentences. Of particular concern are policies that mandate ongoing detention, without so much as a hearing, of certain nonviolent offenders, lawful permanent residents, and individuals who committed offenses decades ago.
ICE also detains many people even after court rulings in their favor, people granted refugee status who fail to do proper paperwork, and people for whom detention conditions can be particularly harsh, such as individuals with disabilities and unaccompanied minors.
Not only are detention powers broad, they are sometimes without temporal limit. Immigrants may be placed in custody for months or years with no fixed or clear end to their detention....
March 7, 2017
by Eric Levitz
President Trump has argued that protecting the American people from terrorism is so important, our nation must be willing to sacrifice its commitments to human rights and refugees; cripple its own tourism industry; strand immigrants in airports; sour our diplomatic relations with the Muslim world; and kill dozens of civilians while gathering intelligence, just to diminish the probability of an attack on our soil.
But the president also believes that building a border wall is so important, we must be willing to radically reduce funding to the Coast Guard, TSA, and FEMA’s terrorism-response program to finance one — or so new budget documents seem to suggest....
… Overall, DHS would get a 6 percent boost to its budget, to $43.8 billion. But to help pay for that, the administration would slice the budget of the Coast Guard and cut 11 percent in spending from the TSA — reductions that critics say would weaken safeguards against threats arriving by sea or air....
… FEMA sees a $370 million cut, which includes a 25 percent reduction, or $280 million, in the agency’s program for countering violent extremism and preparations for a wide-scale terrorist attack, as well as a 40 percent cut of $80 million for FEMA’s port transit security grant program. At TSA, the $500 million reduction includes cutting $65 million for behavioral detection officers and $55 million for local law enforcement grants to to airports.
Here’s what the Trump administration hopes to buy with those savings:
New detention beds and transportation costs for deporting the undocumented: $1.9 billion.
Border-wall funds: $1.4 billion.
New border-surveillance technology: $920 million.
“High-priority replacement fence projects”: $560 million.
1,000 new ICE agents: $185 million.
500 new CBP agents: $100 million.
Striking fear into the hearts of America’s most vulnerable workers and all who love them: Priceless (apparently)....
Evidently, the Supreme Court doesn't care about human rights either.
February 28, 2018
...The 5-to-3 ruling (click here) overturned the rulings of two lower courts that found immigrants facing prolonged detention must be given a custody hearing....
...Writing in the majority opinion, Justice Samuel Alito Jr. said, quote, “Detention during those proceedings gives immigration officials time to determine an alien’s status without running the risk of the alien’s either absconding or engaging in criminal activity.”
Justice Stephen Breyer read his dissent from the bench. He said, quote, “I would find it alarming, to believe that Congress wrote these statutory words in order to put thousands of individuals at risk of lengthy confinement all within the United States but all without hope of bail.” Justice Breyer was joined in his dissent by Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor. Elena Kagan recused herself.
The case, Jennings v. Rodriguez, was brought by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of a dental assistant named Alejandro Rodriguez, who was born in Mexico but was brought to the United States when he was 1 year old. He ended up spending three years in immigration detention without a bond hearing. The Supreme Court first heard the case in 2016, then again last year, after Justice Gorsuch joined the court. Both the Obama and Trump administrations backed the policy of indefinite detention....
July 13, 2012
By Lorie Hearn
Civilian deaths at the hands of U.S. Border Patrol agents (click here) are increasing even though illegal immigration and assaults against agents are down. This was the conclusion of a months-long investigation by nonprofit media organizations into incidents in three border states. Reporters identified at least 14 men and boys who have died since Oct. 1, 2009 after confrontations with Border Patrol agents.
This special report illuminates serious questions about follow up and accountability. It follows a documentary in April by the PBS news magazine, Need to Know, which aired a cellphone video of a Mexican man surrounded by border patrol agents, beating and tasing him. Anastasio Hernandez Rojas died later in a hospital. After U.S. lawmakers demanded justice for Hernandez, a grand jury was convened in San Diego this week.
The reporters’ findings come at a time when immigration, always a highly charged topic, has been in the white-hot spotlight this summer.
In June, President Obama stopped deportations of certain high-achieving young people who were brought to the country illegally as children. A few weeks later, the Supreme Court struck down parts of SB 1070, the controversial Arizona law that empowered local law enforcement to uphold federal immigration policy....
The USA is always at war. The USA is claiming the southern border with Mexico is allowing terrorists a place to cross. The southern border with Mexico is a war zone by the simple fact there are stated crossings that bring with it terrorism. Terrorism is very high on the list of the USA's reason to war.
There is absolutely no reason for a change in policy or an escalation of armed assaults against those crossing the border. Making the argument it is illegal and therefore a crime is defined from the USA border. The people coming from Mexico (not necessarily Mexicans) did not study the law or the language of the USA before attempting to find a more humane life, which is especially true of children.
We know for a fact there are drug cartels that freely engage in killings to secure their routes out of South America to the USA. The USA has been unable to contain the drug traffic where it starts. The result is immigration from South American through Mexico that seek to be safe from the cartels guns, drugs and sex slavery.
When human beings cross the USA southern border it is to save their lives and their children's lives. They know little else, except, the USA will treat them humanly. The Supreme Court ruling today is outrageously inhumane AND UNNECESSARY!
Convention (IV) relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War. Geneva, 12 August 1949. (click here)
Part I. General Provisions
Article 1. The High Contracting Parties undertake to respect and to ensure respect for the present Convention in all circumstances.
Art. 2. In addition to the provisions which shall be implemented in peace-time, the present Convention shall apply to all cases of declared war or of any other armed conflict which may arise between two or more of the High Contracting Parties, even if the state of war is not recognized by one of them.
Art. 3. In the case of armed conflict not of an international character occurring in the territory of one of the High Contracting Parties, each Party to the conflict shall be bound to apply, as a minimum, the following
provisions:
(1) Persons taking no active part in the hostilities, including members of armed forces who have laid down their arms and those placed hors de combat by sickness, wounds, detention, or any other cause, shall in all circumstances be treated humanely, without any adverse distinction founded on race, colour, religion or faith, sex, birth or wealth, or any other similar criteria....
“Are we at a point as a country where the enforcement of our laws by necessity comes with that sort of treatment of people? Because if it is, I think that that is really a question for us. how have we arrived at this point where we can justify the mistreatment of people on such a huge scale, and go to bed at night as a country saying that’s the best we can do and that’s consistent with our shared values?”
