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Essay: Secure Communities, Priority Enforcement, and IDENT/IAFIS Interoperability: Recommendations for Effective Reform (2015)

June 11, 2015 By Robert Goodis Leave a Comment

 

Abstract:

This essay explores an immigration enforcement strategy known as IDENT/IAFIS Interoperability, comparing the strategy under its original Secure Communities structure, and under the recently-announced Priority Enforcement Program (PEP).  In addition to Secure Communities and PEP, this paper discusses related enforcement programs, overall immigration enforcement goals, and the outcomes of recent enforcement efforts.  The paper examines Constitutional challenges to the enforcement programs, and explores deeper issues related to the spectrum of state and local criminal laws, community trust in law enforcement, and dangers of the immigration detention system as it currently exists.  Ultimately, this essay provides policy recommendations to address the challenges introduced by Secure Communities and the Priority Enforcement Program.


 

This essay was prepared by Robert Goodis to fulfill his Upper Level Writing Requirement at American University, Washington College of Law, in the spring of 2015.  The paper appears here in the exact form submitted to WCL faculty.  It is included in the archives of The Goodis Center because of the relevance of the subject-matter to our ongoing research.  This essay may be called a working paper of The Goodis Center – we welcome feedback and discussion.

View the full essay here or browse our archive of full reports and essays.

Filed Under: Announcements, Reports and Essays Tagged With: Human Rights, Immigration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Immigration Detention, immigration enforcement, Law Enforcement, Priority Enforcement Program, Secure Communities

Report: Contemporary Immigration Detention Practices in the United States (2010)

June 11, 2015 By Robert Goodis Leave a Comment

This report, prepared in 2010, documents the state of United States immigration detention practices, focusing on Northwest Detention Center – run by The GEO Group, Inc. – and on the T. Don Hutto Family Residential Facility – run by the Corrections Corporation of America.

The report was prepared by Robert Goodis as his Senior Project in fulfillment of the requirements for his Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and Human Rights at Bard College.  The report concludes that further research is necessary to reach any viable sociology-based recommendations, and it is based on these findings that The Goodis Center has continued researching immigration detention as one of our primary areas of focus.  While the report was unable to point to a sociological key to reforming immigration detention, it does unveil systemic problems in immigration detention across the United States and broadly offer the insight that alternatives to detention should be used whenever possible.

An excerpt from Chapter Three – Case Study: T. Don Hutto Family Residential Facility, Williamson County, TX, and the Corrections Corporation of America is included below.  The full report is available for viewing and download here.

Excerpt from Chapter Three – Case Study: T. Don Hutto Family Residential Facility, Williamson County, TX, and the Corrections Corporation of America

T. Don Hutto Family Residential Facility, T. Don Hutto Residential Center, Immigration Detention, Detention Center

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Read the rest of the report here.


TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………….. 1
Focusing on Asylum-Seekers, Asylees, and Refugees………………………………………… 1
Chapter One………………………………………………………………………………………. 3
A Short Introduction to Refugee Policy and the Definitions of Refugee & Asylum-Seeker ……. 3
A Brief Historical Survey of the Role of Refugees and Asylum-Seekers in U.S. Legislation …… 14
A Survey and Summary of Select Laws, Doctrines, and Jurisprudence Affecting Refugee and
Asylum-Seeker Detention in the United States ……………………………………………………………… 17
The Response-Time of the United States in Changing Laws to Abide by International
Standards ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 34
Chapter Two – Case Study: Northwest Detention Center …………………………………………………… 36
The History and Purpose of the Northwest Detention Center and The GEO Group, Inc. …….. 36
Facility Design, Daily Living, and Detainee Demographics ……………………………………………. 38
Issues Facing Detainees at NWDC ………………………………………………………………………………. 41
Due process and grievances at NWDC ……………………………………………………………………… 41
Food, living conditions, medical care, and visitation at NWDC …………………………………… 48
Punishment and treatment by guards ………………………………………………………………………… 55
Administration and Oversight Issues at NWDC …………………………………………………………….. 59
Chapter Three – Case Study: T. Don Hutto Family Residential Facility, Williamson County, TX,
and the Corrections Corporation of America ………………………………………………………………….. 66
The History and Purpose of the T. Don Hutto Family Residential Facility and the Corrections
Corporation of America ……………………………………………………………………………………………… 66
Facility Design, Daily Living, and Detainee Demographics ……………………………………………. 71
Issues Facing Detainees at Hutto …………………………………………………………………………………. 78
Due process and grievances at Hutto ………………………………………………………………………… 78
Food, living conditions, visitation, medical care, and education at Hutto ………………………. 83
Punishment and treatment by guards ………………………………………………………………………… 93
Administration and Oversight Issues at Hutto ……………………………………………………………….. 97
Chapter Four – Analysis, Conclusions, and Recommendations …………………………………………. 102
The Human Rights, Social, and Legal Implications of Contemporary Detention Practices … 102
The Human Rights, Social, and Legal Implications of Contemporary Detention Practices as
Analyzed through a Sociological Approach ………………………………………………………………… 114
Bibliography ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 125
Acronyms and Abbreviations ……………………………………………………………………………………….. 151


 

Abstract:

“Contemporary Immigration Detention Practices in the United States: A Study in Sociology and Human Rights” is a study on the detention and incarceration of immigrants, with particular focus on the effects and implications of detaining refugees and asylum-seekers, in the United States. The study reports on two specific detention facilities—the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Washington, and the T. Don Hutto Family Residential Facility (a.k.a. T. Don Hutto Residential Center) in Taylor, Texas—as sociological case-studies, primarily presented as legal briefs, to explore how contemporary detention practices relate to the legal structure and ideals established by domestic and international law, including international human rights law. Through an analysis of how current practices satisfy or miss ideal standards set by laws, declarations, policies, and other such guidelines, this study determines that current detention practices constitute a clear and detrimental case of systemic human rights violations. While a brief sociological exploration of the trends and conditions in immigration detention offers various theories which may explain—and eventually go into forming an effective remedy for—these violations, this study can only determine that more research needs to be compiled in order to reach any valid sociological conclusions.

 


 

Read the full report, courtesy of the Bard College Digital Commons.

 

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The report is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Browse our archive of full reports and essays.

Filed Under: Announcements, Current Events, Reports and Essays Tagged With: accountability, Corporate Accountability, Corporate Responsibility, Human Rights, Immigration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Immigration Detention, immigration enforcement

ICE TO OPEN NEW IMMIGRATION DETENTION FACILITY IN TEXAS THIS VALENTINE’S DAY

February 12, 2012 By Robert Goodis Leave a Comment

When I revamped The Goodis Center’s website, I decided to also wipe out my blog and start over from scratch.  Having done that, this marks my first entry on the new Goodis Center blog.  The subject of this inaugural blogpost is a new immigration detention facility in Karnes County, Texas, which Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will be opening this Tuesday, Valentine’s Day.  How romantic…

In early 2010, I began an intensive study of documented human rights abuses in United States immigration detention facilities, focusing on one facility near Tacoma, WA, and another near Taylor, TX.  My research is ongoing, but I hope to update and expand the report over the next few months and release it to the public in due time.  Until that research is complete, I’ll refrain from making too many broad statements about the current state of this nation’s immigration enforcement practices.

What I will say, however, is that the Karnes County detention center merits a critical eye from the public.

ICE is touting the new facility—the first facility designed and constructed with consideration for the agency’s 2009 commitment to reform the immigration detention system and shift away from its longtime reliance on jails and jail-like facilities—as a model for reform.  That 2009 public commitment came after years of independent and governmental reviews raised one red flag after another, reporting inconsistencies between facilities and varying levels of human rights abuses throughout the immigration detention system nationwide.  Considering the gravity of the situation, and the amount of time ICE has had to effect reform, we should expect nothing less than a model facility.

Unfortunately, ICE has a history of failing to live up to their promises.  The T. Don Hutto Family Residential Facility opened in 2006 after ICE retrofitted a county jail in Texas to become a first-of-its-kind family detention center.  The idea behind the detention center, which is one of the subjects of my ongoing study, was to keep detained families together, rather than separating children from their parents and spouses from their partners.

In reality, ICE and the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA)—a private corrections corporation that maintains prisons and detention centers across the country—had no idea what they were getting into.  Detaining small children in a former county jail proved troublesome and, as many independent reviews cited, dangerous for the children.  Guards were not trained to deal with children, and the resulting circumstances outraged the local community to the point of protests outside the detention center’s gates chanting “T. Don Hutto has got to go!”

Admitting their mistake, ICE closed their celebrated family detention center and reopened it as a women-only detention center in 2009, again touting the place as a model for reform.  A short time later, allegations of rape and other abuses began to surface.  While one guard was arrested and convicted for multiple assaults, many questions remain as to the viability of the detention center and its place as a “model facility.”

Given these trends, there’s no telling whether ICE has learned from its mistakes, or whether it’s just going to keep making more of them.  While the new facility in Karnes County is being lauded by ICE officials for moving decisively away from jails and jail-like facilities, many questions remain.  As a recent release from Human Rights First explains:

In October 2011 Human Rights First released its report, “Jails and Jumpsuits: Transforming the US Immigration Detention System – A Two-Year Review.” In it were recommendations for ICE’s successful switch to this new detention model. It included the following findings:

  • More “normalized” conditions in detention are actually touted as best practice in the corrections context and can help increase safety inside a facility;
  • Despite its 2009 reform commitments, the United States continues to hold the overwhelming majority of its nearly 400,000 detained asylum seekers and other civil immigration law detainees in jails and jail-like facilities across the country;
  • A full 50 percent of immigration detainees are held in actual jails, a proportion that has not decreased in the past two years;
  • U.S. taxpayers will spend more than $2 billion to maintain this system in 2012 – more than 28 times ICE’s budget for more cost-effective Alternatives to Detention, which save more than $110 per detainee per day; and
  • Many of the individuals whom ICE will hold at the new facility are appropriate candidates for Alternatives to Detention or community-based release programs.

New Karnes County Immigration Detention Facility Touted as Model for Reform
(emphasis added)

Furthermore, groups such as Human Rights First which will have representatives inspecting the new facility on Valentine’s Day are already raising some serious concerns over the new facility, particularly in relation to the detainees’ due process rights.

 

Karnes County is located one hour from San Antonio and two hours from Austin. Detainees at Karnes will reportedly have their removal cases heard via video-conference rather than in person, because there will be no immigration judges on site. Legal service providers in Austin and San Antonio are under-resourced to meet the legal needs of hundreds of new detainees in the region.

“If Congress is going to fund detention and removal, they also need to provide funding for immigration judges to hear their cases – in person – and for detainees to receive basic legal information through the Legal Orientation Program at all detention facilities, including Karnes,” says Epstein. “While we welcome the development of a facility with conditions more appropriate for civil immigration detainees, ICE should not open any new facility without immigration judges in place, and adequately funded legal resources available.”

ibid

That said, here’s hoping ICE got it right this time.

The Karnes facility will be maintained by ICE and the GEO Group, Inc., another private corrections and detention company similar to the CCA.

If you want to learn more about the facilities mentioned in this blog, stay tuned for updates on the book I’m preparing on this subject.  In the meantime, a quick Google search will get you a ton of results.  Or, if you’re more moved by video, check out The Least of These, a documentary about the former family detention center in Texas.

Filed Under: Current Events Tagged With: Corporate Responsibility, Human Rights, Immigration, Immigration Detention, International Law

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